Callow Showcases Sonnets with Vigour and Fun

Article By: GEOFF DALE

While greatly admired, Shakespeare’s 154 sonnets, for students and much of the general public, have sadly remained somewhat of a buried treasure – always there lurking behind the Bard’s great plays yet never properly unearthed for wider consumption.

That was until Simon Callow, an acclaimed biographer (Charles Laughton, Oscar Wilde) and actor (Four Weddings and a Funeral, Shakespeare in Love) added the role of literary archeologist to his resume.

In the process he became involved with psychoanalyst John Padel, who took the sonnets from their original state – arriving at an intriguing theory detailing a three-way love affair between Shakespeare, his dark-skinned unnamed mistress and a mysterious young nobleman with the initials W.H.

The result is the thoroughly engaging and highly entertaining work entitled There Reigns Love

– easily one of the major triumphs of this year’s Festival and likely one that will be talked about and analyzed to death for years to come.

What makes the production such a delight – as well as genuine food for thought – is the manner in which Callow presents the suppositions with such flourish and enthusiasm, prefacing the work by playfully warning the audience this is an unproved theory to be taken with the proverbial grain of salt.

While commissioned by the Festival, Callow had already been deeply immersed in the project for years – as evidenced by both the depth and passion in which he presents Padel’s compelling arguments.

Padel, and subsequently Callow, trace the story from the day when the mother of the young gent (possibly William Herbert – later the third Earl of Pembroke) commissions Shakespeare to write a series of sonnets for her soon-to-be 17-year-old son, famous for his dislike of female companionship of any sort.

A plot to entice the young man’s interest in Shakespeare’s mistress runs alongside the Bard’s own developing interest in the young man’s charms. The result – the mysterious Mr. W H becomes increasingly taken with the fairer sex while largely dropping the great man from his newly-found inner circle.

Callow introduces the work much in the style of a formalized lecture – dividing his attentions between the audience-at-large and a dozen lucky individuals – known as groundlings – seated carefully on cushions on the stage’s mid-section.

As the intensity level increases, so does Callow’s well-choreographed movements – bounding about the stage, taking momentary pauses on a single stick of furniture, then suddenly bolting up the staircase to the balcony above.

Add a few moments of soothing musical notes courtesy of an off-stage lyrist and the transition from education to entertainment is complete.

Charlotte Dean’s set is simplistic but ideal – both for the subject matter and its manner of presentation. Michael Langham crisply directs the proceedings to maximize both the entertainment and educational values of the production.

Lighting by Michael J. Whitfield adds an effectively comfortable feel to a delightful – but to this writer’s mind an all-too-short – production.

Kudos to Callow and Festival organizers for their foresight in ordering up such an intensely likable production. ***** (Out of five stars) There Reigns Love continues at the Tom Patterson Theatre until August 3.

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