外网天堂

A world premiere is hitting town for the 10th anniversary of the St. Louis Shakespeare Festival鈥檚 鈥淪hakespeare in the Streets.鈥� Rather than Shakespeare, the bard of this particular play, 鈥淭he Game鈥檚 Afoot,鈥� is St. Louis Post-Dispatch sports columnist Benjamin Hochman.

Hochman has spent months interviewing dozens of people in St. Louis鈥� soccer community, a group that includes amateur players, fans of St. Louis City SC and even World Cup winner Lori Lawson.

鈥淚t's the absolute perfect year to do this show,鈥� Hochman said. 鈥淚've said this to people before: Even if the soccer team was bad, there would still be excitement because it's new and it's our town's team. But these guys are first place in the Western Conference! They're playing great. So there's so much soccer excitement.鈥�

Though written by Hochman, the play鈥檚 characters and dialogue are heavily inspired by Shakespeare鈥檚 originals, particularly the 鈥淗enriad鈥� series of historical plays that include Henry IV and Henry V.

鈥淭here are numerous Shakespearean characters in there,鈥� Hochman noted. 鈥淸Prince Hal] of course and some others 鈥� [and] Hotspur, who takes a sojourn from St. Louis to play overseas for Tottenham Hotspur.鈥�

鈥淏ut,鈥� he said, 鈥淚 think the Falstaff character is perhaps my favorite. [He鈥檚] the combination of my personality and Shakespeare's.鈥�

Related Event
What:
When: Sept. 14-16
Where: Olive Boulevard near the intersection with North 22nd Street, in Downtown St. Louis.

To hear more from Benjamin Hochman about his debut as a playwright and what it means to combine St. Louis, soccer and Shakespeare, listen to St. Louis on the Air on , , or or by clicking the play button below.

鈥�鈥� brings you the stories of St. Louis and the people who live, work and create in our region. The show is produced by , , , and . is our production assistant. The audio engineer is . Send questions and comments about this story to talk@stlpr.org.