Cat steals show during finale of Romeo And Juliet ballet performance

There is a rule of live performance that even a fifth-grader playing Beth in Little Women knows: After you die onstage, you do not move. Do not scratch an itch, do not sneeze. Do absolutely nothing.

- Victor Mather

The skills of a ballet performer whose character had recently expired were put severely to the test in Turkey on June 10 when an orange cat wandered onstage during a performance of the Romeo And Juliet ballet by Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev.

In Act 3 of Shakespeare’s play, on which the ballet is based, Romeo declares: “Heaven is here where Juliet lives. And every cat and dog and little mouse, every unworthy thing, live here in heaven and may look on her.” Perhaps that is the moment that an innovative production might bring on a carefully wrangled cat.