She Speaks!

She Speaks! is a collection of new speeches for the women of Shakespeare's plays, written by the actress Dame Harriet Walter DBE, one of Britain's most esteemed Shakespearean actors. Having played most of Shakespeare's female characters herself, she now gives them the chance to speak their minds.

The book contains new parts for thirty Shakespearean women, written in Shakespearean verse and prose. Walter works between the lines of the plays to imagine what these women were really thinking, sometimes playfully and sometimes searchingly. Gertrude says what she longed to say, Lady Macbeth explains why she felt she should be king, and Juliet's nurse mourns her loss. Ariel voices anxiety about freedom, and Cleopatra's handmaidens give their true opinion of their queen. Ophelia surprises, Olivia surprises herself, and Miranda catches a glimpse of the future. The voices range from servants to sovereigns.

Walter explains that Shakespeare's words have been the backbone of her working life and of the wider culture. She admires his empathy for his female creations, but she points out that his plays reflect the hierarchy and patriarchy of his time. Women have far fewer lines, are rarely at the center of the action, and matter to the plot only in relation to a man. In this book, that is not the case.