On 12 March 2026 the death of the actor Jane Lapotaire was announced. Many of her best-known roles were not in Shakespeare, but many of us will have wonderful memories of her onstage in Stratford-upon-Avon, London, Bristol and abroad.
I didn’t see her Viola in Twelfth Night at the RSC in 1974, but I do remember her playing a light-hearted, witty Rosaline in a glorious production of Love’s Labour’s Lost in 1978, the same year in which she played Edith Piaf in the remarkable play by Pam Gems at the tiny studio space The Other Place. This production dominated her career for many years, including a spell on Broadway – she won pretty well every award going for this role, quite rightly.
She returned to the RSC, in 1992 to play played Gertrude to Kenneth Branagh’s Hamlet and in the same year Mrs Alving in Ibsen’s Ghosts with Simon Russell Beale. And in 1996 she was perfectly cast as Queen Katherine in Greg Doran’s spectacular production of Henry VIII at the RSC’s Swan Theatre. Her speaking of Shakespeare was masterly and I still remember her controlled anguish when confronting Paul Jesson as Henry VIII:
Sir, I desire you do me right and justice;
And to bestow your pity on me: for
I am a most poor woman, and a stranger,
Born out of your dominions; having here
No judge indifferent, nor no more assurance
Of equal friendship and proceeding. Alas, sir,
In what have I offended you? what cause
Hath my behavior given to your displeasure,
That thus you should proceed to put me off,
And take your good grace from me? Heaven witness,
I have been to you a true and humble wife,
At all times to your will conformable;
Ever in fear to kindle your dislike,
Yea, subject to your countenance, glad or sorry
As I saw it inclined: when was the hour
I ever contradicted your desire,
Or made it not mine too?
In 2000 she suffered a brain aneurism. By a miracle she survived it and although she was never able to sustain a full part in theatre again, she was able to appear on TV, to write books, and occasionally to appear on stage. In 2018 she received the Pragnell Shakespeare Award at the Birthday Celebrations in Stratford-upon-Avon. It was presented to her by Professor Michael Dobson and her witty acceptance speech has been recorded. Here is the clip.
In it she thanked Gregory Doran, then the RSC’s Artistic Director, for giving her two roles in Shakespeare plays: The Duchess of Gloucester, who appears just once at the start of Richard II, and the Queen of France, who appears once at the end of Henry V.
This year she was awarded a CBE which she received from the King at Windsor Castle just months ago.
To read a fuller account of her career here are links to two obituaries.
https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2026/mar/12/jane-lapotaire-died-edith-piaf-actor-stage
https://www.pressreader.com/uk/the-guardian-e-paper-journal/20260313/281552297367009
