More than 400 years after it was first performed, William Shakespeare's The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark remains one of the most enduring plays ever written. And in Revenge of the King, it gets a hip-hop makeover by the Black Theatre Troupe from Phoenix, Az.
Hamlet, the prince of Denmark, becomes Hamilton King (played by David Tinsley), a brooding college student and slam poet who is the son of a local politician in the urban neighborhood of Denmark Avenue.
His uncle Claudius, usurper of the throne, becomes smooth-talking councilman Jean Claude (Kwane Vedrene), who killed Hamilton's father with a gun rather than poison, aided by a trio of gangbangers rather than mercenaries.
The troubled Ophelia becomes neighborhood beauty Afi Parker, played winningly by Jade Alexis Johnson. The play-within-the-play used to expose Claudius's guilt -- which Hamlet calls "the thing wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king" -- is reinterpreted here with dueling rappers at a block party.
It would be easy for the idea of a hip-hop Hamlet to be taken too far and turn cartoonish, with a rap rendition of the famous "To Be or Not to Be" soliloquy, for instance. But the production takes just enough of its material straight from Shakespeare without tweaking so much it comes across as a parody.
Yes, the famous speech is there, but it is spoken, not sung, with enough lines intact to keep the original intent but not enough that the character of Hamilton seems to suddenly be speaking in archaic language. Other memorable lines from the original pop up throughout, some in song and some in dialogue.
The modern rendition ties the play's original themes of revenge to the scourge of inner-city violence, proving how timeless the Bard's work remains.
Tim Clodfelter can be reached at 727-7371 and tclodfelter@wsjournal.com.
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