Event

Shakespeare on the Beat

SHAKESPEARE ON THE BEAT
A work by Moisès Maicas and Anna Soler Horta

Shakespeare’s comedy A Midsummer Night’s Dream inspires a hip hop musical in which one of the Bard’s best-loved works is set in today’s world. In this version, Titania is a rapper and Puck is a b-boy.

Besides being one of Shakespeare’s most popular works, A Midsummer Night’s Dream is also amongst those with the most rhymes, so it was only a matter of time before the play ended up in the street poetry universe. No matter that the original play is more than five centuries old; the themes of this comedy – the ups and downs of love, madness and sanity, the relation between reality and fantasy, etc. – are all still relevant today. Now, director Moisès Maicas has translated an exploration of these themes into language that young people can identify with. Shakespeare on the Beat turns Shakespeare’s lovers into two teenage rap fans; Theseus, Duke of Athens, into a record label owner; Oberon and Titania, the fairy king and queen, into MCs (Master of Ceremonies) who engage in a rhyming battle; the fairy Puck into a b-boy; and the artisans from the original play into a rap group. All this, under the watchful gaze of a DJ who uses two turntables and a mixer to provide a live musical base for the performers’ rhymes, as well as acting as a band leader, serving up beats and scratches throughout the show.

Authorship: Moisès Maicas and Anna Soler Horta, in cooperation with Marta Pera and Miquel Ripeu. Based on the play A Midsummer Night’s Dream, by William Shakespeare
Text: Anna Soler Horta
Direction: Moisès Maicas
Performers: Jofre Borràs, Bealia Guerra, Guillem Motos, Pau Sastre, Ariadna Suñé, Georgina Llauradó, Guille Vidal-Ribas and the street dancers Jonatan Gutiérrez, Artis and Ruth Prim

Approximate running time: 90 min
Language: Catalan