Cultural event Rebellion, Literature and Music
March 22, 2020
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
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