Laguna Beach Musician Jason Feddy Has a Bard Attitude

Do we call it Shakespeare Lite? Shakespeare that goes down easy?

What does one call a creative interplay of Shakespeare monologues juxtaposed against Shakespeare songs performed to original rock & roll music?

Audiences at will soon decide, with the upcoming productions of Shakespeare’s Fool. It’s not just for theater folk, but maybe also for curious folk.

Shakespeare’s Fool is the brainchild of Jason Feddy, local musician and singer in the Jason Feddy Band. The idea came to him during a post-play house party, when partygoer and professional theater actor John Gardiner decided a little poetry was in order for the crowd, and he suddenly broke out in a monologue from Much Ado About Nothing.

“Everyone was captivated by him,” Feddy said. “And it got me thinking—I know there are songs in Shakespeare plays. I go pull out The Complete Works of Shakespeare, and I start to write a tune for one of the songs.”

After writing music for several songs, and some crazed collaboration with Gardiner, the result is Shakespeare’s Fool. Throughout the show, Gardiner will perform 15-20 monologues from Shakespeare plays, and, in between, the band of Shakespeare’s Fool belts out about 10 rock songs composed to Shakespeare’s lyrics. A little Edmund from King Lear, a song from Hamlet, a speech from Twelfth Night, a song from The Tempest. Add some concert lighting and a lot of attitude.

At a recent rehearsal, Feddy’s gritty voice—along with bassist David J. Carpenter and drummer Bryan Head—and Shakespeare’s lyrics come together quite naturally, if a little surprisingly. In fact, the pieces easily sound as though they could have been written yesterday. Shakespeare’s work, always ahead of its time, resonates just as easily through guitar strums and rock rhythms as it did on the high-brow 16th-century English stage. Who woulda thought?

As for the monologues, don’t expect Gardiner to stand tall in tights, delivering with a traditional English accent. He’s planned some surprises—maybe a little audience involvement, maybe a little Frankie Pentangeli from The Godfather might work his way in.

So would Shakespeare be turning over in his grave, or beaming with pride?

“I think he’d f**kin’ love it,” Feddy said. “I’ve seen that one portrait of Shakespeare, where’s he wearing an earring. I think he was adventurous and a bohemian. He’d dig it.”

Shakespeare’s Fool performances will run April 3 & 10, 7 p.m., at . Tickets cost $20, and can be purchased online at www.nosquare.org. Brief snippets of some songs included can be heard if you click right here.