Harriet Walter | She Speaks! What Shakespeare’s Women Might Have Said
Sun 24 Nov 2024 | 6:00pm - 7:00pm
We’re delighted to be welcoming one of the UK’s most esteemed Shakespearean actors, multi award-winning British actress Harriet Walter, whose credits range from the Royal Shakespeare Company to Star Wars and Succession. She’ll be presenting her fascinating book She Speaks!, which explores between the lines of Shakespearean plays to let us hear what she imagines – sometimes playfully and sometimes searchingly – these women were really thinking.
Renowned for her star-studded portrayals in Succession, Killing Eve and Ted Lasso, Harriet Walter is also one of Britain’s most esteemed Shakespearean actors. Now, having had the experience of playing so many of Shakespeare’s roles, she re-imagines what some of his women might have been secretly thinking and lets them speak their minds.
In conversation with Alex Clark
This event will also be available to watch via Livestream.
With new speeches for thirty Shakespearean women, written in verse, sonnets and prose, her book goes between the lines of the plays as Gertrude lets Hamlet have the unvarnished truth; Lady MacBeth reveals how she would have been a savvy, King; Kate, the Shrew does an about turn; Ophelia surprises us; Olivia surprises herself and the witches have a good old rap.
Says Harriet Walter: `I worship Shakespeare and feel very irreverent, shamelessly piggy backing on his giant shoulders. His psychological insight is second to none but the mirror that he held up to Nature reflected a predominantly male image of the world. I pondered the long shadow of his genius and tried to think of ways to let a little sunlight in on some of his women’s stories. I like to think he wouldn’t mind’.
Enjoy Shakespeare’s women as they demand centre stage alongside commentary from Dame Harriet.
Venue: Cambridge Union
Duration: 1 hour
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Author Biography
Dame Harriet Walter DBE is a British actress. She has received a Laurence Olivier Award as well as numerous nominations, including a Tony Award, three Primetime Emmy Awards, and a Screen Actors Guild Award. In 2011, she was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) for services to drama. In 2024 she received a BAFTA TV Award nomination for her role in the international hit series Succession and has been seen regularly on our screens in Killing Eve, Ted Lasso, Silo, and This is Going to Hurt to name a few.
Chair
Alex Clark is a broadcaster and journalist, who writes for many publications including the Guardian, the Observer, and the Times Literary Supplement. She is a co-host on the Graham Norton Book Club for Audible and hosts the TLS podcast. She is a professional chairperson and appears all over the UK at literary festivals & events. Alex is a festival honorary patron.