Tag Archives: Harriet Walter

Donmar’s all-female Shakespeare Trilogy comes to TV

I’ve written a number of blog posts, over several years, about Phyllida Lloyd’s all-female Shakespeare trilogy that began at the Donmar Warehouse theatre in London. One’s here, and here’s another. It wasn’t an obvious trilogy, starting with Julius Caesar, then … Continue reading

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Shakespeare’s Cleopatra

I recently attended a performance of Antony and Cleopatra at the RSC. Watching Josette Simon playing the Queen of Egypt, I couldn’t help thinking of others I’ve seen in the part, and wondering why it’s such a difficult one. Surely … Continue reading

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The Tempest in production

On Wednesday 11 January the Royal Shakespeare Company’s The Tempest is to be live streamed to cinemas around the UK. The play always brings with it a number of challenges, with its magical elements and the difficulty of putting a … Continue reading

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Women taking power in Shakespeare’s plays

2016 seems to have been characterised by women staging a takeover of traditional male roles, at least as far as Shakespeare is concerned. While planning this post I was hoping to be able to link this trend to the election of … Continue reading

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BBC Theatre Month now on

On Saturday 31 October 2015  the BBC screened a new adaptation of Ronald Harwood’s play The Dresser, famously made into a film. It tells the story of one fateful night in a provincial repertory theatre during World War 2, and … Continue reading

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Cross-gender casting for Hamlet and Henry IV

Gender issues in the performance of Shakespeare’s plays are being discussed in the press again with Maxine Peake playing Hamlet in a production at the Manchester Royal Exchange. Here is the review from the Observer by Susannah Clapp, and that … Continue reading

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Shakespeare for women: from Henry V to Julius Caesar

The announcement that an all-female Julius Caesar production is to be staged at the Donmar Warehouse in London from November to February has been greeted with excitement. Here’s Lyn Gardner’s Guardian piece. The production will be directed by Phyllida Lloyd … Continue reading

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Simon Schama and The Hollow Crown: Shakespeare and history

Among the must-see television shows for Shakespeare fans this summer has been Simon Schama’s Shakespeare. Love him or hate him, he’s the UK’s highest-profile historian. His style is individual, even eccentric, one minute generalising about the broad sweep of history, … Continue reading

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