Abstract
Richly researched and persuasively argued, Della Gatta ultimately shows that this so-called "West Side Story effect" (23) shaped Latinx Shakespeares because it "engrained division as the trope for representing Latinx" (26). [...]Tony (Romeo) becomes an inactive victim, the Puerto Rican Sharks (Capulets) become aggressive killers and hot-blooded Latinos, and the Jets (Montagues) become aligned with the new generation of whiteness, albeit flawed" (40). In addition to other aural and visual markers tied to Latinidad, such as mariachi music and Catholic prayer (Measure for Measure) and Spanish guitar-playing and Spanish boleros (Romeo and Juliet), the OSF deployed Spanish accents and language as signifiers for cultural and familial connection (Measure for Measure), and to mark generational differences and intimacy between the lovers (Romeo and Juliet). In chapter five, "El Público: Healing and Spectatorship," the focus shifts more explicitly away from productions that reenact the West Side Story effect, including its significant linguistic, racist, and colonialist baggage as a representation of Latinx, to productions that counteract its divisiveness through collaborative, community-building techniques enacted between theaters and audiences. Della Gatta was herself present at a performance of Sueño, and while this firsthand account makes for a rich and dynamic analysis that, more than anywhere else in this study, allows the reader to viscerally experience spectacles from the original performance, this section's shift toward mostly first-person recounting—Della Gatta uses such phrases as "all of my senses engaged" (144)—also underscores the concomitant role of the performance critic in community-building and worldmaking, though the chapter does not address this idea directly.