01:00 AM EDT on Saturday, October 22, 2005

BY BRYAN ROURKE
Journal Staff Writer

PROVIDENCE -- You have to see past the sets, which takes awhile. Then Festival Ballet Providence's production of Romeo and Juliet, which opened last night at Veterans Memorial Auditorium, is sweet, touching and, ultimately, tragic -- many times over.

The three-act, 2-hour and 20-minute show, staged by guest choreographer Yves de Bouteiller, engages, but takes time to do so. There are lots of characters to establish and an involved plot to present, which is done through 16 scenes.

The music (of Sergei Prokofiev), the movements and the costumes are all classical, as you might expect. But the sets are something else: modern and industrial.

They certainly don't resemble the Renaissance. The backdrop is a chain-link fence. The series of side curtains are strips of clear plastic. And the balconies and stairs are best characterized as scaffolding.

It seems incongruous with the rest of the production, which is otherwise nicely and romantically done through dance.

Heather O'Halloran, in her first leading role with Festival, plays Juliet, and does so with delicacy and a sense of near weightlessness. When Gleb Lyamenkoff, her dashing Romeo, lifts her, her back gently arches and her limbs go gracefully limp.

(Leticia Guerrero and Ty Parmenter alternate in the lead roles.)

Once you take your focus off the seemingly incongruous set and put it on the dance, the story flows, with some assistance from the program. It lets you know the sites of the scenes, which generally are suggested by a single prop: People in masks means you're at a ball; a man in vestments, in a chapel; and a chrome-legged bed, in a bedroom.

With the exception of a couple of atypical dance movements, such as two female dancers making a back handstand turn, de Bouteiller's choreography follows classical movement. And his stage directing is sometimes clever.

One especially good scene shows Juliet receiving a special potion. She's told it will render her dead for two days to avoid marrying someone she'd rather not. As she's told what the potion will do, you see her thoughts appear briefly appear behind her.

First, she sees herself dead, with family and friends mourning. Then she sees herself awaking and happily reuniting with Romeo.

Juliet swallows the potion. As she does, she thinks of Romeo. In a nice bit of staging, a brightly-lit Juliet seeks out the dimly lit Romeo and tries to dance with him before losing consciousness.

The body count builds with the scenes. Except for Romeo and Juliet, everyone else goes by way of goring. The sword fighting, which was overseen by Alex Ripa of the Rhode Island Fencing Academy, is dynamic and artistic.

In some cases, the deaths are unnaturally drawn out, with the punctured person performing several dance steps before calling it a life.

But in the case of Tybalt, played by Eivar Martinez, with his usual terrific turns and strong jumps, death is dramatic. Lady Capulet, played on this particular night by Karla Kovatch, has a lot to do with that, convincingly conveying anguish and grief, waving her arms and tossing her hair.

On the other end of the emotional spectrum, Daniela Debrot makes a minor role memorable with a brief but sprightly and sassy portrayal of one of Juliet's friends.

Overall, you come to feel for the characters in Romeo and Juliet, once you stop thinking about the set.

Festival Ballet Providence's production of Romeo and Juliet is at Veterans Memorial Auditorium in Providence, 7:30 tonight and 2:30 p.m. tomorrow. for tickets, which are $15 to $60, call (401) 272-4862 or (800) 919-6272, or visit www.tickets.com or www.festivalballet.com.