by John Martin Stevens

Broadway based Actor/Writer John Martin Stevens new play, “Two Loves”, comes to The Edinburgh Fringe in August. The play takes its theme from Shakespeare's Sonnets and promises to be a heady cocktail of passion, obsession and sexuality, as it explores a love triangle between a poet, a male youth and the poet's mistress.

"I have always been intrigued by the Sonnets, for many years they fell out of fashion, and because of the subject matter they were often referred to as Shakespeare's, "problem sonnets", says John.  "Some people find it hard to understand that one of the most popular poems in the English language, "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day" was written by a man to a male youth.  The Victorians hated the Sonnets so much that an edition was even published changing all the, "him and his" references to, "her and hers."

"We know very little about Shakespeare's life and even less about the Sonnets, we don't know for sure when they were written, we don't know if they were published with or without Shakespeare's permission and no-one is really sure if they are meant to tell a story or not.

It is easy to try and make them autobiographical, and then immediately every one wants to know the identity of the youth, the dark lady, and also of course the poet, if the poet is Shakespeare, does that mean that our greatest playwright was gay?

Writing a play using the Sonnets as a starting point is really opening a can of worms, but my play is definitely a work of fiction, I do not try to claim any new discoveries, I just wanted to see how a 400 year old source could produce a modern and compelling drama."

"Two Loves" is written using both modern and Shakespearean language to create a new drama. It examines the themes of love, obsession and sexuality. "Sonnet in Italian means song, so I have incorporated music into the plot and because of my love of the American Song Book, all the songs are Ella Fitzgerald or Billy Holiday tracks" say John.

“Two Loves” runs daily at 2.40pm for the entire festival 7th to 29th August excluding Sundays at The Space@ The Royal College of Surgeons Nicolson Street Edinburgh. Tickets cost £7 and can be purchased at the Fringe Box Office 0131 226 0000 The Venue Box Office 0845 508 8518 or on line at edfringe.com