A hard life and the Bard: Jacob Ming-Trent’s one-man show at the Public

In “How Shakespeare Saved My Life,” actor Jacob Ming-Trent tells how the plays helped him survive a troubled youth. The one-man show is at the Shiva Theater inside The Public Theater, 425 Lafayette St., through Oct. 25.

Public audiences may remember Ming-Trent from 2021, when he played Falstaff in Jocelyn Bioh’s “Merry Wives” in Central Park, a version that relocated the comedy to Harlem’s West African immigrant community. With that production, Shakespeare in the Park returned after the pandemic had closed theaters, and it was later recorded for PBS.

What happens in How Shakespeare Saved My Life

Over 90 minutes, Ming-Trent recounts one blow after another. His father used drugs, and his mother forced him to leave home. He describes a racist acting teacher, and he talks about being homeless, about drugs and about time in jail.

He calls the evening a “testimony” and treats the crowd as his congregation. Throughout, he has them chant “Play on,” a line from “Twelfth Night.”

He also performs Shakespeare’s verse and ties its rhythms to the rhymes of Tupac and Biggie. At one point he delivers Hamlet in a voice like Ian McKellen’s, then does it again his own way. Elsewhere, he recalls an acting teacher who told him Shakespeare should sound “white.” Projected footage on screen features Tupac and Biggie alongside Malcolm X and Muhammad Ali, plus comic-book effects and a sequence styled like a video game.

Asked by the Folger Theatre how much of the story is true, Ming-Trent put it at roughly 95%. At one matinee, nearly every seat was filled by New York City high school students.

Tickets and dates at The Public Theater

The show plays through Oct. 25 at the Shiva Theater, 425 Lafayette St. Tickets and showtimes are at publictheater.org.