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Taking Liberties With The Bard
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| RJ Foster, left, Christin S. Davis, center, and Miriam Hyman star in What You Will at the Bristol Riverside Theatre. (Courtesy of Canary Promotions) |
By Louise E. Wright, For The Bulletin
With the subtitle “What You Will,” William Shakespeare seems to have given carte blanche to interpreters of Twelfth Night. Directors Keith Baker and Donald Byrd have taken advantage of this opportunity and updated the comedy to a hip-hop club. Mixing the classic with the contemporary, their version of What You Will premieres today at the Bristol Riverside Theatre.
The action takes place in Club 12th Night with the bard’s nobles, Orsino and Olivia, transformed into rap superstars.
“They grew up in the ghetto or on the streets but have made good,” explains Mr. Baker, the theater’s artistic director.
Onto the scene stumble Viola and her twin brother Sebastian, whom Mr. Baker describes as “American royalty, like the Kennedys.” Separated in a shipwreck, they presume one another dead. A night of disguises and mistaken identities, of instant romances and cruel pranks ensues.
Although Mr. Baker describes Shakespeare’s comedy as “funny” and “inherently musical,” he acknowledges its more serious aspects. Twelfth Night includes “narcissistic, self-involved characters,” “a homoerotic element” and “an obsession with mortality and time.”
As befits a hip-hop club, What You Will features music composed by Justin Ellington, and dance choreographed by Mr. Byrd.
“There’s not a lot of dance,” the artistic director of Seattle’s Spectrum Dance Theater says, “but the feeling of dancing is there all the time.”
The choreography showcases traditional break dance, which Mr. Byrd distinguishes from that seen in contemporary music videos.
“Like classical ballet,” he says, “the traditional moves have a purity to them. We can see the virtuosity in performing them.”
Despite the modern-day setting, the set recalls the play’s Elizabethan roots. With the exception of a road box, the directors have left the stage bare, inviting theatergoers to use their imaginations as Shakespeare’s original audiences did.
Ultimately, What You Will focuses on language, the very thing that makes Shakespeare sacred to some and incomprehensible to others. The production originated with Mr. Baker’s observation that, like the playwright, hip-hop uses language innovatively and spontaneously. It experiments with rhythm and rhyme, coins words and invents meanings.
“I wanted to investigate and see where that would take me,” he says.
While the text of the play remains Shakespeare’s own, the delivery varies from traditional to spoken word to rap.
“The rap floats in and out so that the ear never gets tired,” he says.
He believes this mixing of styles brings out the best in both the classic and the contemporary.
“Rap now has a language to use that’s of a superb quality, and the Shakespeare has a propulsion and variety behind it that makes it clearer.”
This improved clarity relates to one of the challenges of rapping Shakespeare: how to do five beats in four. While rap works with a four-beat line, the poet wrote in iambic pentameter, which has five.
“Usually there are two important words in each line,” Mr. Baker points out, “and that fits in very well with rap.” It is those two words that rapping accentuates.
Through their treatment of language, the directors hope to make Shakespeare relevant and meaningful to the “hip-hop generation.” Mr. Byrd uses the term to refer, not to a subculture, but rather to those individuals born after the advent of hip-hop; in other words, to individuals for whom hip-hop has always existed.
“We want young people to realize that Shakespeare’s insight is universal and that his language is similar to hip-hop,” he says.
On the other hand, the production aims to get older theatergoers to see that hip-hop is “not something alien but [something that] is already operating in their lives.” Citing television commercials and styles of dress as examples, he points out that American popular culture has absorbed elements of hip-hop to such an extent “that we’ve taken them for granted and gotten used to them.”
In order to ensure that the generations understand the plot as well as one another, Mr. Baker and Mr. Byrd have added a prologue in which the actors — in everyday language — explain the story they’re going to tell.
Louise E. Wright can be reached at lewright@verizon.net
The action takes place in Club 12th Night with the bard’s nobles, Orsino and Olivia, transformed into rap superstars.
“They grew up in the ghetto or on the streets but have made good,” explains Mr. Baker, the theater’s artistic director.
Onto the scene stumble Viola and her twin brother Sebastian, whom Mr. Baker describes as “American royalty, like the Kennedys.” Separated in a shipwreck, they presume one another dead. A night of disguises and mistaken identities, of instant romances and cruel pranks ensues.
Although Mr. Baker describes Shakespeare’s comedy as “funny” and “inherently musical,” he acknowledges its more serious aspects. Twelfth Night includes “narcissistic, self-involved characters,” “a homoerotic element” and “an obsession with mortality and time.”
As befits a hip-hop club, What You Will features music composed by Justin Ellington, and dance choreographed by Mr. Byrd.
“There’s not a lot of dance,” the artistic director of Seattle’s Spectrum Dance Theater says, “but the feeling of dancing is there all the time.”
The choreography showcases traditional break dance, which Mr. Byrd distinguishes from that seen in contemporary music videos.
“Like classical ballet,” he says, “the traditional moves have a purity to them. We can see the virtuosity in performing them.”
Despite the modern-day setting, the set recalls the play’s Elizabethan roots. With the exception of a road box, the directors have left the stage bare, inviting theatergoers to use their imaginations as Shakespeare’s original audiences did.
Ultimately, What You Will focuses on language, the very thing that makes Shakespeare sacred to some and incomprehensible to others. The production originated with Mr. Baker’s observation that, like the playwright, hip-hop uses language innovatively and spontaneously. It experiments with rhythm and rhyme, coins words and invents meanings.
“I wanted to investigate and see where that would take me,” he says.
While the text of the play remains Shakespeare’s own, the delivery varies from traditional to spoken word to rap.
“The rap floats in and out so that the ear never gets tired,” he says.
He believes this mixing of styles brings out the best in both the classic and the contemporary.
“Rap now has a language to use that’s of a superb quality, and the Shakespeare has a propulsion and variety behind it that makes it clearer.”
This improved clarity relates to one of the challenges of rapping Shakespeare: how to do five beats in four. While rap works with a four-beat line, the poet wrote in iambic pentameter, which has five.
“Usually there are two important words in each line,” Mr. Baker points out, “and that fits in very well with rap.” It is those two words that rapping accentuates.
Through their treatment of language, the directors hope to make Shakespeare relevant and meaningful to the “hip-hop generation.” Mr. Byrd uses the term to refer, not to a subculture, but rather to those individuals born after the advent of hip-hop; in other words, to individuals for whom hip-hop has always existed.
“We want young people to realize that Shakespeare’s insight is universal and that his language is similar to hip-hop,” he says.
On the other hand, the production aims to get older theatergoers to see that hip-hop is “not something alien but [something that] is already operating in their lives.” Citing television commercials and styles of dress as examples, he points out that American popular culture has absorbed elements of hip-hop to such an extent “that we’ve taken them for granted and gotten used to them.”
In order to ensure that the generations understand the plot as well as one another, Mr. Baker and Mr. Byrd have added a prologue in which the actors — in everyday language — explain the story they’re going to tell.
Louise E. Wright can be reached at lewright@verizon.net
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