Ronan Leahy is a freelance actor/director from Meath. As someone who has been working in professional theatre for the past thirty years predominantly as an actor, he has had the privilege of witnessing the development and evolution of Irish drama and its place on the world stage. Ronan graduated from the three-year Performance Arts Course at Bull Alley in 1992 and was a member of The Abbey Players from 1994-96. To date, he has performed in over twenty productions with the National Theatre and has worked with most of Ireland’s leading companies and directors. He has toured extensively both nationally and internationally and has gained a vast and varied experience of performance styles and disciplines. 

In 2018, in pursuit of his ambition to broaden his engagement with the theatre making process, Ronan undertook a Master’s degree in Theatre Directing at The Lir (The National Academy of Dramatic Art). For the final part of his course, he served an internship with The Toneelgroep Amsterdam under world renowned director, Ivo Van Hove. 

Ronan is currently working on a project especially commissioned by Solstice titled Shakespeare at Solstice. For this project, he has chosen a number of his favourite sonnets which he will share over the course of the year. A new sonnet will be released on the 17th of each month here!

Check out the article on RTÉ where Ronan discusses the project Breaking Bard: Ronan Leahy on Shakespeare at Solstice

Hello and welcome to Shakespeare at Solstice.

It started with a question. Could I vlog Shakespeare on YouTube and get people who are unfamiliar with his poetry interested in his language? This led me to taking a deep dive into the sonnets.

The English word sonnet comes from the Italian word sonetto, meaning ‘a little song’. Shakespeare’s Sonnets: Never before Imprinted, published in 1609, contains 154 such little songs that I believe offer us greater insights into the man than all of his plays combined.

For this project, I have chosen a number of my favourites which I would like to share with you over the course of the year. I am approaching them all like little plays in which the character is trying to communicate an idea to you, the viewer. Learning the new skill of filmmaking has brought some rough and ready results that I’ve chosen to include as part of the process. An actor prepares, the outtakes!

I hope you enjoy watching.

- Ronan Leahy

Check out the videos below.