Shakespeare's Sonnets at the Royal Festival Hall

‘Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?’ – Sonnet 18

‘Let me not to the marriage of true minds’. – Sonnet 116

Shakespeare’s Sonnets  comprise some of the richest and most quoted love poetry in the English cannon. Yet, while his plays are regularly staged and adapted, the 154 Sonnets are often overlooked and rarely read in their entirety. It is well timed, then, that as part of the celebrations of the Bard’s 450th birthday, the Southbank Centre is holding the first all encompassing reading of the Sonnets - revealing that his genius is not limited to the stage.

An exciting cast of ten of country's greatest actors shall evoke the fourteen-line snippets of love, loss and nature - from which we find the exploration of Shakespeare's mysterious Dark Mistress and Fair Youth by heavyweights Simon Russell Beale, currently playing King Lear at the National Theatre, and Harriet Walter particularly enticing. Other performers include RSC veteran and Happy Days star Juliet Stevenson, writer and Olivier Award-winning actor Oliver Ford Davies and Homeland star David Harewood. This unique opportunity shall uncover new favourites amongst the well-known verse and demonstrates that there’s as much drama in the Sonnets as the comedies and tragedies.