July 26 - St. Anne's Day - patron of literacy

I've been to see "There Reigns Love" at Stratford again this week. It's a one man show devised and performed by Simon Callow. He is absolutely brilliant in this piece. If you have any chance to see it before it leaves on July 31, I recommend it highly. I hope to go again next week.

I even did something I've never done before -- I wrote a fan letter, and had it delivered by the House Manager.

After the show, people had the option of waiting while Callow changed his clothes and he returned to the stage and to answer questions from the audience.

At the Stratford Festival bookstore, I bought a copy of the sonnets on CD. I won't say who did it, because what I have to say is quite unkind: it is the coldest, most bloodless reading of the sonnets I've ever heard. It's better than a schoolchild's version because it actually works with the punctuation, instead of going to the end of a line and pausing there.

I do wish the Festival would consider taping Callow's performance and selling copies. He conveys such fire and a passion for the poems -- and I would dearly love to be able to see (or at least hear) it over and over again.