Sonnets

This event will be free and located at the Community Stage.

Let not my love be called idolatry,
Nor my beloved as an idol show,
Since all alike my songs and praises be
To one, of one, still such, and ever so.

Few collections of poems intrigue, challenge, tantalize, and reward us as do Shakespeare’s Sonnets, all written in the English sonnet form.

It is not just the beauty and power of individual sonnets that engage us, but the story that their sequence seems to tell about Shakespeare’s love life, whenever one reads the Sonnets in the order in which they appear in the 1609 Quarto.

William Sutton, a founding actor/member of the Passion in Practice ensemble, will MC the event. The Passion in Practice ensemble is based in London and performed annually from 2013-2015 at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, thanks to Patrick Spottiswoode and the Globe Education Department. William became passionate about Shakespeare, after deciding to memorize his 154 Sonnets. Mark Rylance allowed him to perform on the piazza of the Globe theatre in 1999. Two and three years later, he did sonnet marathons on the archaeological site of the Rose Theatre, Bankside, London. William attended the Shakespeare Institute in Stratford upon Avon, when Peter Holland (now Notre Dame) was director, alongside alumni, Paul Edmondson (now Shakespeare Birthplace Trust) and Paul Prescott (now Warwick University).

Show Schedule

• 2 p.m. – Pre-show discussion with William Sutton
• 3 p.m. – 5:30 p.m. – Readings (3 Acts; 2 intermissions)
• Post-show Q&A with cast and creative team to follow at conclusion of readings.