It could be the fault of their warring families, or their own rash actions, or the risky schemes (to borrow from Al Gore) of that mad pastor, Friar Laurence. Or it could be – as Richard Seer, director of the Old Globe's just-opened staging of the tragedy, has proposed – the very purity of the couple's love, which can only exist beyond a world of compromise.

'Romeo and Juliet' When: Running in nightly rotation with “All's Well That Ends Well” and “The Merry Wives of Windsor,” through Sept. 28. Festival schedule: 8 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday. (Check with theater for details.) Where: The Old Globe Theatre's Lowell Davies Festival Stage, Balboa Park Tickets: $29-$64 Phone: (619) 234-5623 Online: TheOldGlobe.org

Well, here's pointing the finger at an easier target: Romeo's buddy, Mercutio. The title's two lovers may be “star-crossed” from the start, as the play tells us, but this mercurial troublemaker gives cosmic destiny a good shove by picking a pivotal fight with Juliet's cousin, Tybalt. Much of the play's bad mojo flows from that little dustup, which eventually bequeaths a parade of Verona's best and brightest to the dust.

It so happens that this wisecracking catalyst for catastrophe, as portrayed by Owiso Odera, is about the most sparkling part of what otherwise tends to be an unremarkable, even routine Globe staging of Shakespeare's iconic play.

It's true that Mercutio provides an unfair advantage, since he gets some of the best lines. Even as he's dying, the guy is still trotting out puns like a vaudevillian dodging the hook – “Ask for me tomorrow, and you shall find me a grave man” among them. (Thanks, folks – he'll be here all summer.)

Odera plays him in full strut, with a giddy edge and a way of breaking into a kind of talking falsetto that adds to the character's comic appeal, though Odera goes right to the edge of overusing it. But Mercutio is gone by intermission, and you almost wish his ghost could goose the proceedings with a second-half encore.

As it's written, the romance between Romeo and Juliet happens so hastily that it's a real job to convey their sudden, extreme ardor convincingly. The way in which the party scene – the moment of their meeting – is staged at the Globe doesn't quite pull that off.

Part of it could be that Graham Hamilton's Romeo comes across early on as so world-weary (he might top Dick Clark as the world's oldest teenager, in attitude if not chronology) that it takes him awhile to work up a fervor after his earthshaking encounter with Juliet.

Seer does seek to illustrate their singular, rapturous attraction by having the rest of the party guests dance in simulated slow motion as Romeo and Juliet embrace. It's a good notion, though visually a little awkward (it's hard to go slo-mo with real grace), but perhaps more could be done to bring home the almost otherworldly intensity of the couple's emotion in this crucial moment.

Hamilton finds his stride in the second act, tapping a vein of true agony as he and Juliet are torn apart. But as Juliet, Heather Wood stands out from the start.

Fresh-faced and innocent as we first meet her (Seer actually has her blowing bubbles, a clever visual touch), she transforms impressively into a determined and sure-footed presence as the play goes on.

Wood's Juliet opens the play's second half with a powerful and moving monologue, and when she receives the news that Romeo has killed Tybalt, she gives herself over to a seething roil of emotions.

In a subsequent moment, when Juliet defies her outraged father by refusing to marry the nobleman Paris, you can see this once-flighty girl grow up before your eyes.

Several other performances stand out: Deborah Taylor as the excitable nurse, Wynn Harmon and Kandis Chappell as Juliet's stern parents, Jonathan McMurtry as the quietly exasperated prince, James R. Winker as the amusingly prudish, alarmingly inept Friar Laurence.

As a whole, though, the acting feels uneven, particularly in scenes where Odera's Mercutio is pitted against his peers.

Ralph Funicello's sets are extremely bare – mostly a few gates and a bed that comes up through a trap door, eventually replaced by a bier. The look could use a bit more character, although limits are dictated by the fact this show is running in nightly rotation with “All's Well That Ends Well” and “The Merry Wives of Windsor” during the Summer Shakespeare Festival.

Fight director Steve Rankin keeps the sword-dueling scenes simple, clean and a bit stylized; unless I missed it, on opening night it didn't appear Romeo was holding Mercutio as the latter was stabbed, a key point that bears on Romeo's sense of guilt.

In other ways, the Globe staging takes some tentative-seeming steps to make the play its own, with mixed results. Early on, the minor character Peter (Sloan Grenz) goes into the audience to seek help reading a party invitation list, which feels a little gimmicky (especially since it's the only such gambit in the show).

In a more successful and subtle change, Seer tweaks a scene so the nurse overhears Juliet griping about the servant's slowness, putting an extra bit of comical spin on their subsequent conversation.

Christopher R. Walker also contributes several passages of evocative music that ranges in tone from the festive to the celestial.

But beyond such glimmers and some good acting, it's hard to find a whole lot that's distinctive about the Globe's straightforward, solid, ultimately safe staging. “Romeo and Juliet” is so much a play about just-missed opportunities; this production might be a little too true to that idea. (And we can't pin this one on Mercutio.)

James Hebert: (619) 293-2040; jim.hebert@uniontrib.com