About one hundred inmates are seated in the prison gym, waiting for the performance of king lear to begin. Then Jamal, as Edmund, steps out from behind the makeshift set and paces across the stage, his sharply trimmed goatee pointing outward like an accusing finger, his burning gaze fixed on the audience. He raps: “Secret fears are brought to life on stage. / My life is in a rage, and to write my life / One page is not enough. / But if I had one mike I might be able to / Escape this cage … bring Shakespeare to life through my high beams.” Appropriating Cordelia's words, he declares that “I am not the first who have incurred the worst / But I have concurred with those who oppose my life's worth. …” He continues:
They label me violent because I stay bottled up and silent
And although my life is like a raging sea
My heart sings … no life is quiet.
Stop complaining, you say, but I can't because
I'm trapped on the stage of life's lies.
Why brand they us with base? With baseness?