Documentary
Drama
A Waste of Shame
Drama, intrigue and passion
The mystery of Shakespeare and his sonnets.
Programme running: 1 x 90 mins
Production: BBC
Executive Producer: Chrissy Skinns
Documentary
Drama
A Waste of Shame
Programme running: 1 x 90 mins
Production: BBC
Executive Producer: Chrissy Skinns
An intense drama about the passionate and destructive love
triangle that consumed Shakespeare in his troubled middle years
– adapting some of the most celebrated, sexual, raw and vitriolic
love poems ever written.
Shakespeare’s Sonnets are the most compelling source for an
emotional and dramatic journey into the psychology of the man
himself. Self-analytical, brutally honest, they allow us to go behind
the scenes of this complex genius – they are his story told in his
own words.
In 1597, Shakespeare was banned by the Lord Mayor from
producing any plays. With neither income nor platform, emotionally
bereft by his separation from Anne Hathaway and grieving after
the death of his son Hamnet, Shakespeare took a commission to
pen a sonnet sequence, celebrating an androgynous young patron,
The Earl of Pembroke.
Behind the lyrical, beautifully crafted language, a brooding
obsession with the ‘Lovely Boy’ and Shakespeare’s extra-marital
relationship with a ‘Dark Lady’ is revealed. The sonnet sequence is
his unique meditation on love, sex, mortality and the creative urge,
which has tantalised scholars and casual readers alike.
With a host of famous faces in the leading roles, the drama brings
the bawdiness and the pitfalls of 16th century promiscuity to life.
Rupert Graves, Zoë Wanamaker and Anna Chancellor star.
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