Harriet Walter depicts the challenges female actors face compared with male actors by reflecting on the obstacles she encountered while playing Shakespeare's characters. From Portia to Helena, Brutus to King Henry IV; Walter describes the journey she went on, from page to stage, in the preparation and performance of these iconic roles. From a woman playing female characters originally written for boy actors to a woman playing male characters such as Brutus, each portrayal offers a unique perspective on Shakespeare and gender. This is unlike any other actor memoir that I've read. Walter doesn't discuss any specific 'behind the scenes' anecdotes from the case study production, nor does she reflect on what was happening in her own life at the time of performance, like other actor-writers tend to do. Rather, the core focus of this book is the challenge of being a female Shakespearean actress in a very male-heavy canon and culture. I really enjoyed the moments in the book when Walter gives an overview of the difficulties women face throughout their acting careers. For example, when Walter describes her portrayal of Cleopatra, she calls it the 'great Shakespearean role' for older female actors, even though Cleopatra was only 39 when she died. Therefore, older female actresses lack the great Shakespearean roles that men have, such as King Lear or Falstaff. Therefore, as Walter herself ages, she encounters new problems with the characters she can and cannot play.
The most interesting part of this book is undoubtedly when Walter reflects on her performances in Phyllida Lloyd's Donmar Warehouse trilogy. An all-female adaptation of Julius Caesar and Henry IV, set entirely in a prison, this is the part of the book where Walter expresses her most interesting ideas about subverting and playing with gender roles in different settings. The concept of the trilogy sees a group of female prisoners staging three of Shakespeare's plays. So, Walter describes the process of a prisoner playing a character. This gives her scope to, using Shakespeare's works, offer interesting ideas about the mistreatment of women in the prison system. It also offers her the opportunity to describe the process of playing a male character in two particularly 'masculine' plays such as Julius Caesar. By showing women participating in particularly 'masculine' conversations and actions - such as battle sequences, assassinations, and having conversations about topics other than men - Walter describes the process of making masculinity more toxic, ridiculous, and dangerous by having women embody these characters. The interesting and fresh ideas that Walter encounters playing Brutus and other heroines make this a well-worth read indeed.
Reviewed by Cole (Visitor Operations Assistant)
