Rapping in ‘The City’

Before it troops off to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the Incubator troupe performs an English-language version of its rap opera.

By BARRY DAVIS
‘The City’ storyline deliberately uses archetypes. (photo credit: Courtesy)
‘The City’ storyline deliberately uses archetypes.
(photo credit: Courtesy)
Rap is one of the most urban, down-and-dirty forms of musical expression around. That makes it a perfect fit – should you get the notion – for spinning a dark tale of misdemeanors, shady characters and sleazy setups.
The City is described as a “rap opera written entirely in rhyme, performed as one continuous song.”
While the use of the epithet “opera” may be taking the idea a little too far in terms of esthetic grandeur and scale, the Incubator Theater troupe’s show has a beguiling sexiness to it that draws the spectator in to the increasingly complex storyline, and identify with the somewhat pitiful, but endearing, characters. The verbal-musical content of the show is primarily delivered in a sort of laid-back rap style, with a spoken word section too.
Actually, The City is not exactly a newcomer to the local theatrical scene. Up and running in Hebrew for around a couple of years, it has now been translated into English. The English-language version premiered last Saturday, at the Mazia House, as part of the Israel Festival and will be performed for a second time at the same venue on June 30 (9 p.m.).
The City tells the sorry tale of Joe, an archetypal down-at-heel private eye. The main character conjures up clear images of Humphrey Bogart, complete with haunted look, endless cigarettes and disheveled appearance.
“Actually, a lot of the inspiration for the character and the story comes from [1941 Bogart classic] The Maltese Falcon,” Amit Ulman, who plays the role of Joe, explains.
His cohorts in the show include Omer Havron and Omer Mor, who also earn their keep as the Victor Jackson Show rapper trio. The cast is completed by Dorit Lilien and Roni Rocket. Besides Ulman, all the actors take on a number of roles, and some provide musical accompaniment. The latter is keeping with the street language and takes all manner of instrumental vehicles that range from the standard to the definitively off the cuff, and include beatbox, chopsticks on a garbage can, a darbuka, a classical guitar and keyboards.
In fact, it was no simple thing to translate the work into English. As any translator worth their salt will know, it is not a matter of just finding the equivalent word in the other language, or even the seemingly correct phrase. Ulman says that, in the case of The City, the linguistic transition was a particularly delicate matter.
“In the original Hebrew version there are all sorts of cultural references, so you have to adapt the translation to the culture of the new language too.
For example, there is a point in the play when I open the door to someone and he disappears. In Hebrew my character compares his disappearance with the absence of traffic on Yom Kippur, but in English we translated it into something else completely different. I say: ‘He pulled a Clark Gable, and he was gone with the wind.’ You have to be sensitive to those kinds of things.”
The City was spawned by an earlier performance format, the Victor Jackson Show rapper threesome, which comprises Ulman, Havron and Mor.
“We had a song in the show, that was called ‘Teaser,’ which sort of took on a life of its own and became the opening number of The City,” Ulman explains. “The three of us would get together to write stuff, and the material for The City just developed gradually. After a while we brought in Dorit and Roni – they also brought a strong musical background with them – and together we converted the material into a stage production.”
The next step was to obtain a home for their new baby, which they found at The Incubator Theater company.
“They gave us a space to rehearse and to perform. We were very grateful for that.”
The motivation to present the show in English came from the same source.
“[Incubator director general] Arik Eshet came up with the idea of translating The City in English,” says Ulman.
The translation decision proved to be a wise move.
Next month, Ulman and the other four members of the cast will head off to Scotland, to take part in the world famous Edinburgh Fringe Festival, with no fewer than 27 performances lined up in the Scottish capital between July 30 and August 25.
“We are all really looking forward to that,” says Ulman.
There was a lengthy gestation period, during which the work chopped and changed many times.
“It took us around three years to write all the material,” Ulman says. “We began performing with it, and we fed off the audience reactions and finetuned the script accordingly.”
The actors also engage in some more tinkling in situ.
“The improvisation part is in the way we deliver the text,” explains Ulman. “In rap there is something called ‘flow,’ the way you apply the words to the rhythm. You can say the same sentence, within the same bar of music, in different ways. That’s where the living aspect of the performance lies. As an actor it is fun to draw on the musical aspect rather than the situation you are portraying. I am a performer who also appears in music shows. That’s where I get my energy from.”
Ulman says he and his The City stable mates wanted to make the show as audience-friendly as possible, and intentionally went for stock situations.
“I read a lot of detective books in the run up to the production. The idea was to take the most archetypal elements we could find. Firstly, they conjure up the most immediate associations for the spectators, and that provides them with a ready-made rich world of familiar images, characters and situations. There is nothing new in the storyline. The innovative element is the fact that we do it in rap, which creates something different and intriguing. And there’s Joe, who is a sort of poet-detective. That’s a novel idea and adds a fresh angle on the delivery and the way the story pans out.”
True to the detective thriller genre, there are plenty of twists and turns as the storyline unravels in a rundown part of a decaying urban environment, and a generous helping of dark humor too.
“I think it’s a very entertaining show,” says Ulman. “We have a lot of fun doing it.” 
For tickets and more information: (02) 654-3004.