The talented women of the Atlanta Shakespeare Company performed,
directed, and produced scenes from Shakespeare on Monday for the second annual
Lady Shakes, an event created by Artistic Associate and Special Events
Coordinator Dani Herd. Think of great
Shakespeare roles and you will likely think of male roles like Hamlet, King
Lear, Richard III, and Romeo. Casting
women to play male roles is an increasingly popular artistic choice, as
evidenced by the decision to cast Mary Ruth Ralston as King Henry VI in the
three parts of Henry VI at the
Shakespeare Tavern Playhouse last fall. Lady
Shakes gives female artists the opportunity to tackle traditionally male roles,
continuing a tradition that was begun by pioneering women in the 1700s.
Beginning in the eighteenth
century, many well-known actresses played male roles in Shakespeare’s
plays. Sarah Siddons, who was famous for
her portrayal of Lady Macbeth, played Hamlet to great acclaim in 1775. Kitty Clive followed suit, also playing
Hamlet and earning praise from Dr. Samuel Johnson, who commended her
performance as being even better than that of David Garrick, one of the most
famous Shakespearean actors of the eighteenth century. More than fifty actresses appeared as Hamlet
between 1775 as 1911, including Sarah Bernhardt, who was the first actor to
portray Hamlet on film in 1900. Other
actresses took on the roles of Romeo, Iago, Othello, Richard III, Shylock, and
Hotspur. While women playing male
characters was not the standard in productions of Shakespeare’s plays from the
eighteenth to twentieth century, the consistency with which actresses took on
male roles demonstrates that it was an important theatrical trend.
Choosing to perform male
Shakespearean roles allowed actresses to tackle parts that were often more
complex and better regarded by critics than traditionally female roles, but
women appearing as men challenged patriarchal assumptions about the place of
women on the stage. Concern over the
growing trend of actresses taking on male roles is evident in “Women in Male
Roles: Long List of Prominent Actresses Who Have Yielded to That Ambition,” an
article that appeared in The New York
Times on February 12, 1911. The
reporter described women who played male roles as “usurping man’s place on the
stage,” suggesting that the author saw actresses who played Hamlet or Romeo as
challengers of male dominance of the stage.
The reporter also expressed confusion about the allure of certain male
characters to actresses: “One can understand how the roles of Hamlet, Romeo,
Prince Hal and other youthful heroes might appeal to actresses, but it is hard
to discover why any of them should wish to play the crooked-back Richard III,
with all his ugliness and all his malignity.”
This comment implies that a character’s virtue and physical
attractiveness should be the most crucial factors in deciding whether a part is
suitable for a woman to play. The
article, which notes that many attempts by actresses to play male parts were
“lamentable failure[s],” demonstrates the criticism aimed at women who chose to
play male roles in Shakespeare in the early twentieth century. However, it is in part because of such derision
by male critics that attempts by actresses to play male roles during this time
were so crucial.
Women have come a long way since
1911, and female Hamlets, Lears, and Caesars have appeared on stages and film
screens across the world and have been met with admiration by critics who now recognize
the artistic value of women playing traditionally male characters. From New York to London to Atlanta, when
women take the stage in male roles they continue the legacy of Sarah Siddons
and challenge the audience to question gender biases and more closely analyze
interactions between characters.
Photography provided by Sarah Beth Moseley
