What do you get when you combine the sonnets of Shakespeare with rock music? To find out, you’ll have to go to SPACE in Evanston at 7:30 p.m. on Jan. 9, when a band called Mortal Fools performs “Shakespeare’s Sonnets Reborn.”
If you do make it there, you will be part of an elite group. That will be the only time that concert is ever performed.
That unusual pairing, and the one-time only concept, is the brainchild of Glencoe resident Jonathan Salem Baskin who presented his re-imagined Milton’s “Paradise Lost” in the same way in February at SPACE.
“It’s a long journey,” Baskin said of the creation of his two shows that combine literature with rock, jazz and other musical styles. “I have a degree in English literature with a specialty in English romantic poetry, which was a brilliant career move.”
Although that didn’t pan out career-wise, Baskin said it gave him an appreciation of literature. Since he has always played music, it isn’t surprising that he eventually found a way to combine those two loves, in addition to his public relations and business writing careers.
Baskin is the president of Arcadia Communications Lab, which helps companies and agencies create content. He has written eight books on business and hundreds of articles for business magazines.
“A couple of years ago, I did the four-year basic program at the University of Chicago. We read a lot of the great books. It reignited my interest in the classics,” Baskin said.
It also made him wonder why he had to go to a classroom to connect with those works.
“When it was written, it was popular entertainment,” Baskin explained. “People didn’t know what they were supposed to think about the art. They just felt something.”
He decided to combine literature with music in the hope that it would help listeners feel something.
His first project was “Paradise Lost” “because it’s so hard,” Baskin laughingly explained. More importantly, “It is a seminal work of not just literature but of cultural history,” Baskin noted.
Both of Baskin’s literature and music projects were highly collaborative.
“I write a skeleton of a song — the frame for the lyrics — and then I have my bandmates co-imagine what is happening musically,” Baskin said. “What comes out is this novel creation.”
They used the actual lyrics of “Paradise Lost” and of Shakespeare’s sonnets, pairing them with completely original music.
The “Shakespeare” program consists of a diverse range of music for the 13 sonnets used.
“We ended up with a really nice variety musically,” Baskin reported. “There’s some hard rock songs. There’s some reggae. We have a couple Burt Bacharach sounding torch songs. We have a Grateful Dead jam or two.”
During the performance, Baskin will talk to the audience between songs, letting them know what they are about to hear and why. After the performance, they will receive a handout contrasting the original material with the band’s interpretation of it.
Baskin and his bandmates decided to only perform each concert one time because, “We wanted that event to have meaning for people who are going to be in the room,” he said. “Have it really be a happening.”
Even though they are still rehearsing the “Sonnet” material, Baskin is already planning the next project, “The Odyssey Retold.”
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“The show is going to be brilliant and wonderful,” Baskin declared. “But what’s really fun is working together to imagine these songs on a journey together.”
For tickets to “Shakespeare’s Sonnets Reborn” at 1245 Chicago Ave. in Evanston, call (847) 492-8860 or visit evanstonspace.com. Tickets are $12-$15.
Myrna Petlicki is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.