Harriet Walter

Folger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare Unlimited

Folger Shakespeare Library

Arts

4.7 • 837 Ratings

🗓️ 2 April 2019

⏱️ 36 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In 2012, London’s Donmar Warehouse opened an all-female production of Julius Caesar, starring Dame Harriet Walter as Brutus and directed by Tony Award-nominated director Phyllida Lloyd. The production was set in a women’s prison, and it was the first of a trilogy of all-female productions, all starring Walter, that The Guardian would call “one of the most important theatrical events of the past 20 years.” Julius Caesar was featured on PBS’s Great Performances on March 29, which made it the perfect time to call up Dame Harriet to discuss her decades-long career. We asked her about gender in Shakespeare, playing Ophelia, Portia, and Brutus, and her 2016 book, Brutus and Other Heroines: Playing Shakespeare’s Roles for Women. Harriet Walter is one of the most acclaimed performers on the British stage. She won the 1988 Olivier Award for Best Actress, the Evening Standard Award for her work as Elizabeth I in the 2005 London revival of Mary Stuart, and has starred in Twelfth Night, Macbeth and Antony and Cleopatra at the Royal Shakespeare Company. She is interviewed by Barbara Bogaev. From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast series. Published April 2, 2019. © Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. This podcast episode, “Say to All the World ‘This Was a Man’” was produced by Richard Paul. Garland Scott is the associate producer. It was edited by Gail Kern Paster. Ben Lauer is the web producer. We had technical help from Andrew Feliciano and Paul Luke at Voice Trax West in Studio City, California, and Dan Sterling at The Sound Company in London.

Transcript

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0:00.0	It takes a long time and a lot of work to get to this.
0:04.0	If these, as I am sure they do, bear fire enough to kindle cowards,
0:10.5	and to steal with valor the melting spirits of women,
0:15.0	then, countrymen, what need we any spur but our own cause to prick us to redress?
0:23.1	From the Folger Shakespeare Library, this is Shakespeare Unlimited.
0:31.5	I'm Michael Whitmore, the Folgers director.
0:34.3	That was Dame Harriet Walter as Brutus in the Donmar Warehouse production of Julius Caesar.
0:40.3	And just what does it take?
0:43.3	Remarkable talent, of course.
0:46.3	And as you'll hear from Harriet Walter herself, it takes a lot of study, a whole lot of empathy,
0:52.3	and then letting all of that percolate for 35 years.
0:57.0	Walter is one of the most acclaimed performers on the British stage.
1:02.0	She won the 1988 Olivier Award for Best Actress,
1:06.0	the Evening Standard Award for her work as Elizabeth I in the 2005 London Revival of Mary Stewart
1:12.6	and at the Royal Shakespeare Company starred in Twelfth Night, Macbeth and Anthony and Cleopatra.
1:19.6	Lately, though, she's been known for her leading roles in Philadelphia Lloyd's trilogy of all-female Shakespeare productions set in prison. As Caesar loved me, I weep for him.
1:31.3	As he was fortunate, I rejoice at it.
1:34.3	As he was valiant, I honor him, but as he was ambitious, I slew him.
1:42.3	There is tears for his love, honor for his valor, joy for his fortune, and death for his ambition.
1:54.1	Philadelphia Lloyd's Julius Caesar is airing on PBS great performances in the U.S.,
1:59.0	and we were lucky enough to be able to get Walter in the studio
2:02.2	to talk about this production, her outstanding career, and her book, Brutus and Other
	...

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