Shakespeare's 'Love's Fire' blazes onto Basement stage

By Nick Falzone

Daily Arts Writer

When we think of a Shakespearean performance, we usually envision the presentation of one of the English author's celebrated plays. But this weekend, with their production of "Love's Fire," Basement Arts introduces us to a less conventional type of Shakespearean theatre: one based not upon his plays but rather on his sonnets.

"Love's Fire" consists of five one-act plays each inspired by one of the distinguished love poems. Five famous playwrights, among them Tony Kushner and Wendy Wasserstein, each composed their own one-acts three years ago in response to a request for short dramatic works based upon a Shakespearean sonnet. After finishing their compositions, the authors compiled their work, creating an intriguing 75-minute interpretation of Shakespeare's renowned love poems.

Although there are more than a dozen characters featured in the five one-act plays, "Love's Fire" features only eight actors, four men and four women who all portray more than one personage. In addition to acting in the playwright's interpretations of the sonnets, though, the performers bring each sonnet to life when it is read after the one-act play it has inspired. One of the actors reads the sonnet out loud and behind that, "the rest of the cast gives a physical interpretation to the core of the sonnet," said actress Tehaura Henning, an LSA and Music first-year student. "For instance, one of the sonnet's lines is 'they are the lords and owners of their faces.' While someone reads that, the rest of us interpret it by gyrating and trying to cover our faces from the audience."

Julia Siple, a Music senior, brings the Shakespearean-based production to the Ann Arbor stage in her Basement Arts directorial debut. Siple, who also chose the script, said she selected "Love's Fire" primarily due to the variety of writing styles the interpretations exhibit.

"Next to each other, each play highlights the many modern styles playwrights have and the different ways the styles work for them," she said, adding that, "some are funny, some are passionate, some are a little more quirky than others. In each play, we see the playwright's interpretation of the sonnet."