She Speaks! What Shakespeare’s Women Might Have Said by Harriet Walter

Walter is an experienced actor and it’s interesting to hear her take on some of the Shakespeare parts that she’s played herself.

Actor’s Shakespeare

This is a practical and not particularly academic take on Shakespeare, similar to Judi Dench’s recent bestseller, The Man Who Pays the Rent. Here you’re getting an actor’s, not an academic’s, take on Shakespeare, and it feels very real and muscular.

She introduces each part with some background and occasional details of some of the productions that she’s been in, weaving together imagination with theatre history in a readable way.

Shakespeare’s women as you haven’t seen them before

Walter runs through a lot of the women parts in Shakespeare and reimagines them, or deepens our understanding of them, in a way that’s very accessible easy to read. Expect funny rhymes and powerful soliloquies.

Some of my favourite bits are: Cressida, Miranda from The Tempest, Lady Macbeth, plus there are some good explorations of the dynamics between Lady Capulet and Juliet. The book is an expansive and entertaining analysis of Shakespeare’s women. I really appreciate the fact that Walter examines some of the more obscure and smaller parts.

Great, non-intimidating Shakespearean read

I’d say this is a great book for anyone who loves Shakespeare, who’s interested in theatre, acting, or just enjoys playing with historic texts.

This was actually a really quick and easy read: very easy to pick up!

One word: playful.