On opening night at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, actor-writer Jacob Ming-Trent had the audience in thrall from the very first moments of his world premiere solo show, \u201cHow Shakespeare Saved My Life.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
In a mustard-yellow suit and matching shoes, he strode confidently from the house to the stage and early on\u00a0designated\u00a0us confidantes and \u201ccongregation.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
We were\u00a0more than willing to play that role, shouting in unison \u201cPlay\u00a0on!\u201d whenever he gave us the cue. (Later in the play, the audience also obediently shouted, once again on cue and in unison, \u201cYou should play Othello! You should play Othello!\u201d It felt like a call-and-response in church.)\u00a0<\/p>\n
Written by Ming-Trent and directed by Tony Taccone (former Berkeley Rep artistic director), the almost-two-hour-long show is funny, horrifying and endearing, sometimes all at once.\u00a0<\/p>\n
At the age of 12, Jacob is suddenly\u00a0man of the house\u00a0because his drug addict father has left. His cold and withholding mother\u00a0warns\u00a0him that, as a Black kid, \u201cYou\u2019re in permanent danger.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
By age 15, when he objects to her remarriage plans, she kicks him out, leaving him completely homeless. She never lets him return.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But in eighth grade, his school\u2019s Shakespeare teacher \u2014 who also happens to be the football coach, hilariously portrayed by Ming-Trent with a piercing whistle on a chain around his neck \u2014 changes his life. From that moment on, he introduces himself to everyone as \u201ca Shakespearean actor,\u201d confidently\u00a0matter-of-fact.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He\u2019s\u00a0also confidently\u00a0matter-of-fact\u00a0about God, calling him on a wall telephone for instructions on how to pursue his career. \u201cJacob, my chubby brown brother,\u201d sighs God. (Later, in existential despair, he also prays to Mr. James Baldwin.)\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ming-Trent\u2019s fast-moving story\u00a0comprises\u00a0an invigorating mix of original rhyming couplets, inspired rap (with reverential references to hip-hop icons such the late Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls),\u00a0segments of dialogue and soliloquys from many Shakespeare plays as well as at least one sonnet.\u00a0<\/p>\n
How truly autobiographical his story is, we\u00a0don\u2019t\u00a0know. Did he really join a street gang whose members have names like Toilet,\u00a0Popeye\u00a0and Backwash? When the gang jumped him in, violently, \u201cIt felt like love to me,\u201d he says. And the horrific things that happened to him after that, including jail, an overdose and more: True or not, they\u00a0comprise\u00a0a powerful story of one man\u2019s wobbly triumph over adversity.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Jacob Ming-Trent excels playing multiple characters in \u201cHow Shakespeare Saved My Life,\u201d his autobiographical solo show onstage at Berkeley Repertory Theatre through March 1. Credit: Kevin Berne\/Berkeley Repertory Theatre via Bay City News<\/p>\n
Taccone has proven, with other solo autobiographical shows\u00a0he\u2019s\u00a0directed, that\u00a0he\u2019s\u00a0relentless in drawing the deepest thoughts and feelings from his star performers, while never letting them wallow in sentimentality. Such is the case here.\u00a0In Ming-Trent, he has partnered with an open-hearted actor who excels at creating a whole assortment of characters\u2014his parents,\u00a0a\u00a0grandmother,\u00a0teachers,\u00a0friends\u00a0and more.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A scenic design by Takeshi Kata, of continuous projected images, and some simple set pieces, complete the stage picture without ever taking the focus away from Ming-Trent.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIs it better to be safe or free?\u201d Jacob wonders at one point.\u00a0<\/p>\n
At another, he suspects he\u00a0shouldn\u2019t\u00a0have needed a 400-year-old white man to rescue him from the life he might have led.\u00a0<\/p>\n
His deep connection to the Bard \u2014 the way he brings every fiber of his Black, funny, beautifully generous self to Shakespeare \u2014 feels like a gift.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHow Shakespeare Saved My Life\u201d runs through March 1 in Berkeley\u00a0Repertory\u00a0Theatre\u2019s Peet\u2019s Theatre,\u00a02025\u00a0Addison\u00a0St., Berkeley. Tickets are $25-$101\u00a0at\u00a0berkeleyrep.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On opening night at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, actor-writer Jacob Ming-Trent had the audience in thrall from the very…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":172813,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[143,145,144],"class_list":{"0":"post-172812","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-oakland","8":"tag-oakland","9":"tag-oakland-headlines","10":"tag-oakland-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172812","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=172812"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172812\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/172813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=172812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=172812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=172812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}