Swagger Like Us

At Bristol Riverside Theatre, the Bard gets hip to hip-hop.

by A.D. Amorosi

Michael T. Regan THREE THE HARD WAY: (L-R) Donald Byrd, Keith Baker and Justin Ellington play with rhythm and cadence, but keep Shakespeare's words intact.

William Shakespeare once wrote, "That man that hath a tongue, I say, is no man/ If with his tongue he cannot win a woman."

William did not, like Lil Wayne, write, "Shawty wanna thug/ bottles inna club/ Shawty wanna hump/ I like-a touch ya lovely lady lumps."

He just didn't. But if he had? That is the question — at least for Bristol Riverside Theatre's What You Will, an urban interpretation of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night directed by artistic director Keith Baker and choreographer Donald Byrd.

Baker's used to translating new urban expressionism for Bristol's audiences. Last September, he launched the Bridges Informance Series of showcases and post-event discussions meant to introduce the theater's audiences to a different kind of performer and performance — and a different kind of Shakespeare.

For the series, Baker's brought in avant-garde one-man-band Fred Curchack and Will Power, a leading figure in choreographed hip-hop theater. "Neither are the sort of artists this theater has ever seen before," says Baker. "And Power provided excellent insight into his craft." Power, whose December Informance was the finale to his five-week Bristol residency, is a dynamic innovator whose original-music-filled works rely on rhymed language and focused dance moves. His adaptation of Aeschylus' Greek tragedy Seven Against Thebes, The Seven, wowed audiences Off-Broadway and is onstage now at Temple University's Tomlinson Theater.

"Shakespeare and hip-hop are a harder sell than more familiar material," says Baker of the Informance Series. "Our audience has accepted unusual theater before, but we simply wanted to introduce them to this style before seeing a whole play. And it's been very exciting to see the growing response to it, especially from the teenage population."

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Witnesses to Bristol's informance featuring Spectrum Dance Theater (the Seattle troupe led by Byrd) can attest to how closely its teenage-boy-heavy audience paid attention, even during post-show fireside chats.

"The issue is, for young people in particular, what can be done to give them access to Shakespeare so they recognize why this playwright is relevant to them, to today's audience?" says Byrd of the logic behind urbanizing the Bard in the 21st century.

"To posit as a thesis," he says, "what Shakespeare was doing in his time is the same thing hip-hop artists are trying to do now with language, rhythm and music. So we wanted to make those connections for people." Plus, Bristol was interested in giving older generations access to the hip-hop point of view.

"This project is about mutual understanding, respect and trust across generations," Byrd says. "[It's] about how a different perspective might enrich a conversation ... and shed light on common values and concerns."

"What was the commonality between the way a hip-hop artist treats language and the way Shakespeare did?" asks Baker. "Was there one? If so, how could they influence each other to make the meaning come alive in a new and vibrant way? The fact that it is urban is just [because] that is where hip-hop exists. In this production, hip-hop and Shakespeare exist side by side."

Stick to the exact Twelfth Night words of the Bard and let modernization come from cadence and rhythm, and suddenly Count Orsino's "If music be the food of love, play on" comes across with the flow of Lady Gaga.

So how do you urbanize the lustrous classicism of Shakespeare's passionate literacy while staying true to its Shakespearian moment? How do you keep that moment fresh and not have it turn into that awful hip-hop Carmen thing from ye olde MTV?

"The thing that makes it 'new' is the fact that we're not changing our playwright's words," says composer Justin Ellington. "We're giving it a contemporary swagger. ... You have to respect the worlds we intend to bring together. Oftentimes it seems like Shakespeare's text is dumbed down in order for people to understand it. I hate that."

(a_amorosi@citypaper.net)

What You Will | Through March 1, $29-$37, Bristol Riverside Theatre, 120 Radcliffe St., Bristol, 215-785-0100, brtstage.org, howwewill.org.