Analyse of Wilsons Sonnets

Robert Wilson - Shakespeare's Sonnets

Berliner Ensemble

By Robert Wilson and Rufus Wainwright

Sonnet selection by Jutta Ferbers

Robert Wilson's Shakespeare's Sonnets is a contemporary take on 25 specially chosen sonnets from Shakespeare's cannon. Originally, there are 154 sonnets written by Shakespeare which move fluidly between male and female objects of desire, sonnets first published in 1609.

Play is a set with music by Rufus Wainwright and deconstructed by Wilson’s staging for the Berliner Ensemble.

During the play in combination with sonnets there are music, like classical, pop, and cabaret rock is performed by Bertolt Brecht's historic Berliner Ensemble.  The sonnets were selected by Berliner dramaturge Jutta Ferbers who deftly adapted these poems that were originally unintended for the theater.  

It’s an interesting variation of Shakespeare's Sonnets using specific techniques and various music genres.

Wilson has changed the genders of all the characters as a comment on the bisexuality of the sonnets. But the effect in this case is more that they all just seem neuter, a disappointing loss to material that, in its original form, is fundamentally erotic.

The sonnets themselves, essentially deeply melancholy and yearning meditations on the irreconcilability of love and loss, age and youth, beauty and meanness. These sonnets ae performed by actors sometimes sung and sometimes spoken.

Most of the sonnets are performed in German, but there is some English subtitles. This is a problem, because non-german speaking audience needs to follow the projected dialogue above the stage and at the same time, watch the action on the stage. But there is one good side of that performance is in german – the melodies and german lyrics make sonnets sounds very romantic, emotional and enjoyable.

The sonnets witch are in the play are in no particular order and very randomly between those addressing the so-called Fair Youth, and speaking mostly of a serene and spiritual love, and those addressing the figure known as the Dark Lady, more turbulent and fraught with suffering.

           There are several significantly characters which make an appearance in the play, like from boy to fool, from the Queen of England to the mysterious Dark Lady and Cupid, to Shakespeare himself.  

Wilson’s work can be exquisitely beautiful, brining audience to a dream. He recently developed some techniques that makes audience feels like in the different world in some different reality during the play.