Metal Shakespeare Company to visit Boulder next week
Currently on a six-state tour MSC, which plays heavy metal using lyrics taken from Shakespeare, is bringing its "bardcore" act to Boulder Wednesday for a free concert sponsored by the Colorado Shakespeare Festival. It won't be the first time the headbangers have tried to make theatergoers' ears bleed. They played a set at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival last year.
"It was much to our pleasure well received," Simms says. "From young schoolchildren clad in their matching clothes, to silver-haired elders we were applauded. Our tunics and magical discs were purchased in massive numbers."
(It was a good gig. Even the old folks liked them. They sold a lot of t-shirts and CDs.)
One MSC song, "To Bleed or Not to Bleed," enacts the gravedigger's scene from "Hamlet." Other titles -- "The Caliban Stomp" or "The Ballad of Isabella" -- reflect popular Shakespeare characters.
Then there's "The Drunken Porter," about a character in "Macbeth." Simms calls it "Shakespeare's five-minute homage to alcohol."
"It hath within it, much humor, despite its tragic events," Simms said. "From our perspective, one of his funniest moments in any play. For the comedies are not so, as they say, 'ha ha' funny."
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If you haven't sensed it yet, MSC takes some of its influence from Iron Maiden, and maybe some from Spinal Tap. But don't suggest MSC's music is a spoof, just because they play it wearing tights.
"I shall not stoop to think thou might impugn the solemn dignity of our musical ouvre by questioning its integrity nor our commitment to it!" Viceroy Matthew said.
To be fair, the interviewer had a choice to interview them "in character" or not - he chose "in character."
