Harriet Walter on giving Shakepeare’s women a voice
Harriet Walter is a notable Shakespearean actor, with central roles in Phyllida Lloyd’s all-female Shakespeare plays, such as Brutus in Julius Caesar, Prospero in The Tempest and the titular part in Henry IV. Here, she explains why she has highlighted the women in the bard’s plays by reimagining 30 speeches by his characters.
I have been in Shakespeare’s head for 40 years. But I didn’t fall in love with him immediately; it wasn’t a case of going to see a Shakespeare play when I was five, and thinking: ‘that’s my destiny’. It was a very slow burn.
The first Shakespeare plays I saw were As You Like It with Vanessa Redgrave or Romeo and Juliet starring Judi Dench – top class stuff. But I only went because they were obviously stand-out plays. I remembered Judi Dench’s performance later and realised how important a voice was in an acting machine. If you want to be a wonderful actress, it helps to have a good voice; some people are just gifted with one. I don’t have that sort of voice; I’ve had to wrangle it a bit, make it do what I wanted. Judi’s was beautiful.
Bit by bit, I cultivated my particular relationship with Shakespeare, trying to make the connection between me and the characters. It became easier as I went on; I equate it with learning a foreign language. When you first set out, you learn the rules, and you’re a bit intimidated. You start to tentatively speak the language yourself, make a lot of mistakes, you feel a bit of an idiot. But then, you start to make it your version of that language. As you get more comfortable, you’re able to express yourself. It’s been a journey of learning the language, really.
I hit a zeitgeist when I went to the Royal Shakespeare Company in the Eighties, and there were a lot of women there feeling underrepresented, underused, under-exercised. They were strong women. There was Sheila Hancock, Gemma Jones, Juliet Stevenson, Miriam Karlin – a lot of big voices. They had a conference – I was on the coattails – and started this discussion that grew into institutions such as the Women’s Playhouse Trust. We needed to create an equal and important space for women’s voices in the theatre.
I felt that I was part of a movement. When I first arrived, we were performing Henry IV, parts I and II. I coined the phrase: ‘We are the Wimps’ – Women In Men’s Parts. I had been in my chain mail costume, pretending to be a knight in the background of some battle. Then I played a priest, the baker – all bit parts in the background, all men. So we were the ‘Wimps’. While these parts allow you the richest dialogue when you’re doing the Shakespeare playlist, it’s not quite delivering what you want in the department of women and women’s experience.
Then, more recently, I was part of this group called the Shakespeare Schools Foundation, which brings the playwright into schools – not in the classroom, but by getting kids up and speaking and owning the language. Once you learn lines, they become yours. They launched a competition inviting all the students to write an alternative speech for a Shakespeare character. They could create a new one, or a twist on an existing one. I thought that I’d kick it off with an example: Gertrude, Hamlet’s mother. She’s one of the classic characters that I would turn down because she doesn’t get enough of a go. I’ve watched her in Hamlet so many times, and thought – I want to know what you’re thinking, I want you to answer back, I want you to fight for yourself. I wrote a piece for Gertrude, and realised I rather enjoyed it. I wrote five more speeches, and my publisher asked: ‘Will you write 30?’. And this became the book She Speaks! What Shakespeare’s Women Might Have Said.
Some of the speeches were a way for me to say something through a character. With Lady Macbeth, for instance, who I’ve played and know intimately, I wanted to expose what I suspect is going on. There was Lady Capulet, who is a typical example of someone who doesn’t get to say very much, although we all know the story of Romeo and Juliet terribly well. She gives her version of affairs in my book: ‘A mother’s grief.’ What I’m doing is not an alternative to Shakespeare. It’s like an addition of thought. It’s a version. A reimagining.
Harriet Walter spoke at the Harper’s Bazaar January 2025 literary salon at the Cadogan, a Belmond hotel. Her book ‘She Speaks! What Shakespeare’s Women Might Have Said’ is out now. She plays Margaret Thatcher in the James Graham's Channel 4 drama ‘Brian and Maggie’, out 29 January.
You Might Also Like
