Where Late The Sweet Birds Sang
A ‘little moment’ of a TIMELESS story told through Shakespeare’s Sonnets.
Directed by Martin Parr
The Rose Playhouse, London
4th – 29th November, 2014
Cast
Katherine Heath
Lucia Capellaro
Shakespeare’s 154 sonnets are some of the most breathtaking, exquisite, yet succinct investigations into what it means to be human within the entire literary canon. The whole breadth of human experience is explored in these beautifully detailed and achingly honest outcries to love, loss, and everything that lies between.
Using a rich selection of the sonnets and accompanied by complementary music, we explore the story of what it means to take the risk of being truly human: to love, to lose and ultimately, hopefully, to learn. The Rose Theatre is the perfect location for these often under-valued and under-performed sonnets: at once intimate and epic, the space offers an opportunity to focus on these forensically detailed hymns to humanity in close up, whilst at the same time affording them a dramatic sweep in which they can truly, yet sweetly sing.
The sonnets are often likened to a very intimate autobiography of Shakespeare’s private life and loves. ‘Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang’ develops this further and investigates, within a format as substantial as any of the great plays, the desolations and joys that life affords each and every one of us.
Reviews
“Stunning visuals abound…incredibly striking…the result is outstanding”
“Beautiful imagery…a breathtaking conclusion…mesmerising beauty”
“Katherine Heath is superb. Lucia Capellaro is equally outstanding…utterly enthralling”
“An imaginative production that blends poetry, music and visual art…the result is outstanding…a delightful, must-see show”
Views From the Gods
“Delicately beautiful…gentle, melancholic, inventive and profoundly moving”
"A number of striking visual moments…minutely choreographed”
“Not a hey nonny in sight!”
“Witty, poised and risky…affectionate eroticism”
“The influence of director Martin Parr is quietly but pervasively present throughout”
Alexandra Coghlan, The Arts Desk
“The structure is a genius-as if the whole performance is a sonnet itself”
“Beautiful and unexpected…an experiential whirlwind”
“Virtuosic performance”
Verity Healey, Theatre Bubble
