A modern- day twist on Shakespeare
1999’ s hip- hop adaptation of Comedy of Errors has been updated with 21st- century beats
The Bomb- itty of Errors April 10 to May 10 | Revue Theatre Tickets & info: From $ 25, artsclub.com
“Listen up close, so you can grab an earful. Some parts’ll make you cheerful and some’ll make you tearful. Don’t be fearful, y’all, it’s no drama, see. Is it a tragedy? NO! Is it a comedy? It’s a new style, it’s whatever we wanna be. So welcome, welcome, welcome to the Bomb- itty.”
That’s the kickoff to The Bomb- itty of Errors, the hot hip- hop adaptation of Shakespeare’s Comedy of Errors that’s being remounted April 10 to May 10 at the Revue Stage.
In 1999, five New York University students took a spin at creating a hiphop musical out of the Bard’s farce about two pairs of separated identical twins who share the same names — a plot device so implausible it must make soap opera writers feel proud of amnesia. Rapping and rhyming a script that’s arguably more faithful to Comedy of Errors than West Side Story is to Romeo and Juliet — Bombitty keeps the original character names and some of the Bard’s own pre- busta rhyming rhymes — the show wowed audiences around the world.
Four years ago a pair of recent UBC grads — Brian Cochrane and Jameson Parker — wanted to put on a show. Cochrane would direct, Jameson would act. Then Cochrane suggested Bomb- itty — a show he’d performed five years earlier at the University of Saskatchewan ( the musical’s Canadian premiere).
For Parker it was love at first rhyme. “I said I’d never heard of it and he said: ‘ It’s all rap, it’s four guys who do the Comedy of Errors and they rap the whole thing.’ And I said: ‘ That sounds amazing.’ I’d been working as a musical video director while I was in school and I’d been working in hip hop, so it was right up my alley.”
On the phone from the Arts Club prop shop, Parker says once they started getting serious about staging Bomb- itty, Cochrane realized he wanted to perform in the show more than he wanted to direct, so he recruited Nick Koupantsis, who’d costarred with him in the production at the University of Saskatchewan, and director Catriona Leger.
They cast Parker’s “best friend and business partner David Kaye and we thought he’d be perfect because he’s a ball of energy and a great rapper and a great actor,” says Parker.
Parker and Kaye created and still run a film company together called whiskaye films.
The duo decided the 1999 beats were a bit dated and Parker asked his buddy, Canadian hip- hop star Anami Vice ( who he and Kaye had produced several videos for and who is now a partner in whiskaye) to craft a score.
“There’s about 21 beats in the show that we rap over and he wrote 21 original beats for the show,” says Parker. “Anami’s toured across Canada, he’s played every major arena in every major city across Canada … so it’s great to have him on board as a musician to rewrite some of these beats and have a local hip- hop influence on our show.”
So they modernized the modern “adraptation” bringing the ancient 1999 hip- hop stylings into the 21st century.
Crowds and critics loved their production and so did the Arts Club. The show picked up Jessie Richardson Awards for costume design and “significant artistic achievement — Outstanding Ensemble Performance with Music & Live DJ.” The show was also nominated for outstanding production and outstanding direction. The awardwinning team is back for the remount — with DJ Oker Chen onstage and the cast once again outfitted in Vanessa Imeson’s funky outfits.
“We were blown away by the response to the show,” says Parker. “All it was for us was a chance to have a blast. Maybe it’s the energy we have together on stage because we’re having so much fun up there,”
Parker’s also blown away by who’s responding to their show.
“I was in Victoria workshopping a play for a friend and somebody said their niece who was 16 years old saw the show and was raving about it. And last night I was at the Cultch and a lady who was in her late 50s, early 60s, came up to me and was raving about how much she loved it the first time and how she’s already got her tickets. So it appeals to eight to 80, straitlaced to crazy.”