Audio from John Milton: Simply Sublime

Audio recorded from a 31 May 2011 performance of John Milton – Simply Sublime at Donmar Warehouse in London, as part of Poetry Week.

Jeremy Irons (Satan), Emilia Fox (Eve), Felicity Kendal (Narrator) and Dan Stevens (Adam) perform excerpts from Paradise Lost. The event was sponsored by Josephine Hart.

[No copyright infringement intended.]

As the audio quality is low, this is best listened to through headphones with the volume turned up high……Click on the play arrow below to listen. Click on the volume/speaker icon at the left of the audio player to increase the volume in the audio player module. The recording is approximately 1 hour in length.

A first-hand account from an attendee:

“The Donmar Warehouse is quite a small theater.The five actors were sitting on chairs in a row. They read excerpts from Milton’s Paradise Lost, Books 1 and 9. Jeremy read the part of Satan. The other parts were of Adam and Eve and a Narrator. The fifth woman talked about Milton at the beginning (a bit more than 17 minutes).

Jeremy wore his usual kind of clothes: white shirt, grey vest, reddish scarf, grey trousers and boots (not his riding boots, shorter ones), no glasses.

At the evening performance, the theater was nearly full. The evening performance was video-recorded for Josephine Hart, who was not there. The lady who recorded it said that Hart might share it on her homepage, but there is no guarantee.”

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A photo of Jeremy in Covent Garden on Tuesday 31 May 2011 – the day of his Poetry Week performance. [Photo Copyright  petra eujane ]

 

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Sadly, on Thursday 2 June 2011, Josephine Hart lost her battle with cancer and passed away at the age of 67.  Read more in the London Evening Standard.

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As part of the CD compilation “Words That Burn” by Josephine Hart, there is a recording of Jeremy Irons, Felicity Kendal, Emilia Fox and Greg Wise reading extracts of John Milton’s ‘Paradise Lost’, similar to what was performed at Donmar Warehouse.

Jeremy also read the part of Satan in ‘Paradise Lost’ for a BBC Radio 4 production of the Josephine Hart Poetry Programme on 20 April 2008.  In that performance, extracts from John Milton’s great Christian epic ‘Paradise Lost’ are read by Jeremy Irons (Satan), Felicity Kendal (narrator), Greg Wise (Adam) and Emilia Fox (Eve).

Jeremy Irons and Max Irons to Participate in Poetry Week at Donmar Warehouse

Poetry Week 
with 
Josephine Hart

30 May – 3 June 2011

Donmar Warehouse
41 Earlham Street
Seven Dials
London WC2H 9LX

UK 

Jeremy Irons will be a reader on Tuesday 31 May and Max Irons will be a reader on Thursday 2 June.

Following the success of her readings for the T.S. Eliot Festival in 2009, Josephine Hart makes a welcome return to the Donmar to produce and direct a week of poetry featuring a series of special readings with some of the country’s leading actors. She will devote each performance to the works of one or two poets, introducing and setting their poems in the context of their life. “The idea is simple,” Hart says, “an understanding of the life and philosophy of the poet illuminates the poetry and therefore makes the experience of reading or listening to each poem more intense.”

Readers  for Poetry Week:

Monday 30 May: Philip Larkin – Too clever to Live? – Charles Dance & Dan Stevens.

Tuesday 31 May: John Milton – Simply Sublime (2.30pm and 7.30pm) Emilia Fox, Jeremy Irons, Felicity Kendal, Dan Stevens.

Wednesday 1 June: Sylvia Plath – The Woman is Perfected – Harriet Walter.

Thursday 2 June: WWI Poetry – The Poetry is in the Pity (2.30pm and 7.30pm) Kenneth Cranham, Rupert Evans, Max Irons, Ruth Wilson.

Friday 3 June: T.S.Eliot – I Gotta Use Words – Harriet Walter & Edward Fox.

Book your tickets by calling (in the UK) 0844 871 7624.