Toronto Star - April 10, 1993

"Along way from Green Gables Megan Follows, TV's beloved Anne of Green Gables finds her Romeo in Shakespeare's tale of star-cross'd lovers"
Robert Crew

Before the Stratford Festival's production of Romeo and Juliet opened last year, there was one big question:

How would Megan Porter Follows, star of CBC-TV's Anne of Green Gables,D Afare as Shakespeare's star-cross'd Juliet? Although she's from a family with abundant stage know-how - dad is actor/director Ted Follows, mom is actress Dawn Greenhalgh - Megan had little live theatre experience and Juliet was her debut in a classical role.

Could she handle it?

The answer, dear readers, can be seen on CBC-TV on Sunday when the festival production, directed by Richard Monette, is telecast in a three-hour network special.

I admit I had some reservations both about Follows' performance and the production as a whole when I saw it on opening night at Stratford last June.

Approximately 10 years older than the 13-year-old Juliet, Follows caught with some precision the gawky awkwardness of adolescence and the onrush of sexuality that Juliet experiences. But that early in the Stratford season, her voice was a little underpowered for the large Festival Theatre and her handling of Shakespeare's ornate verse seemed tentative.

"Just the technical aspect of being heard in that theatre can be very difficult," Follows said in a telephone interview from Los Angeles, amid delightfully chaotic interruptions from supportive, coffee-making husband Christopher Porter, a photographer/lighting technician, and their inquisitive, 14-month-old daughter Lyla.

Stage acting "is a different technique. It's the essence of you that works on film or on TV. On stage, your acting is your voice."

She admits the dual roles of young Juliet and young mother proved a bit of a strain. " It was tough," she admits, but credits her husband, who was with her for almost all the Stratford season, with helping her cope.

And she was able to take advantage of the Stratford set-up to work on stage technique throughout the summer. She took a number of classes, including voice and body-movement.

"As a young actor I had a lot of learning to do," Follows says. "It taught me a lot, about areas where I am weak and about areas where I think I am strong."

And the work seems to have made a diffence. Filmed in September by veteran CBC producer Norman Campbell, the TV special shows a performance that has grown in technique and confidence. The character of Juliet has more depth and strength, and Follows is obviously more at ease with the poetry.

Her key speech in Act IV as she prepares to drink the Friar's knockout potion is a poignant mix of yearning for Romeo and outright terror of the unknown. Her evocation of these warring emotions makes it one of the best moments of the production.

What's more, television is her home territory and the camera likes her. Unlike her stiff Romeo (Antoni Cimolino, who manages only the occasional lip-twitch), she has a mobile and expressive face. She's not only acting, she's reacting and there's a rapport between her and other members of the cast.

Which brings us to another question that people were asking. How did she get on with the Stratford Festival company, some of whom might be expected to feel a little resentful at her laying claim to a much-coveted role?

"There was some baggage attached," Follows says of her presence at Stratford. "But for the most part, the people there were amazing. The cast (of Romeo And Juliet) were wonderful. I never felt any strangeness or not part of things. People such as Barbara Bryne (who plays the Nurse) were so supportive. They were there for me."

But having a baby to take care of, "I didn't hang around much after the shows."

Follows also enjoyed the experience of working with director Monette. "I had a lot of fun, which may seem odd when we were doing a tragedy. But that's the point of this work; when you stop having fun and stop learning, you may as well pack it in."

Indeed, the whole production is a Monette cocktail of liveliness and highly wrought passions.

In this production, Shakespeare's play is set in Italy of the 1920s, with Mussolini muscle and fascist-style uniforms jostling the leisurely lives of the cafe society. That said, this is not an ultra- dark reading of the play; the accent is on speed, accessibility and even humor.

Bryne's garrulous and earthy Nurse - with her shriek of "scurvy knave" - contributes mightly to the latter. And so does Colm Feore's Mercutio, who blazes like a meteor across the stage. He's energetic and coarse,yet plays lovingly with the language: Witness what he does with the simple words "I am hurt" just after he's been mortally wounded in a duel with Lorne Kennedy's choleric Tybalt.

On stage, a certain fizz went out of the production after Mercutio's death; the TV special survives the bereavement somewhat better.

There are a couple of memorable Monetteisms. When he's been run through and is about to expire, Tybalt falls to his knees and spits blood over Romeo's clean white shirt. And just before Juliet's knock- out drops take effect in Act IV, she reaches for a doll and clutches it tightly as she faces the unknown.

There are, however, some problems with the TV special: The stage production is too big for the small scene. Because it was simply shot during a couple of live performances rather than adapted for TV, the acting is too large and too loud, the gestures too full.

In an ideal world, of course, Stratford and CBC would be provided with the money to redo the production specially for TV. Despite the long experience and the expertise of Norman Campbell, what's been produced is something that's neither fish nor fowl.

But since the recession has brought the barbarians to the very gates of culture, I guess we should be grateful that it exists at all.

Source: Toronto Star