Sonnetfest ’21, directed by Kevin Wetmore, introduced Shakespeare’s sonnets as fourteen-line plays, and that promise was borne out. The performance consists of several sonnets read (not in numerical order) and acted out by Loyola Marymount University’s College of Communications and Fine Arts. I watched the final performance, which was streamed over YouTube– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsHyQUA0hK0 (this link may or may not work as the video is unlisted at time of writing).

Sonnets are short love poems—though they sometimes deal with love only tangentially, perhaps focusing more on themes like death, nature, art, etc.—with fourteen lines in iambic pentameter with a set rhyme scheme of ABAB CDCD EFEF GG for English/Shakespearean sonnets. Iambic pentameter means each line has a regular rhythm of five metric feet (two syllables) with unstressed-stressed pattern to each foot. In other words, the sonnet is an extremely regular form, which means the rhythm and the sound of the poem is consistent and should, therefore, be relatively easy to read aloud, since poetry was traditionally an oral form, only transitioning to widespread silent reading relatively recently. Shakespeare wrote a sonnet sequence, which was quite common during the English (and European more generally) Renaissance era. The 154 sonnets of the sequence were largely dedicated to two enigmatic figures, the Dark Lady and the Fair Youth, both of whom the poet persona—which does not necessarily mean Shakespeare himself, though some try to infer biographic information from the sonnets—desires, admires, loves, and suffers for. In addition, many of Shakespeare’s plays include sonnets. Taken as a whole, the sonnets provide much dramatic material.

Indeed, each sonnet in Sonnetfest ’21 was given by a single actor/reader, and through their location, props, and performance, each sonnet really did become a short play. Considering the relatively limited amount of material provided by each sonnet—only fourteen lines—and the strong associations of some sonnets—like 18 or 116—with specific themes or contexts, the actors showed amazing creativity in finding ways to bring new life into the poems.

For instance, Sonnet 18, which begins “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day,” is generally regarded as one of the most beautiful love poems of all time, with its promise to immortalize the beloved through literature. This production, however, tied the sonnet to the California wildfires and climate change by opening with an image of a news article about climate change. Instead of the beloved being immortalized, the immortal subject becomes the devastation of climate catastrophe. Similarly, Sonnet 116—”Let me not to the marriage of true minds”—is one of the most commonly used marriage poems, often being read at weddings as a signifier of the couple’s devotion to one another. Challenging this standard use, the speaker in this performance seemingly addressed her daughter, therefore changing the focus of the love promised by the poem. Other performers used their poems to show they are thinking of relative across the globe, or stalking an ex’s Facebook page, or aligning the words with drawing from an artist’s model, or a texted conversation keeping the speaker from falling asleep, or addressing the band KISS. The range of approaches the actors brought was incredibly impressive, and the limited materials they had to work with makes the way these stories were told all the more impressive.