In the summer of 1518, the town of Strasbourg, France, is thrust into mass hysteria when a young woman steps into the street and begins to dance manically without stopping.

I really dug the premise of this one—evidently there was a “dancing plague” in 1518? I thought the writing was solid but I think it could use a couple coats of polish. I would love to play amateur dramaturge and mess with it a little bit.

Strasbourg seems like sort of a tough setting to bring to life on stage for an unfamiliar audience given the mixed French/German influence—tropey points of reference seem liable to introduce confusion. The directorial choice here seems to have been basically to not try, which I guess is okay for a festival, but the American accents and routine mispronunciations (fraulein!) did bug me. My family on one side immigrated from the area and I’m a stickler for accents in general so I concede some sensitivity to this, I guess.