This is the New York City premiere of the C.I.C.T./Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord production. According to TFANA, in Love Is My Sin, "two lovers trace a magnificent, life-embracing arc of jealousy, guilt, adoration and anguish in Shakespeare's sonnets."
Opening night is April 1 at The Duke on 42nd Street, 229 W. 42nd Street.
Franck Krawczyk plays the music of Louis Couperin (1626-1661) on keyboard and accordion. Lighting is designed by Philippe Vialatte.
Last season, famed director Brook directed the C.I.C.T./Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord's production of The Grand Inquisitor, adapted from Dostoyevsky's "The Brothers Karamazov" by Marie-Hél ne Estienne. The production was presented by Theatre for a New Audience and New York Theatre Workshop.
Love Is My Sin premiered in Paris at Bouffes du Nord Aprils 2009. The first series of performances were played by Natasha Parry and Bruce Myers. Subsequent to an engagement for Bruce Myers at the National Theatre in London, a second successful European tour brought the Shakespeare actor Michael Pennington into the cast. Expect 31 sonnets chosen by Brook, who said in production notes, "To choose between 154 sonnets, I needed to find a dramatic continuity and was guided by the hidden tensions that arise in a relationship between two people. Love Is My Sin allows us to penetrate into Shakespeare's own, most secret life. It is his private diary, in which we find his intimate questions, his jealousy, his passions, his guilt, his despair. Above all, he searches to discover for himself the deep meaning of being attracted by a man, by a woman or even by the act of writing itself. This is neither a play nor a poetry recital. It catches the actors in human relationships. Then, at the very end, they become speakers for Shakespeare himself who wrote prophetically that his verse is stronger than time and will last forever."
In 1971, London-born Brook — who directed more than 70 productions in London, Paris and New York — founded the International Centre for Theatre Research in Paris, and in 1974, opened its permanent base in Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord.
Tickets are $75. For information, call (646) 223-3010 beginning Feb. 8. Visit www.tfana.org.
