The text of performance and the performance of text in the electronic edition

The surviving texts of many of Shakespeare's plays include what might be termed a "performance crux": a moment that is puzzling to the director and actors, and which calls for some kind of stage business to justify or explain action. Sometimes the director's response is simply to remove the passage. This paper will look at a crux of this kind, and discuss how a modern, multimedia electronic edition can provide tools for the reader or actor to explore the possibilities both of the basic text and the performance that grows from it. In Romeo and Juliet there is an awkward moment when Friar Lawrence flees the tomb and deserts Juliet as he hears people approach. The plot requires that he be present as she awakens and absent as she commits suicide, but Shakespeare is not often as arbitrary as the received text (Quarto 2) makes him: "Come go good Iuliet, I dare no longer stay. Exit." By comparing this moment with Quarto 1 (the first published version of the text), Shakespeare's source, later adaptations, and some modern performances, the paper will discuss the mutual illumination of text and performance.