If a better example of love at first sight than Romeo and Juliet exists, I’m not aware of it. Romeo sees Juliet, Juliet sees Romeo, yada yada yada, they’re killing themselves because they don’t want to live without each other.

A major problem I have with Lakeland College Theatre’s production of this story, which I saw last Friday, is that, as part of the attempt to avoid creating something old-fashioned, the first sight part of Romeo’s and Juliet’s love gets overshadowed.

Romeo and Juliet, played by Andy Kay and Kayann Botana, meet during Lord Capulet’s ball. Lakeland’s production of this ball is one of the funniest parts of the play. Fly techno music plays as the cast finger-snaps and hip-wobbles and “whatever the devil else young people dance like these days” all over the stage. Entertaining as it was, the atmosphere it creates lasts too long. When Romeo starts profaning with his unworthiest hand, the music is still playing – more softly, but still playing.

Unless you knew these lines, they were unintelligible over the music. It’s not like the exchange came off like two people trying to hear each other at a rock concert, but it wasn’t the kind of first meeting that would lead you to believe these people were about ready to commit suicide for each other, either.

In a play as dependent on the title characters’ love as this one, choosing to trade that moment for a far less important atmosphere was shortsighted.

Considering they are performing Shakespeare, Botana and Kay do well overall. The actions they complement their words with work well. For example, in a scene when Michelle Fromms’s nurse cheekily withholds information from her, Botana’s Juliet shows a range of emotions very quickly. First, she pouts, turning her back and looking annoyed. A moment later, she’s hanging on Fromm, sweet-talking her into telling her what’s up with Romeo.

And even though Kay manages to stand stock still while looking a little pissed when Tybalt (Tim Crabtree) tries to provoke him early in the play (Romeo says Tybalt is now his kinsmen after he meets Juliet, even though there’s obviously residual tension there), when he later learns Tybalt has killed his friend Mercutio (Matt Troyer), he gets in his grill, ready to get into a minute-long swordfight. Still, I never felt the kind of desperate love of Romeo and Juliet between Kay and Botana, partly, at least, because they spoke too quickly.

Of all the actors, though, it was Fromm as the nurse and David Neese as Friar Laurence that lit up the stage. Whether her mind was in the gutter or on taking care of Juliet, Fromm’s interpretation of the nurse always seemed spot-on to the nurse of this play’s text.

Maybe more so than Fromm, David Neese did not seem like an actor, but Shakespeare’s real Friar. The subtleties of his acting created this effect, like when, in the scene in which Juliet’s heartbroken family is exiting the room because they think she’s dead, he watches them leave and then springs back to Juliet’s body and checks for a pulse.

Again, considering it was a Shakespeare play, that kind of acting – combined with the simple but tasteful set and effects – made it solid.