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The Story
Despite the efforts of Lieutenant Schrank and Officer Krupke to keep the peace, two rival gangs – the Jets, comprising native New Yorkers, and the Sharks, Puerto Rican immigrants – are bent on violence. Riff, the leader of the Jets, tries to persuade his friend Tony to take part in a forthcoming “rumble”; but when Tony meets a Puerto Rican girl, Maria, at a dance, thoughts of street fights fly out of his head. The two arrange to meet in secret, even though Maria has been promised by her brother, Bernardo, leader of the Sharks, to his compatriot Chino. Maria urges Tony – who has already succeeded in persuading the two gangs to restrict themselves to a fist fight – to try to stop the rumble altogether, but his attempts to do so succeed only in escalating the violence. Bernardo fatally stabs Riff – and Tony, enraged, does the same to Bernardo. Taking refuge for the night with Maria, Tony hides the following day at Doc’s drugstore. Maria asks her friend Anita to bring Tony the message that she will join him there as soon as she can; but the Jets taunt Anita so brutally that she retaliates by telling them that Chino has shot and killed Maria. Wild with grief, Tony takes to the streets, where, to his astonishment and joy, he is reunited with Maria – moments before a shot from Chino’s gun parts the lovers forever.
From the Director: Notes by Gary Griffin
West Side Story is a classic. I don’t know how many musicals will still be produced in a hundred years, but I do know this one will be. The score, the characters, the dances will always move audiences. Hate and love, violence and passion will always exist almost simultaneously as part of the human condition.
By producing West Side Story on the Festival’s thrust stage, as one would a Shakespeare play, we present it in the context of other great classics. And we have approached it as we would a classical play: by focusing on the language. West Side Story is distinguished by idiosyncratic rhythms and great economy – it has one of the shortest books in musical theatre and also one of the smartest, a fact that isn’t often appreciated. The actors have been surprised by the emphasis we’ve put on the language, but precisely how a line is delivered has an impact on how a character is perceived. Not that we’ve downplayed the importance of dance – for the language of this piece includes dance. It reveals character and tells the story just as much as the text.
The biggest challenge in directing West Side Story today is to preserve the audacity of the experiment that it represented when it first came out. It felt very bold then, but we’ve had bolder musicals since. The execution is so important. We have to locate the passion inside the piece, so it’s crucial that the acting be of as high an order as the music and dance.
The thrust stage allows us to free the musical and make it more intimate. The audience’s experience is heightened by its proximity to the actors: there is no orchestra pit dividing them, no frame to contain the action and set it apart. There is just unbridled passion – two people pursuing love despite violence and danger.
Stratford Shakespeare Festival Production History
1999 – Avon Theatre
Director: Kelly Robinson
Set Designer: Ruari Murchison
Costume Designer: Charlotte Dean
Tyley Ross as Tony
Ma-Anne Dionisio as Maria
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