Putting this together has been quite a journey for you. Let’s talk about that. What was the genesis? How did this begin?

Well, it started about fifteen years ago. I was about half-way through the canon, maybe three-quarters of the way through, and I started to notice that there was this pattern to the women. I didn’t go looking for it, but I saw it because by that time I had done so many of the plays, and I really wanted to explore this. So, I applied to the Guggenheim Foundation for a grant to allow me to put this into a dramatic focus. Then, about thirteen or fourteen years ago I began to perform it. Working on it in front of the public made me realize that I wanted to go further with it, but that really required time. I knew that I couldn’t be an artistic director and do this. About four years ago I started working with Nigel Gore – we did Antony and Cleopatra, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, and several other plays. Nigel started contributing to Women of Will. And, by then, I had stepped down as Artistic Director.

 

What kinds of things did you discover when you went back and started working on it again?

It was then that I realized that it was really five different “movements.” It had begun as a three part series, but what I found out is that there is this “sexual and spiritual merging” when Shakespeare is writing about women. Not all of the plays are about this, but they are equal in the background of many plays.

About the time I got to Timon of Athens, I started to think that he (Shakespeare) was really depressed, and I couldn’t figure out why. It began to become clear that what’s happening is that the women want power and they want to dominate. He wasn’t depressed, he was just writing about women in new ways. All of this had been mentioned in passing before, but now it began to be clear that when women do not offer an alternative way of doing things, chaos breaks out. Fascinating, really.

 

Was there anything that particularly surprised you?

It all surprised me. You can see Shakespeare’s psychological development in the way he writes about the women.

 

What is your earliest memory of Shakespeare?

We started in school when I was about eleven doing one play a year. By the time we got to “O” levels, at sixteen, there are five plays that you are examined on. And then you take “A” levels and go into them in much greater depth. Of course, I had been going to Stratford for quite a long time. I discovered that I loved it. I loved reading it. I loved acting in it. I loved it all.

What’s next?

I think we’re coming to the end of altering the scripts. We are now more into the “tweaking phase.” The structure is there – the way all of the parts have a slightly different kind of flavor – that’s all developed organically, and really helped by Eric Tucker, the director.

Of course, Eric and Nigel have their own thoughts and feelings. They argue with me back and forth – about the merits of this or the demerits of that. Nigel has terrific insights into playing the men, finding the opposite approach to the women.

As a playwright, Shakespeare was a breakthrough. He adapted the stereotypes. All of his characters are flawed – he gave them psychological depth. He was the first playwright to do this.

 

Interview by David Allen,

Manager of Artistic Operations