“What’s up, my people?” Jacob Ming-Trent welcomes the audience at the beginning of his one-man show. He proceeds to inform us, “Today’s show is not an autobiographical tale. It’s a testimony.” But an autobiographical tale is exactly what How Shakespeare Saved My Life is, with the performer — acclaimed for his performances in such productions as Twelfth Night and Merry Wives, among others — chronicling how his love of the Bard prevented him from succumbing to a fate seemingly dictated by his troubled beginnings.
The show is a testimony, too, of sorts, with Ming-Trent performing in the style of an evangelical preacher, complete with frequent call-and-response cues to the audience whom he dubs his “congregation.” Whenever he prompts us, we shout out the line “Play on” to encourage him to continue his storytelling. When he auditions to play Hamlet and is told by the casting director that he should play Othello instead, we’re instructed to repeatedly yell, “You should play Othello!”
It’s all a little exhausting, frankly, and indicative of how the performer tries too hard to inject frenetic energy and audience participation into his moving tale. He found himself homeless at age 16 after his drug-addicted father left home and his unloving mother subsequently threw him out of the house. He got on a Greyhound bus to New York City to pursue an acting career after discovering a love of the Bard in a class taught by his school’s football coach.
Although he received a scholarship at an acting school, it wasn’t an easy path to pursue. One teacher told him that “he was a murderer of the English language.”
“If you must do Shakespeare, sound like me. White!” the teacher instructed him.
Along the way to his acting success, Ming-Trent endured numerous hardships, including an attempted reconciliation with his father that ended when he saw him shooting up drugs; falling in with a gang and accidentally ingesting PCP; watching one of his friends die after being shot on the street; spending a night in jail after being arrested for disturbing the peace; and buying a gun during a period when he was feeling suicidal.
The performer infuses his grim story with heavy doses of humor, poeticism, rapping, and such fantastical episodes as a phone call with God, who offers advice while enjoying some cheddar bay biscuits at Red Lobster. There are also numerous shout-outs to such figures as Tupac Shakur, Biggie Smalls, James Baldwin, Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, and many others.
Director Tony Taccone, who has plenty of experience with solo shows (Latin History for Morons, Wishful Drinking, Bridge and Tunnel), has infused the proceedings with strong doses of theatricality, with Alexander V. Nichols’ projections providing visual flair.
But despite Ming-Tent’s charisma and vibrancy, the 95-minute piece feels self-indulgent and formless. The performer, who recites several Shakespearean passages, makes clear that the Bard gave meaning to his life. What we never really find out is exactly how or why.
How Shakespeare Saved My Life opened Septemer 27, 2026, at the Public Theater and runs through October 18. Tickets and information: publictheater.org
