In ACT‘s production of Romeo + Juliet, Shakespeare’s loveliest tale of woe, Romeo meets Juliet while she’s doing the electric slide. I nearly stood up and walked out of the theater. The electric slide? Really, director John Langs?
But then I realized that I was failing to appreciate one of the play’s lessons: Love finds you wherever you are, whatever you’re doing. Who was I to paternalistically impose my judgment on a dance beloved by high schoolers? Anyway, the dance is the least important detail in this otherwise thrilling production.
Langs cast deaf actors to play Romeo and Friar Lawrence, and he incorporated American Sign Language into the script. Romeo, played by Joshua Castille, signs to other characters and they sign back. Sometimes an interpreter serves as interlocutor. Other times, a group of actors voices Romeo’s lines, popcorn-reading style. Castille also yells out lines during moments of emotional stress, which is enormously affecting.
