The boys of Modern Table bristle with precision in this Shakespearean adaptation.
Playing as part of The Place’s Festival of Korean Dance, choreographer Jae-duk Kim brings high energy work with a very British inspiration. The all-male troupe of performers that make up Kim’s company Modern Table inhabit the energy and madness of Shakespeare’s titular antiheroes Hamlet and Macbeth — hence, Ham:beth.
Before any of the action begins we are offered optional earplugs at the auditorium doors. The lone drum kit and guitars at the back of the stage evoke the feeling of an underground gig. In a way there is a certain boys-in-the-band charm to the seven dancers in Ham:beth, dressed like The Beatles in their early years but moving like The Beatles in their acid years, the lads in mustard yellow suits tear through some pretty frantic movement. Kim’s choreography is impressively precise, particularly in the engaging opening where dancers speed through anguished expressions and gestures at machine gun speed.
This opening sequence raises pulses with its building anxiety and the expectant ticks of the metronome score — I, like many other begrudging teenage students in English speaking countries, am all too familiar with those essential themes of inaction and waiting in Hamlet. The dancers scurry about and scrawl on the walls, plotting and scheming their means of domination. And they can sing too! Especially the bluesy Kim, who duets with vocalist Suk-gui Yoon in the aisles when he isn’t dancing with the ensemble. At times the score leans into dad rock territory, but there are ghostly moments of syllabic chanting in reverbed Korean and folky Pan-sori lilts that keep things compelling.
The work doesn’t always keep its momentum. The final sequence feels more like a dirge than something to really rock out to. This is not aided by the movement becoming slacker and freer, reflecting the loss of lucidity. That being said, Modern Table does still pack a punch, possessing a highly articulate choreographic style that feels increasingly hard to encounter in the West. The men of Ham:beth go all out in this all-singing all dancing descent into madness.