The Universal / Youtube channel which has been known mostly over the last few months for their uploading of Musicals and Musical Theatre concerts, has been more divergent of late, and have uploaded a few Shakspeare plays too. This last week's Shakespeare offering was titled, "Shakespeare's Sonnets: The Full Show". which was I have to admit, an intriguing title, since it was not a play or show that I had ever heard of before, and then, upon watching realised that instead of a full length show, this was a 2,5 hour long recording of Shakespeare's entire oeuvre of 154 sonnets performed back to back in order of their composition.
The sonnets have all been recorded in isolation as individual monologues, each to be heard / viewed singly, as the editing fades in and out between each, and although some of the sonnets are performed by the same actor / performer; there are possibly some 50 reciters in all: some of these are taken from our contemporary theatre's greatest and most revered classical actors, and some are read by those who have a more intimate connection with Shakespeare, poetry or indeed the language used. I have to confess to not being able to recognise all. Perhaps then, since this is a video / recording, we could have had the title and number of sonnet displayed on the screen as well as the performers' names too... that would surely not have been too much to ask, and would have helped in our interest in and understanding of the poems!
However, where the title of this production falls down, is that it is not a show, part, full or otherwise. It is simply a collection of individual poetic works, brought together as a visual audio-book. Poems are not meant to be listened to / read one after another sans cesse; even the most die-hard fan would not subject themselves to this. Taken in much smaller bundles; perhaps by making smaller collections by performer / style / theme etc would make them more marketable and absorbing.
Shakespeare's sonnets speak about much more than love - although those do predominate and are his most famous ones - and this collection is a diverse collection of themes giving us a much deeper insight into the character and personality of Shakespeare the man. And the actors / performers in this collection are all superb, and their time and expertise should not be underestimated; and listening to their control and interpretations were, for me, an actor and poet myself, most illuminating and thrilling. Yet even I became bored after a while and needed to watch the show in instalments.
Among many more, Sir Patrick Stewart, David Tennant, Simon Callow, Simon Russell Beale, Dominic West, Stephen Fry, Sian Phillips and Fiona Shaw perform these timeless sonnets for charity. This production is presented in order to raise funds for theatre charities in the UK, USA and Australia, as well as raising funds for our NHS. Of course, there would be no necessity for this online charity performance in a different time, and so it is hoped that those who do watch this and other productions on The Shows Must Go On website will donate.
Reviewer - Alastair Zyggu
on - 26/11/20
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