Dame Harriet Walter is one of Britain's most esteemed Shakespearean actors. She came to the Playhouse to breath fresh life into Shakespeare's words for women...
Harriet Walter put women’s voices centre stage at the Nottingham Playhouse on Wednesday night, performing speeches she has written for Shakespeare’s Women characters, taken from her new book She Speaks.
Familiar from TV appearances such as Killing Eve. Harriet Walter is also a renowned Shakespearian actor and her respect and devotion to the bard is never in doubt, and neither is her artistic skill and courage. To offer a sequel to Shakespeare is not for the faint-hearted, yet this is exactly what she delivers in these remarkably clever and entertaining pieces.
Written in verse, sonnet and prose we were treated to Hamlet’s mum, Gertrude, describing the true horror of Ophelia’s death away from the traditionally romantic images of her riverbank accident. This was countered by Ophelia’s gleeful reply to Hamlet’s ‘get thee to a nunn’ry’ as she tells the tale of feigning of her own death and a happily subversive existence in the company of other women.
women are only seen in relation to male characters, reflecting the familiar voicelessness for many women in society then and now
The speeches, all written by Harriet Walters deliver more than a response to the limitations of Shakespeare’s women. Her characterisation was complex, funny and contemporary. Reflecting the joy, tragedy and depth we find in Shakespeare’s male characters. In Mistress Quickly, she brought us to the present day with her disdain for a man in power who breaks rules. With Olivia from Twelfth Night we have considerations of her love for another woman and in Kate from Taming of the Shrew we have an invective to the audience and wider society at finding entertainment in the violence inflicted on her by her husband.
Harriet Walters was joined on stage by Shakespearean actor Jade Anouka and host Phyllida Lloyd, who both added value and context to the evening. They have previously worked together on all female productions of the bard’s works, set in Women’s prisons with Phillipa Lloyd directing. An experience that offered insight into the origin of this production. In conversation with the audience, they shared well-considered thoughts on the limits for women in Shakespeare plays. How the women are only seen in relation to male characters, reflecting the familiar voicelessness for many women in society then and now. She contends that women actors playing male Shakespearean roles allows for a reclamation of the complex humanity of all of us and the speeches she has written for She Speaks is a worthy extension of this.
Coming to the evening with a limited knowledge of Shakespeare, I had no sense of being left out. Harriet Walters’ well-crafted monologues were entertaining in their own right and made me keen to dip my toe into a bit more of the bard’s originals. She serves Shakespeare well and a full Playhouse on a Wednesday night must tell us something about the hunger out there for women’s voices as well as an adjoining thirst for rhyming couplets.
Harriet Walter & Friends: Shakespeare’s Women Speak! performed at the Playhouse on Wednesday 16th October 2024.
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