New York City’s trendy downtown culture visited the Bronx on April 2, as the Mobile Unit of Joseph Papp’s celebrated Public Theater presented the classic play by William Shakespeare, Romeo & Juliet, at Williamsbridge Oval Recreation Center.

Obie Award winner Lear deBessonet directed the production, described in the program as “the classic tale of star-cross’d lovers caught between the world outside the bedroom window and passion as boundless as the sea.” The starring roles of Romeo and Juliet were played by Sheldon Best and Ayana Workman.

The small indoor venue at the Oval was booked well in advance, with over 130 requests for about 65 seats.  Those in the standby line who did not get seats were given vouchers for tickets to see the show at the Public Theater’s home, 425 Lafayette Street in Lower Manhattan, where it is playing through May 1.

The Mobile Shakespeare Unit has the goal of improving community engagement with the arts by bringing free, world-class productions of Shakespeare to neighborhoods across the city.  The unit’s actors are now regulars in and around Norwood, having presented “A Comedy of Errors” in last October at the same venue. Sheldon Best, pictured at left, took a few moments before the show began to chat with 4^th and 5^th garde students from Archer Elementary (P.S. 531), who will be staging their own production of the play in June.