Love's Fire - Seven New Plays Inspired by Seven Shakespearean Sonnets

Original plays inspired by seven of Shakespeare's sonnets are newly envisioned by Eric Bogosian, William Finn, John Guare, Tony Kushner, Marsha Norman, Ntozake Shange, and Wendy Wasserstein in this never-before-published collection

The fruit of an extraordinary project, <i>Love's Fire</i> reimagines seven of Shakespeare's immortal love sonnets as one-act plays by seven of the best playwrights in America

These short gems, paired with the sonnets that inspired them, are published here for the first time

The greatest love poetry in the English language provides the springboard for master playwrights' never-before-published works about the triumphs and tragedies of the heart

The sonnets and plays in "Loves' Fire" are the seeds and fruit of an extraordinary project: seven sonnets by Shakespeare, newly envisioned for the stage, in one-act plays by seven brilliantly gifted contemporary playwrights

Shakespeare's sonnets of romantic and sexual love are timeless, for they are not bound to any particular setting or to either sex. These seven plays, each paired with the sonnet that inspired it, are startling not only in the variety of their mood, content, and setting, but also in their unusual interpretation

For example, Wendy Wasserstein's version of Sonnet 94 is a one-act play set in the Hamptons, where a well-to-do couple is getting ready for a society benefit

Eric Bogosian creates a story of sexual jealousy and obsessiveness from Sonnet 118

And composer William Finn has transformed Sonnet 102 into a song about an artist attempting to paint his lover - and failing