Celebrating the poetry of Thomas Hardy
A night of music and poetry in aid of The Shakespeare Hospice.
The RSC actor currently playing William Tyndale in Written on the Heart, David Edgar's play about the King James Bible, has put together a one-off celebration of the poems of Thomas Hardy.
Stephen Boxer, who is also soon to be seen in Helen Edmundson's new play The Heresy of Love, has organised a Sunday evening event for which some of Hardy's poetry has been set to music (composed by Stephen) and other poems will be read.
Stephen said: 'Sharing a dressing room with Oliver Ford Davies, I discovered that he was a big Hardy buff, and had done several public readings of his work.
'I had had a parallel career writing music before raising a family put it on the back burner for a few years, and had set a number of Hardy's poems to music as many of them suggest melody to me. So we decided to put an evening together and see where it led.'
Performing with Stephen and Oliver in 'Thomas Hardy; Poems Said and Sung' will be fellow actors Bruce Alexander and Marty Cruickshank. They will be joined by choral singers from Written on the Heart and a band of 11 musicians.
The poems include: I look in Her Face, Mismet, The Curtains Now are Drawn, She Did not Turn, Who's in Next Room, A Night in November, You are the Sort that Men Forget and I Said to Love.
The event takes place in the Swan Theatre on Sunday 19 February from 7pm. All proceeds will go to The Shakespeare Hospice in Stratford-upon-Avon.
Buy tickets for Thomas Hardy; Poems Said and Sung.
Photo: Oliver Ford Davies as Lancelot Andrewes and Stephen Boxer as William Tyndale in Written on the Heart. Photo by Ellie Kurttz.