When Romeo Was a Woman

Folger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare Unlimited

Folger Shakespeare Library

Arts

4.8 • 879 Ratings

🗓️ 20 March 2015

⏱️ 29 minutes

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Summary

"I will assume thy part in some disguise And tell fair Hero I am Claudio" —MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING(1.1.316) The actress Charlotte Cushman was a theatrical icon in 19th century America, known to the press by her first name, like Beyonce today. Her fame was not, however, for conventionally Victorian feminine portrayals. Cushman specialized in playing male roles, principally Romeo and Hamlet, competing on equal terms with leading actors like Edwin Forrest and Edwin Booth. She was not the only actress of her time to attempt these parts, but Cushman’s style was uniquely assertive and athletic. When Queen Victoria saw Cushman as Romeo, she said she couldn’t believe it was a woman playing the part. Rebecca Sheir, host of the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast series, interviews Lisa Merrill, professor in the Department of Performance Studies at Hofstra University and author of "When Romeo Was a Woman," about Cushman’s professional and personal life, including her off-stage romantic partnerships with women and her changing public image after death. ----------------- From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast series. © Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. Written and produced for the Folger Shakespeare Library by Richard Paul. Garland Scott is associate producer. Edited by Esther Ferington and Gail Kern Paster. With help from Larry Josephson and Robert Auld.

Transcript

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0:00.0	From the Folger Shakespeare Library, this is Shakespeare Unlimited.
0:07.0	I'm Michael Whitmore, the Folgers director.
0:10.0	This podcast is called, I will assume thy part in some disguise.
0:15.0	We think we know what people were like in the past.
0:19.0	Through whatever means we have, each of us develops images in our heads of, say, the Puritans or the ancient Greeks.
0:25.6	When we delve into small corners of the past, though, there are often revelations that can completely upend the stereotypes we hold dear.
0:34.6	That's what we'll be doing in this podcast. You probably have an image in your
0:40.2	head of the Victorians, a straight-laced world with a rigid set of gender roles. We probably think
0:46.9	we know what a society like that would make of an actress who spent her career playing male
0:51.7	roles and, in her personal life, showing no interest in men.
0:56.9	She'd be shunned. She'd be outcast. Right? Well, no, actually. Wrong. We're going to hear now
1:05.3	about Charlotte Cushman, among the most renowned American performers of Shakespeare in the Victorian era. And if you've never
1:12.8	heard of Charlotte Cushman, don't worry, there's a reason for that, too. Lisa Merrill, a professor in the
1:19.4	Department of Performance Studies at Hofstra University, has written a book about Cushman. Its title is
1:26.0	When Romeo was a Woman. She's interviewed by Rebecca Shear.
1:31.1	So I'd like to start actually at the end of this story and then jump back to the beginning.
1:35.5	Can you convey to us just what an enormous star Charlotte Cushman was when she died in 1876?
1:41.4	Sure. It's really remarkable. I'm convinced she was the most celebrated woman in the
1:47.6	English-speaking world because she had been seen by millions of audience members in both the
1:52.9	United States and in Britain during all of her years on stage. And she was an icon for Americans that had parades celebrating her. So her
2:04.9	importance as a cultural figure was really unprecedented. But she was best known for playing men
2:11.7	on stage. Is that correct? Yes. She played male characters and strong female characters. It's the male characters most unusual to us, though.
	...

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