This year’s Shakespeare in the Streets differed from its predecessors in focus, but the event was still a winner.

Since 2012, Shakespeare in the Streets has usually begun with an outreach from St. Louis Shakespeare Festival to a local neighborhood. The festival sends out a creative team to lead residents in developing and performing an original script based on the community’s stories within the framework of a play by Shakespeare. The neighborhoods featured in the past include The Grove, Old North St. Louis, The Ville, and Bevo Mill.

This year’s subject was not a place but a passion for soccer that unites the metropolitan area. As one of the characters puts it, “St. Louis soccer is part of this city’s soul!”

Entitled The Game’s Afoot, this year’s play was written by Benjamin Hochman, sports columnist for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. His script was based on the Shakespearean trilogy known as the Henriad. A central character in all three plays is King Henry V, both before and after he ascends to the English throne.

To encompass the long history of soccer in St. Louis, Hochman shrewdly built time travel into his plot. A character named Willis goes back in time to recruit a team of St. Louis all-stars for a soccer match in 2019.

Willis’s first stop in the play is 1975, where he encounters Peter “The Cat” Bonetti, the former Chelsea goalkeeping star who was playing for the St. Louis Stars of the North American Soccer League. Bonetti tells of the heartbreak he felt as an 8-year-old boy on June 29, 1950, when England lost a World Cup match to “a ragtag group of amateurs playing for the United States.” That match in Brazil was the time-traveling Willis’s previous stop. He went there because five members of the U.S. team were from St. Louis.

Bonetti tells Willis where to find a soccer prodigy named Hal. He has the talent to become the king of St. Louis soccer, but he “spends more time drinking beer on draft than perfecting his craft.”

Hal and the action of Act One are based on Henry IV, Part 1, in which the future Henry V is still Prince Hal. Instead of fulfilling his duties as heir to throne, the prince squanders his time at the Boar’s Head Tavern with the raffish Sir John Falstaff. Meanwhile, the prince’s rival Hotspur is earning a reputation as a hero.

Hochman’s Hal carouses at Balaban’s with his own Falstaff and has his own rival named Hotspur. Their conflict stems from the antagonism between soccer teams from north and south St. Louis. Eventually, both Hals redeem themselves and defeat their adversaries at a showdown that takes place in Shrewsbury. Hochman appropriately departs from Shakespeare in having Hal reconcile with the defeated Hotspur. “And while I may be the new king,” Hal says, “I’m only as strong as my kingdom.”

Act Two is based on Henry IV, Part 2, in which Prince Hal lapses into his old ways after the Battle of Shrewsbury. Hochman’s Hal is guilty of backsliding, too. Willis encounters Hal again in 2002, After a distinguished professional career, he has retired and gone back to habitual carousing with Falstaff.

Hal has no thoughts of passing on his knowledge to the next generation until a former fan of his invites him to a practice of the JB Marine soccer club. Just as Prince Hal accepts the responsibility of kingship at the end of Henry IV, Part 2, Hochman’s Hal accepts the responsibility of coaching at the end of Act 2. Meanwhile, Willis learns about contributions to St. Louis soccer by women and the Bosnian and Spanish-speaking communities.

Henry V is about the former Prince Hal’s triumph over the French. Early in the play, the French ambassador brings King Henry a disrespectful gift from the Dauphin. Henry avenges the insult with a spectacular victory at the Battle of Agincourt.

Hochman’s Hal must avenge an insult to St. Lous from a sophisticated but controversial sports mogul named Frenchy. In 2019, she claims St. Louis’s strength in the soccer world is “way overblown.” She insists that St. Louis does not deserves a Major League Soccer team because the city is stuck in the past. MLS, she says, is the present and the future.

To prove Frenchy wrong, Hal challenges her to a soccer match. This game is the reason the time-traveler Willis has been scouting for great players from St. Louis’s past. The stakes could not be higher. If the St. Louis team wins, the city will be awarded an MLS franchise. Hal rallies his team with a pep talk based on the St. Crispin’s Day speech in Henry V.

The outcome of the match is a foregone conclusion. The site for this year’s Shakespeare in the Streets was 22nd Street between Locust and Olive Streets. Behind and to the left of the stage was CityPark, the stadium built for the MSL expansion team, St. Louis City SC.

The festival assembled a splendid cast for The Game’s Afoot. Hal’s dissipation and aspirations were equally convincing in Jack Kalan’s portrayal. Thomas Patrick Riley made Hotspur a formidable adversary for Hal. Keating made the most of Falstaff’s comic potential.

The admirable supporting performers were Ashwini Arora as Rumor, Summer Baer as Angela and others, Lynn Berg as Willis and others, Tara Bopp as Frenchy and others, Jailyn Genyse as Pistol and others, and Victor Mendez as Nym and others.

Adam Flores’ direction brought clarity to the wide-ranging story and cleverly staged the soccer matches on the small temporary stage. Bill “Mr. Soccer” McDermott ramped up the matches’ drama with the exciting sound of his commentary. Lori Chalupny Lawson, William “Ty” Keough, and John Klein III added luster to the show with their cameo performances.

The outdoor production was enhanced by Scott Neale’s scenic design, Shevaré’s costumes, M. Bryant Powell’s lighting, and Taylors Abs’ props. The rousing soundscape was provided by Fleur de Noise, an independent group of supporters whose “goal is to provide the heartbeat for every CITY gameday and to make St. Louis the toughest home environment in North American soccer.”

The cheering on opening night made it clear that the audience was delighted with the festival’s stirring tribute to soccer in St Louis. I was delighted with the ingenuity of Hochman’s adaptation and the opportunity to celebrate local soccer history.

—Gerry Kowarsky

Photo © Phillip Hamer Photography