Those who cannot afford the trip to Stratford can rest assured knowing that Shakespeare will be getting his due right here – only with a decidedly Montreal twist. Zoofest seems to want us to forget what we know about the Bard by presenting The King’s Conscience and Improvised Shakespeare. Forget about wigs, elaborate costumes and elevated speech. Instead, think improv, minimal props, zero stage design, beer swilling and skull juggling. One thing’s for certain: this isn’t your Grandma’s Shakespeare.
The King’s Conscience: Hip hop. Shakespeare. Surely you jest. Nay, for The King’s Conscience will leave you wondering: Would Shakespeare have had a penchant for the mad beats of our day? This present-day interpretation of Hamlet focuses on Hamlet’s soliloquies and then puts parts of them to music. Written by Charlotte Corbeil-Coleman and David Rockne Corrigan, and starring the latter, the play begins with Corrigan admitting he likes rap. Even Eminem — and he doesn’t care who knows it.
He likes how words in rap move so quickly that he responds to them viscerally. Corrigan uses this form of performance art to speak about the death of his father, his seemingly unshaken mother, his misanthropy and his troubles with his on-and-off girlfriend, Ophelia (in one particularly clever song “Ophelia, girl I feel ya”). While the play is smart, it really should be reserved for high school students who might see a bit of themselves in Corrigan’s interpretation of Hamlet as the angry teenager. The piece needs a little more work to succeed with adults as the acting is a bit forced and the directing a little scattered. Nevertheless, hearing “To be or not to be” as rapped by Corrigan might make you think twice about Shakespeare’s true life ambition.
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The Improvised Shakespeare Company: It seemed almost an impossible feat. Make up an entire Shakespearean-style play based on one audience suggestion for the title of the play. And yet the Chicago-based The Improvised Shakespeare Company are undoubtedly iambic. Team players Ross Bryant, Andy Carey, Thomas Middleditch, Blaine Swen and Steve Waltien demonstrate a vast knowledge of Shakespearean themes and a perfected Elizabethan dialect.
While their tales are not as lofty as Julius Caesar or Macbeth, the ease with which they adhere to proper rhyme and meter is astounding. And the results are side-splitting. When the audience wasn’t guffawing over one player acting as the typical Shakespearean inebriate (“Why is it I always get drunk next to a soliloquy?”), they were howling at the tongue-in-cheek humour and the sheer energy put forth by the troupe (particularly by Middleditch who did double duty in one scene as both a sheep and love interest named Jacquelina). Without the use of props or costumes, the troupe make all their improvised lines seem scripted. Though Stratford material this is not, indeed a finer hour cannot be bought. Just wonderful.
Photo credit: Alex Erde
The King’s Conscience, until July 26, 7 pm, Le Gymnase, 4177 St-Denis, corner Rachel, 10$. The Improvised Shakespeare Company, until July 25 (Off on the 23), 8:30 pm Theatre Ste-Catherine, 264 Saint Catherine East, 15$. Tickets available at the door or on the Zoofest site.
