I am not a fan of modern re-tellings of Shakespeare's plays, and disliked the film adaptation of Othello, "O", with Julia Styles and "Romeo + Juliet" with Leonardo DiCaprio (give me Kenneth Branagh and Emma Thompson any day). So, when I was invited to see the Q Brothers' production of "Funk It Up About Nothing" at the Chicago Shakespeare Theatre on June 26th, I was tempted to say no. Seriously, an "ad-rap-tation" of "Much Ado About Nothing"? An "ad-rap-tation"? The Bard would roll over in his grave.
Unlike my initial misconception, "Funk" does not set Shakespeare's words to hip hop music. The Q Brothers wrote an original rap around the plot of "Much Ado". The soldiers coming home from war, are now MC's coming home from battle. The Sicilian village of Messina is now an urban, grafitti-decorated somewhere. The show retains the original set of characters, and the story is basically the same. As fun as the costumes are, they are not spectacular. As colorful and vibrant as the set is, it won't make your jaw drop.
What makes "Funk" worth noting is the rap itself. The Q Brothers cleverly captured Shakespeare's whimsical use of language and translated it in a current genre. Because the characters are MC's, they were able to take advantage of hip hop's poetic and narrative tendencies to use language the same way that Shakespeare used rhymes, retaining (and at times accelerating)the rhythm of his dialogue. The result is a fast-paced, pun-filled exchange of words that are so witty that it kept the audience hanging onto every syllable.
The cast delivered each line with such agility and energy that they were more than believable as both Shakespearean actors and MCs. Although I squirmed as I heard it, they were right to call themselves, "cunning linguists." I was especially mesmerized by Ericka Rutcliffe's Lady B and Elizabeth Ledo's Hero.
The show is lewd and bawdy and raunchy. It is also humorous, energetic and smart. It is, I believe, how Shakespeare intended "Much Ado" to be. Over the years, our image of Shakespeare has been deemed as highbrowed culture(thanks in part to Branagh and Thompson) that we forget exactly how lowbrow he can be. We forget that he wrote most of his comedies to appeal to the common folk so that he can make the money that would fund his more ambitious projects.
What is endearing about "Funk" is that it doesn't have the pretentions of calling the show art and does not insist that it is a Shakespearean play despite its identical plot and characters. You are told right off the bat that it is an homage to William Shakespeare,"the original rapper." And they did it by "funking up" words, as he did in his time.
So, I've discovered that I now like adraptations.
Unlike my initial misconception, "Funk" does not set Shakespeare's words to hip hop music. The Q Brothers wrote an original rap around the plot of "Much Ado". The soldiers coming home from war, are now MC's coming home from battle. The Sicilian village of Messina is now an urban, grafitti-decorated somewhere. The show retains the original set of characters, and the story is basically the same. As fun as the costumes are, they are not spectacular. As colorful and vibrant as the set is, it won't make your jaw drop.
What makes "Funk" worth noting is the rap itself. The Q Brothers cleverly captured Shakespeare's whimsical use of language and translated it in a current genre. Because the characters are MC's, they were able to take advantage of hip hop's poetic and narrative tendencies to use language the same way that Shakespeare used rhymes, retaining (and at times accelerating)the rhythm of his dialogue. The result is a fast-paced, pun-filled exchange of words that are so witty that it kept the audience hanging onto every syllable.
The cast delivered each line with such agility and energy that they were more than believable as both Shakespearean actors and MCs. Although I squirmed as I heard it, they were right to call themselves, "cunning linguists." I was especially mesmerized by Ericka Rutcliffe's Lady B and Elizabeth Ledo's Hero.
The show is lewd and bawdy and raunchy. It is also humorous, energetic and smart. It is, I believe, how Shakespeare intended "Much Ado" to be. Over the years, our image of Shakespeare has been deemed as highbrowed culture(thanks in part to Branagh and Thompson) that we forget exactly how lowbrow he can be. We forget that he wrote most of his comedies to appeal to the common folk so that he can make the money that would fund his more ambitious projects.
What is endearing about "Funk" is that it doesn't have the pretentions of calling the show art and does not insist that it is a Shakespearean play despite its identical plot and characters. You are told right off the bat that it is an homage to William Shakespeare,"the original rapper." And they did it by "funking up" words, as he did in his time.
So, I've discovered that I now like adraptations.
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