NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — It's been said a classic never goes out of style, even if that classic is more than 400-years-old. A new spin on a very famous play has just opened in Nashville.
"We wanted to create a space where anyone who walks in could go, 'I know that backyard. My aunt has that backyard!'" said Mikael Burke.
Burke sat on a set complete with folding chairs, lawn, and decorations looking like an afternoon cookout.
Burke's gotten to work with a lot of the classics, written by a name you know.
"I have done The Scottish Play, A Midsummer Night's Dream, I've done Othello," he said. "I love Shakespeare's language and the insight into the human condition."
Burke's working something Shakespearean again.
You've heard of the Nashville Shakespeare Festival. The group does productions of Shakespeare plays. They've partnered with The Nashville Repertory Theatre for the production Burke's now directing, Fat Ham. It's a Pulitzer Prize-winning play and modern-day adaption of Hamlet.
"It's a story about legacy," Burke said. "It's a story about, 'if the ghost of your father comes to you and says avenge me, what are you going to do about it?' In this play, revenge isn't doing what dad wants. Revenge is discovering, owning the fact, the only person I need to please is myself. It plays to the sort of generational trauma of growing up Black and queer in a not-queer environment."
Burke said it's rare to direct material that feels so personal.
"I am queer, and I am Black, and I grew up in a family that did not always know how to deal with that, to make peace with that," he said. "I had my own journey with coming to my own personhood."
With those themes, matched with some comedy, and the Shakespeare source material, Burke said it feels like a unique thing to be part of. Not only that, since the show's set at a family bar-b-que, Edley's is sponsoring the production and providing the food the actors are eating on set.
"You'll see them bringing out actual ribs, sausage, and mac n' cheese," Burke smiled.
The show is running at TPAC's Johnson Theater until Feb. 22. In a true full circle moment, Burke said his family is coming to see the show.
"It's such a beautiful thing when you read something and go, 'oh, I know that. I lived that,'" he said.
Do you have a positive, good news story? You can email me at forrest.sanders@newschannel5.com.
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