Shakespeare Day 2022

23rd April is Shakespeare day. Every school child studies Shakespeare at some point in their education, I presume. Most of the time, it's his plays that are the focus such as, Midsummer Night's Dream, Romeo and Juliet, The Tempest, Macbeth, As You Like It, King Lear, Twelfth Night, Much Ado About Nothing, and Othello. 

However, this year, I am staying with Shakespeare's sonnets and going back to last year's Sonnet 116 which I have written about on this blog, and have now made a video of myself reciting it:

{Performance Rights: Liba Kaucky April 2022 All Rights Reserved}

I am reciting the sonnet as a lesbian genderfluid woman taking the part of a gay man yet wearing modern (women's) clothes, which are part of my own  wardrobe when I go to socials, while trying to evoke a timeless dandy look. Hence, my attire. 

I wish to emphasise the topic of gay marriage 🏳️‍🌈 within this sonnet and the constancy and commitment of true gay love. 🏳️‍🌈 Therefore, I emphasize certain words through vocal expression and gesture: 'his' as the only pronoun; it's about gay sexual desire 🏳️‍🌈 so that even when 'rosy lips' come by to tempt him, when things are not going so well with his true love, he stays true and faithful; constancy is evident in the imagery of an 'ever-fixed mark' (rather like a lighthouse); he's not prone to infidelity as we can see in the line 'Or bends with the remover to remove'; 'the star' is a navigation term, and refers to the North Pole Star 🌟 which is used in navigation just as love is a guiding principle to those in love with each other; love doesn't wane over time because 'Loves not Time's fool'. He is so convinced of this true committed love that he concludes by staking his life on it, because, if what he says is not true, then it's equally not true he's written anything and 'no man ever loved'. 🏳️‍🌈 Both claims would be absurd!