Again and again, TheatreWorks generates superb plays out of its annual August New Works Festival that go on to receive full productions on TheatreWorks stages or move on to New York or to regional theatres around the country. “Memphis” went on to Broadway acclaim; “Emma” was a hit here and elsewhere as was Rajiv Joseph’s superb “The North Pool.” The latest addition to this list is “The Loudest Man on Earth,” a unique play told in three languages – English, American Sign Language (ASL) and Visual Vernacular. Using the same cast that warmed audiences in last year’s staged reading, the world premiere of “The Loudest Man on Earth” is another triumph.

Haylee (Julie Fitzpatrick in a performance straight from the heart), a frustrated, deadline-pressed journalist, forces an interview on Jordan (deaf actor Adrian Blue), a cantankerous, impatient theatre director. Haylee has some basic competence in ASL and as the interview bumps, shudders, then settles, a spark of warmth gets generated between them that leads first to a date, then to romance. It is the simple, eternal boy-meets-girl story line told with the freshness of unique characters. As the liaison develops, the ignorance, impatience and misunderstanding between the hearing world and that of the deaf grind away at the lovers, jeopardizing the budding affection.

As all the other characters in the play, protean actors Cassidy Brown and Mia Tagano create wonderfully specific characters of all sorts – Haylee’s upper-crust parents, Jordan’s clueless, denying parents, New York City police officers, Czech theatre-types and many more – all of whom challenge the unlikely couple to one degree or another. In classic form, the situation leads to crisis, climax and dénoument.

Mr. Blue is a comic wonder, who uses his body and face to express with superb subtlety the most elusive of thoughts. He performs with Chaplinesque precision throughout and is especially touching in soliloquys in which he writes letters describing moments in his life. The comedy is so finely honed that, to cite just one example, he brought the house down with a simple lift of an eyebrow. And Janus-like, he can turn the mask around and break the heart with moments of anguish, anger and longing.

The set by Jason Simms is deceptively simple. Massive sliding panels canted at about five degrees off vertical is a little unsettling at first, but gives the sense of a world tilted and stressful. The lighting by Paul Toben plays off the panels, changing the colors as needed to create different locales. The simplicity is elegant and helps keep the focus on the actors where it belongs.

Finely crafted by playwright Catherine Rush (Mr. Blue’s real life wife), expertly directed by Pamela Berlin with an extraordinary quartet of superb actors, “The Loudest Man on Earth” is a theatrical wonder not to be missed. With only three weeks left as of this writing, it must be seen now, for who knows when such a confluence of talent, short of a New York run, will be assembled again. Centering on the simply brilliant performance of Adrian Blue, “The Loudest Man on Earth” is high caliber romantic comedy of the best sort, a show that touches the heart as it triggers titters, chuckles and guffaws.

“The Loudest Man on Earth” runs through August 4 at the Lucie Stern Theatre in Palo Alto.