Home-cooked food of love
A Shakespeare-inspired collection of songs is a triumph.
It’s one thing to borrow from the Bard but quite another to translate fourcenturies-old Shakespearean words for a modern pop audience. Countless artists have dipped into the genius pool of themes, phrases and characters, knowing that Shakespeare’s sheen can add both glitter and nuance to their lyrics.
Love and loss, especially, gain from a touch of Elizabethan metaphor. Both the original Elvis and earlier Al Jolson versions of Are You Lonesome Tonight? contain the spoken word section that starts “You know, someone said the world’s a stage …” and the star-cross’d story of Romeo and Juliet has appeared in as varied a collection of works as Stephen Sondheim and Leonard Bernstein’s West Side Story, Bob Dylan’s Desolation Row, Taylor Swift’s Love Story, Spandau Ballet’s Through the Barricades and, of course, Dire Straits’ rockswagger Romeo and Juliet.
But few have dared go right back to the source material. Last year’s 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death resulted in two noted efforts – with varying degrees of success: Aussie Paul Kelly’s Seven Sonnets & a Song reinterpreted the poetry as Dylanesque folk, and Rufus Wainwright’s Take All My Loves displayed nine sonnets in a bombastic, cameo-strewn orchestral showcase.
Which is why Paul McLaney’s album Play On is such a joyful surprise. Born as a performance piece for Auckland’s Pop-up Globe, McLaney’s 11 tracks arrange Shakespeare’s soliloquies, a sonnet and a poem by Christopher Marlowe as a succession of beautiful, timeless songs.
The skill is almost taken for granted – strings quiver between baroque elegance and the simplicity of electronica, and the supporting cast is A-list Kiwi (Ria Hall, Mara TK, Julia Deans, Esther Stephens, Laughton Kora and Maisey Rika) – but there’s never any attempt to mask the powerful text that underpins each song.
Strings quiver between baroque elegance and the simplicity of electronica, and the supporting cast is A-list Kiwi.
Highlights include McLaney’s own Nick Cave-ish Come Away Death from Twelfth Night, Deans’ queasy retelling of Lady Macbeth’s call on “murd’ring ministers” and the “dunnest smoke of hell” in Hold!, Kora’s take on The Tempest’s Prospero in Our Revels Now are Ended and Rika’s magnificent live te reo version of the sonnet “Shall I compare thee to summer’s day”.
Play On is a brave experiment – and a wholehearted triumph.
Play On is available now on Loop. The live show is on August 25 at the Taranaki International Arts Festival; August 30 at the Christchurch Arts Festival; September 16-17 at the Auckland Live International Cabaret Season; and October 14 at the Nelson Arts Festival.