In 1609, Shakespeare's Sonnets were published with a purchase price of sixpence a copy. They were badly proof-read and riddled with errors. There are no contemporary references to them, only thirteen known copies in the world and they were never published again in the poet’s lifetime. It is as if they were withdrawn immediately after their appearance. Had they been published against the author’s wishes? Had they offended somebody?

Three mysterious characters appear in the poems - none have ever been conclusively identified; a fair young nobleman, a rival poet, and a dark enigmatic woman, whose capricious behaviour drives the author “frantic mad.”

Who was the mysterious “Dark Lady” of Shakespeare’s sonnets? Tony Haygarth’s carefully researched and poetic play examines the possible relationship between the famous bard and his passionate, tempestuous and extraordinary muse.

A veteran artist of stage and screen, playwright Tony Haygarth has twice been nominated for Olivier Awards as Best Actor. He is currently appearing at the Royal National Theatre in His Girl Friday and starring opposite Kenneth Branagh in Edmond.

The Press on Dark Meaning Mouse
"Respect to Tony Haygarth for pulling off this portrait of the mature poet, balding, creaky and God scared. His play is a thorough imagining of the relationship between Shakespeare and the Dark Lady of the Sonnets, rekindled after a decades separation by the publication of the poems. . .the comical figure of a Doctor Astronomer (Cornelius Booth) who reckons he has solved the poets literary puzzle; and the writers evident knowledge and feeling for the source material. . .Stephanie Streets complex performance . . .Harry Burton . . .a compellingly modest genius" Jonathan Gibbs, Time Out

"(Harry Burton and Stephanie Street). . .two impeccable performances . . .The excellent Cornelius Booth" John Martland, The Stage

"Actor Tony Haygarth, known for TV work but someone whos rubbed up against Shakespeare over many years (including an unlikely Hamlet in Charles Marowitzs reconstructed script) has done is give us an investigation of the woman hymned and deplored in Shakespeares sonnets. . .Haygarth uses the plays brilliantly to explore the Dark Lady and vice versa. . .As he does this, the play builds a complex picture not only of the possible relation between life and Works . . . . Cornelius Booths gleeful, playgoing Doctor Astronomer . . .good performance [include] James Akers sad lute riffs and Stephanie Street achieves a fine verisimilitude for a complex, intelligent Dark Lady." Timothy Ramsden, Reviewsgate.com

"In an age when we tend to treasure writers lives above their work, its ironic that so little is known about one of the most famous authors of all. . .The new play by the actor Tony Haygarth . . now focuses on his rival and the question of who was the Dark Lady of Shakespeares love sonnets. Haygarth doesnt pick his way through the whitened bones of critics who have died crazy trying to solve this riddle to suggest a new candidate. Instead he adopts the late A.L. Rouse's assertion that it is Emilia Bassano, the Lord Chamberlains Italian Jewish mistress, who was married off to a court musician when she became pregnant. The play imagines Shakespeare being reunited with my sweet mouse some years after the publication of the poems. Hes now a mature writer, obsessed with ageing (and his loss of hair) and gripped by Catholic guilt over his adultery. Emilia has sought him out to complain about his portrait of her as lascivious, treacherous and syphilitic. They bicker and banter and begin to sound like Michael Wood going in search of Shakespeare but in mock Elizabethan verse. Historical detail is mixed with passages from the plays to show how Emilia haunts Wills dramas, whether its as the maligned, unseen Rosaline in Romeo and Juliet or Kate in Taming of the Shrew. . .What lifts Dark Meaning Mouse is the commentary of a theatre-going doctor astronomer who once treated Emilia and sees her as the playwrights secret muse. Cornelius Booth delivers a wryly comic portrayal of a medical man whos not averse to giving us his own rendition of Macbeths weird sisters. The director Adam Meggido gives the play a candle lit intimacy and live lute music (courtesy of James Akers). " Ian Johns, The Times

"Dark Meaning Mouse takes a playful look at images of women found in Shakespeares plays who have echoes of this lady. It is fascinating stuff. . .The Poet and Lady are conjured up to delight us with their squabbling, teasing, and lovemaking. The Lady is personified by the feisty, bouncy Stephanie Street and she jousts with the more thoughtful and mournful Poet, played by Harry Burton. The Doctor Astronomer, played by Cornelius Booth, doesnt interact with the Poet and Lady, but puts the whole thing into context as he gives us his lucid and lurid Alan Clark style commentary. Over the years, he has observed the Ladys reaction to, or non attendance at, performances of the plays, and draws his own conclusions. . . James Akers plays the Renaissance lute quite beautifully, including pieces by John Dowland, one of the greatest English composers of the time. The playwright Tony Haygarth has created a compelling and thoroughly believable scenario here. He does not claim to have written a precise factual reconstruction of events, but we can well understand that all is possible." Julia Hickman, Theatreworld Internet Magazine