“NO longer mourn for me when I am dead,” Shakespeare’s Sonnet 71 goes, but The Street Theatre is ignoring that as it prepares to mark the 400th anniversary of The Bard’s death.

In a mighty marathon of poetry and music called “Shakespeare: The Sonnets Out Loud”, Shakespearean actor William Zappa will join counter-tenor Tobias Cole and woodwind/sax player Benn Sutcliffe in performing all the sonnets.

“To be honest, I don’t know which is my favourite Shakespeare sonnet,” Zappa tells me.

“One of my favourites is ‘My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun’, number 130, where he says: ‘She may not look much but, hell, I love her’.”

Zappa will take on the lion’s share of the 154 sonnets, but hastens to assure “CityNews” that he won’t be learning them all off by heart – “God, no, they’d have to have asked me two years ago,” he says.

Mind you, if pushed to it, he could. A veteran of roles for Sydney Theatre Company, Melbourne Theatre Company, Ensemble, Belvoir Street, State Theatre of SA and Griffin, his memorable performance as Antony, for Bell Shakespeare Company, still stands out closely followed by Richard III.

Of late, Zappa has been doing storytelling renditions of “The Iliad” – he is half Greek – so when Street Theatre director Caroline Stacey popped into one session at the ANU Classics Museum last year, an idea germinated. Stacey quickly put the suggestion to him and to Canberra vocal director Dianna Nixon to do something similar for The Bard’s anniversary.

Zappa has been deep in the sonnets and while he is quick to say that it is “a fantastic idea to present the whole lot”, it must be admitted that some are weaker than others.

He has noticed the different groups, such as the swag of sonnets where Shakespeare talks to a young man saying: “Hey, listen, don’t waste your life away, think about settling down,” and the Dark Lady sonnets, addressed to a swarthy mistress.

While admiring Shakespeare’s dexterity, Zappa doesn’t consider the sonnet to be the most difficult form, preferring the dactylic hexameter in Greek poetry.

Yet, of Shakespeare, he says: “He had this amazing gift… take the way he gets feelings then puts them into tiny lines, wonderful nuggets for acting students to grapple with.

“A lot of kids at school complain that he’s sort of saying it back to front, but look at the amazing ideas in a short format.”

Zappa hasn’t met the other performers yet, just had a couple of phone calls sharing ideas, but says they’ll be in for an intensive rehearsal session with Dianna Nixon when he gets to Canberra.

“Basically, it’s about storytelling; that’s what so wonderful about the sonnets, essentially they’re all little stories,” Zappa says.

“Shakespeare: The Sonnets Out Loud”, The Street Theatre, 7pm, Saturday, April 30, bookings to 6247 1223 or thestreet.org.au