Enchanting, inspirational and dazzling, Susannah York's touring production of The Loves of Shakespeare's Women arrives at The Courtyard on April 9.

The solo show, written, designed, produced and directed by it's star strings together speeches and sonnets from some of the Bard's most famous and infamous women interwoven with her own personal commentary, stories and insights.

The common theme is love and relationships drawing out links with her own tangled love life; she has learned her romantic lessons the hard way but defiantly refuses to regret the teenage marriage, a plunge into serial monogamy, major relationships and a string of adoring admirers."

Look before leaping

I wouldn't have missed any of it, she said. Yes, I have hurt and been hurt but I tended to leap into relationships without looking first".

Now in her 62nd year, her once elfin features have gracefully eased into late middle age yet she still possesses the looks that made her one of the faces of the 1960s.

Older and wiser she shares her life with no one in particular, preferring to live alone and admitting it" It helps to be able to speak Shakespeare's tenderest lines when you've been down that romantic road and torn between lovers yourself".

Of Shakespeare's women York said: I feel I most resemble Beatrice and in a funny way recognise myself in the gaiety of Rosalind. Both have a great love of life and are free spirits.

Making things happen

Following a sell-out season at the Edinburgh Fringe, the UK tour started at the Royal National Theatre in January and ends in May when Susannah takes it to Australia and the Far East.

She said "This is all about creating something for myself, it is totally a 'one woman show' and I have enjoyed making things happen, setting up the stage and for the first time directing myself."

Lauded as one of the most beautiful faces on the screen, her phenomenal career took off at just 18 when she landed the role of daughter to Sir Alec Guinness in her first film 'Tunes of Glory'. The Greengage Summer and The Killing of Sister George - with Beryl Read and Coral Browne - brought her international acclaim and she was on the way to stardom.

Gift for acting

Once described as demure, a label she always hated, she now admits "I was far too reactionary, feisty and too ferociously bad tempered to be the quintessential English maiden everyone thought I was".

Never afraid to speak her mind when it came to standing up to the likes of Marlon Brando - who turned up on the Superman set without learning his lines - and Peter O'Toole, for trying to upstage her by yawning loudly through her 10 minute speech. However, only a privileged few have got near enough to feel her really sharp edge.

Susannah's children Sasha (28) and Orlando (27) have inherited their mother's gifts for acting and stagecraft, they are an obvious joy in her life. She was recently reunited with her 90 year old father after a long estrangement.

Summing up she said " It's been a life of change, with so many different experiences of working on stage and in film and I have been loaded down with affection and pleasure. Life isn't a mission to regret, I have a history to refer back to and fresh challenges to take up".

Agreeing that she was lucky to come out of drama school and land major acting roles that quickly established her, the admirable Miss York said, "I wouldn't like to be starting out now - there are too many young actresses chasing too few jobs."

Her incredible, one-woman show is at The Courtyard on April 9 at 7.30pm. For tickets contact 01432 359252.

Jen Green