Sonnet Walks 2014
Performed in York 25-29 June and 2-6 July, 2014 (20 performances)
Take a stroll along the streets, walls and snickleways of York with King Henry V as he charms his French bride and they encounter a series of characters performing Shakespeare sonnets and speeches.
Presented as part of the Yorkshire Festival, leading up to the Tour de France Grand Depart. Directed by Helen Wilson and Tom Straszewski.
We were given a grant by City of York Council to stage the Sonnet Walks, and the Council agreed to YSP using the remaining funds to film some of the sonnets. Andrew Isherwood was commissioned to make a film of Sonnets 130 (‘When my love swears that she is made of truth’), and 138 (My mistress eyes are nothing like the sun’). Andrew’s film was among 12 shortlisted and screened at The Queen Elizabeth Hall, Stratford-upon-Avon on 31 October 2015 as part of the Filming Shakespeare competition hosted by the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust – and came away with a runner-up award! You can view the film here.
Photos by Simona Manni, Macchiato Productions.
Co-director Helen Wilson writes: “A joy from start to fin ” was Charles Hutchinson’s summary of the sonnet walks . Most of our audience members would agree . It was particularly pleasing to see many youngsters having their first taste of Shakespeare on our walk: no need to sit still!
The royalty who led the audience round kept audience participation going. No one on the walk was quite sure who was going to burst into a sonnet. It was an hour full of surprises. For some performers It was their first Shakespeare. I hope this will be the start of something for them; battling the elements, crowds, and police sirens is good training.
So thank you to City of York Council for the funds to make this happen . We really hope this is the first year of a tradition. We really have learned a lot from it . See you next year.
The Walks ran over two weeks, and there was necessarily some variation in the route, content and casting over that time. This is our best attempt to record what happened!
Week 1
Sonnet 138 When my love swears that she is made of truth
Bootham Bar room – Jamie Searle
Sonnet 147 My love is as a fever, longing still
Bootham Bar room – Mick Liversidge
Sonnet 25 Let those who are in favour with their stars
City Walls – Ian Crossley
Sonnet 73 That time of year thou may’st in me behold
City Walls – Shirley Williams
Sonnet 57 Being your slave, what should I do but tend
Bottom Monkbar steps – Val Burgess
Sonnet 91 Some glory in their birth, some in their skill
Chapter House St – Sarah Jane Strong
Sonnet 36 Let me confess that we two must be twain
Chapter House St – Finn Ella
Sonnet 60 Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore
College Green – Stephanie Hill
Sonnet 130 My mistress’s eyes are nothing like the sun
College Green – Bill Laverick
Sonnet 20 A woman’s face, with nature’s own hand painted
Minster Steps – Jamie Searle
Sonnet 62 Sin of self-love possesseth all mine eye
Minster Steps – Jessica Glanz –
Romeo and Juliet 1.5.93: If I profane …
Precentor’s Court – Sam Platts-Levitt and Sophie Tyler
Week 2
Sonnet 73 That time of year thou may’st in me behold
Theatre Royal Courtyard – Shirley Williams
Sonnet 147 My love is as a fever, longing still
Bootham Bar room – Maurice Crichton
Sonnet 25 Let those who are in favour with their stars
City Walls – Ian Crossley
Sonnet 66 Tired with all these, for restful death I cry
City Walls – Roberto Machado
Sonnet 57 Being your slave, what should I do but tend
Bottom Monkbar steps – Val Burgess
Romeo and Juliet 1.5.93: If I profane …
Gray’s Court – Sam Platts-Levitt and Sophie Tyler
Sonnet 18 Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Gray’s Court – Sam Platts-Levitt and Sophie Tyler
Sonnet 60 Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore
College Green – Louise Larkinson
Sonnet 138 When my love swears that she is made of truth
College Green – Mick Liversidge
Sonnet 55 Not marble, nor the guilded monuments
Stoneyard Hut – Shirley Williams
Sonnet 91 Some glory in their birth, some in their skill*
Precentor’s Court – Sarah Jane Strong
Sonnet 36 Let me confess that we two must be twain*
Precentor’s Court – Maurice Crichton
Sonnet 29 When in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes#
Precentor’s Court – Maurice Crichton
* Wednesday and Thursday # Friday, Saturday and Sunday
In the York Press, Charles Hutchinson wrote:
AMID all the entente cordiale pour le Tour de France, the York Shakespeare Project is embracing the spirit of Le Grand Depart by taking to the walls, streets and snickets of York with a selection of Shakespeare sonnets on hour-long walks guided by English king Henry V or his French bride-to-be, Catherine de Belois.
Take your pick: follow either scholarly co-director Tom Straszewski’s noble Henry or Canadian MA student and street performer Rochelle Reynolds’s Catherine, wide eyed, inquisitive and opinionated as she learns of York and English thoughts on love.
Each guide of a party of a maximum of 15 will encounter assorted York characters en route, each armed with a story and a sonnet, coming to animated life as the tour party approaches. Look out, for example, for Shirley Williams’s Vagrant and Stone Mason declaiming Sonnet 55, “Not Marble”; Val Burgess’s love-struck postman; Sophie Tyler and Sam Platts-Levett’s ardent young lovers in Romeo and Juliet mode; Mick Liversidge, in a workman’s hi-vis jacket and in the bad books at home; Sarah Jane Strong staggering drunkenly across the cobbles; and Maurice Crichton’s Scottish priest, full of reason and rhyme.
A joy from start to fin.
