Shakespeare Meets Reggaeton on the Streets of Harlem: Bringing the Bard to Deprived Neighborhoods

Shakespeare to the rhythm of reggaeton.

The words of the Bard are today accompanied by original music on the streets of Harlem.

“The energy is very different. People feel free to shout and have fun in ways that perhaps inside the theater they don’t feel free to do that and that’s why it’s more fun for me here on the street,” said Rebeca Martínez, director .

This is the ‘Mobile Unit of the Public Theater’ program, whose mission is to bring the works of William Shakespeare to deprived neighborhoods in the five boroughs.

“It is a way to connect the Latino community and show that something like Shakespeare that is often in theaters and places that are not so accessible is something that belongs to New York and the city,” said Julián Mesri, composer.

But it is not only the streets of New York that have welcomed this initiative.

Plays like Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet have also been performed at community centers, libraries, homeless shelters and correctional facilities as part of the program, which celebrates its 13th anniversary this year.

This time it is a bilingual version of the Comedy of Mistakes, a work that delights both adults and children.

But behind the jokes and laughter there is also a social and political message.

“It’s a comedy, but it also has very deep roots in (the) reality, in our culture,” added Martínez. “It has something to do with the separation of families. Separation of families because of countries that make laws that have nothing to do with families.”

Martínez.

Martínez and Mesri say this version of the piece was written with precisely that in mind, with the desire to connect with the city’s Latino and immigrant community through a diversity of dialects and musical styles.

“In New York there is such a large population of Latinos but they usually don’t go to the theater or they don’t feel that Broadway or Off-Broadway theater is for them, so being able to do a play that is completely free, is bilingual, we hope it will let them know that theater is for them too,” said Joel Pérez, actor.

And for those who didn’t get a chance to see The Comedy of Mistakes on its tour of the five boroughs, you can do so at the Public Theater’s Shiva Theater. The work will be presented there until Sunday June 11.