Events

Cultural event Rebellion, Literature and Music

Saturday 7th, 2020 was the cultural event and concert for the National Bookweek at the New City Library in Almere called Rebellion, Literature and Music. 5 Singer-songwriters were challenged to write a song about a book. The book titles were given by the New City Library. I had to write a song about Shakespeare’s Hamlet. And I named the song ” Hamlet” …LOL. Very original of course…. There were 6 singer-songwriters invited but one cancelled because of illness. Before each song a page or fragment from the book was read. Really a nice concept. Hope we can do this more often. I organised this cultural event in cooperation with the New City Library in Almere thanks to Polly Rademaker from the New City Library.   The singersongwriters were: Ron Lindeman, Arianne van der Vaart, Dutch Cassidy, Jeanie Overduin, Hendry Stolk. #DeNieuweBibliotheekAlmere

 

Poster

 

 

Hamlet

 

There was a man who killed his brother

The king of Denmark to take away

His wife and wealth and sit on his throne

She had a son his name was Hamlet

Who felt his father left him alone

And found the castle was not his home

 

To love or not to love

To hate or not to hate

To kill or not to kill

To be or not to be

That is the question

 

His murdered father haunted the castle

And one day appeared to his son

He told about the betrayal of his wife and brother

And urged his son to take revenge

To kill king Claudius his treacherous brother

But not to hurt Gertrude for she was his mother

 

To love or not to love

To hate or not to hate

to kill or not to kill

to be or not to be

that is the question

 

The treacherous king afraid of Hamlet

Thinks out a plan to take him down

To kill prince Hamlet and keep his crown

He sends Ophelia to spy on Hamlet

Although he loves her he turns her down

And poor Ophelia she lost her mind

 

To love or not to love

To hate or not to hate

To kill or not to kill

To be or not to be

That is the question

 

This is the story of love, hate and betrayal

How young prince Hamlet took his revenge

Ophelia drowned and his mother drank deadly poison

With a poisoned sword Hamlet killed the king

The tragedy of Hamlet’s story was he died too with no fame or glory

Just a song of grief was left to sing

 

To love or not to love

To hate or not to hate

To kill or not to kill

To be or not to be

That is the question

 

Words & music by Ron Lindeman

March 2020