Marking 50 years since Chile’s best-loved poet Pablo Neruda was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, actor David Soul (Starsky & Hutch) returns to the stage with The Passion & Poetry of Pablo Neruda – a celebration of Neruda’s work read by Soul with music performed by guitarist Hugh Burns and violinist Lizzie Ball. The production will be filmed ‘as live’ with multiple cameras at the Crazy Coqs in London, for global streaming on 21 April at 8pm and available on demand until 28 April 2021.
Lauded by fellow Chilean and Nobel Prize Winner Gabriel Garcia Marquez as ‘the greatest poet of the twentieth century, in any language’ Pablo Neruda was an adventurous and passionate lover of life. Champion of the working man, journalist, diplomat, senator, lover of nature, women and words, Neruda wrote as voraciously as he lived.
The Passion & Poetry of Pablo Neruda takes the audience on a journey through Neruda’s life and works, presenting twenty poems from 1924 spanning five decades – from his books ‘Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair’, ‘Residence on Earth’, ‘Odes to Common Things, ‘Canto General’, ‘Book of Vagaries’, ‘Isla Negra’ and Soul’s personal favourite, ‘The Captain’s Verses’.
The beauty and sensuality of Neruda’s love poetry, the magnificent power of his epic poetry, the celebration of all things ordinary and his fierce passion for social justice, all testify to the complex life of a man whose body of work remains as relevant and vital today as it ever was.
Soul says: “I wasn’t a great fan of poetry, but then I was given a copy of Neruda’s ‘The Captain’s Verses’ and the simplicity, the power and the passion of his words so reflected my own life and dreams. I fell in love with what poetry can be and with Neruda’s writing. It’s a privilege to perform his work on stage and we are thrilled to have this chance to stream the show to a global audience.”
Soul and Burns first performed the poetry of Pablo Neruda at Latitude Festival in 2010. Inspired by the reception, The Passion & Poetry of Pablo Neruda was born and has since played at Belfast’s Out to Lunch Arts Festival, the West Cork Literary Festival, The Watermill Theatre, Newbury and St James Theatre in London.
Neruda’s poetry is introduced and read by David Soul with Hugh Burns on guitar and Lizzie Ball on violin, with music direction by Hugh Burns, sound by Roy Dodds, set by Trevor Howsam and literary consultant and Pablo Neruda’s biographer, Adam Feinstein. Filmed and edited for streaming by Adam Docker at Red Earth Studios with support from Tom Sochas for Fane. Presented by Kindling Productions Ltd in association with Fane Productions Ltd.
Ive marked it on my calendar, and I look forward to watching the performance. Sounds like a great evening.