Phyllida Lloyda, Harriet Walter, and the rest of The Tempest Cast

Phyllida Lloyd’s The Tempest Cast

By: Alaine Lim

           

The Esteemed Dame Harriet

At age sixty-six, critics like Rebecca Mead hail Harriet Walter as a premier Shakespearean actor (31). She was born on September 24, 1950 in London. She forwent a traditional college education by opting to attend the London Academy of Music & Dramatic (“Dame Harriet”). From there, she joined the Royal Shakespeare Company.

            As a rather distinguished member, it is unsurprising that she has played numerous roles in the Great Bard’s plays. By her own admission, she is especially proud of her portrayals of Lady Macbeth and Cleopatra (Daniels 34). In an interview by Andrew Dickson, this celebrated entertainer confessed that she originally underestimated Cleopatra as a simple femme fatale before realizing this Egyptian queen’s complexity and intelligence (2016). Yet despite her long history with England’s arguably most famous author, she concedes that she is slightly disillusioned by his works. Her problems are two-fold – her gender and her age. Despite being incredibly experienced, she tells New Statesman journalist, Sophie Elmhirst, that the roles that people offer her shrink each year (34). As she somberly noted once at St. Ann’s Warehouse, “Shakespeare just doesn’t do mothers” (Mead 31). Because she believes that Shakespeare and society in general is obsessed with youthfulness, older individuals, especially older females, are often marginalized. Indeed, Walter’s bemoaned this unfair treatment in a 2015 interview with Wall Street Journal’s Sophia Hollander. As Walter says in this account, she “bashed [her] head against a wall trying to get good at it” and that “it was kind of annoying to have to drop out” (Hollander). In short, Walter believes that her ample talent and experience should not be ignored due to her age or sex.

            In an effort to combat this, she partnered with acclaimed director Phyllida Lloyd. They broke centuries of tradition by insisting on an all women cast. Despite numerous praises, their selection would not be without criticism. In fact, one particularly disgruntled reviewer unflatteringly compared Walter to David Bowie (Mead 32). This decision would later inspire Walter to write an autobiography, Brutus and Other Heroines: Playing Shakespeare’s Roles for Women, which details her reason for this choice and her own unorthodox acting career.

Each of three plays (King Henry IV, Julius Caesar, and The Tempest) present in Lloyd and Walter’s joint trilogy uses female-only prison as its backdrop. Their interpretation of The Tempest in particular adopts the story of Judith Clark, the famous radical political activist, as a part of their frame story.

Harriet Walter as female inmate, Hannah, portraying Prospero

Critics like New York Times professional, Ben Brantley, applaud Harriet Walter as an absolutely breath-taking Prospero. Indeed, Brantley commends Walter for perfectly portraying Prospero as a masterful playwright-star without forgetting the Duke’s less savory and more human aspects like his bitterness at his brother’s betrayal and the struggles that he faces as he is faced to contemplate the concept of forgiveness (2017). Her acting is comparable to the considerable praise that Helen Mirren received for her role as Prospera in Julie Taymor’s 2011 rendition of the Tempest. According to New York Times critic Anthony Oliver Scott, the movie’s gender switch is not just a simple gimmick as it allows for a revolutionary reinterpretation of Miranda and her mother’s relationship because their connection becomes less about traditional family roles and morphs into something much more complex and engaging. Indeed, Scott seems to suggest that Mirren’s careful balance of heart-breaking loneliness and sudden bouts of affection coupled with Felicity Jones’s superb acting, as Miranda, are the only convincible reasons to watch this version of the Tempest at all. Regardless of Taymor’s dubious film quality, Mirren seems to prove Walter’s central assertion correct. A reversal of Shakespearean tradition is worth considering.

Despite Miss Walter’s prominence, she is not the only talented Shakespearean actor in this play. Indeed, talented women like Jade Anouka, Shiloh Coke, Jackie Clune, and many more dominate the cast. This is a fact created entirely by design. Much like Lloyd’s earlier adaptation of Henry IV, Walter and this esteemed director worked together to prove that Shakespeare belongs to everyone, regardless of ethnicity, age, or gender (Hollander).

Miranda (Leah Harvey) and Shelia Atim (Ferdinand) during
the couple's incredibly modern wedding sequence

Given the rave appraisals that Lloyd’s The Tempest (and indeed, her whole Shakespeare Trilogy) enjoys, this dynamic duo certainly succeeded in fulfilling their initial intentions. One The Guardian critic, Susannah Clapp claims that this trilogy is one of modern theater’s greatest treasures, which is a belief echoed by many. Although Walter is universally considered the main draw with Clapp referencing to her as a “linchpin”, praise for the other cast members is certainly not scant. Brantley praises Leah Harvey (Miranda) and Shelia Atim (Ferdinand) with same passion that he used to highlight the skills of a veteran actor in an October article for the New York Times. In fact, Brantley claims that Harvey and Atim transform previously Miranda and Ferdinand’s clichéd B-plot romance into a whirl-winded yet meaningful courtship. As this critic points it, this is because Harvey portrays Miranda not just as another simple ingénue but a complex mischievous character while Atim emphasizes Ferdinand’s almost Romero-like recklessness. Similar adoration is gifted to their co-star, Jade Anouka, an up-and-coming actor who starred in popular TV shows like Doctor Who. As Clapp states, Anouka brilliantly shines as a beat boxing Ariel. This comment would no doubt delight Anouka as a recent 2016 interview by Matthew Amer emphasized that this rising star has brought Walter and Lloyd’s central tenet – that Shakespeare can be simultaneously exciting and relevant.

Works Cited

Amer, Matthew. "Jade Anouka." Theatre London. Theatre London, 01 Oct. 2016. Web. 18 Apr. 2017.

Brantley, Ben. "Prospero, Confined Yet Commanding." New York Times, 19 Jan. 2017, p.

C6(L). Opposing Viewpoints in Context, jerome.stjohns.edu:81/login?url=http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A478078931/OVIC?u=nysl_me_stjn&xid=7507da11. Accessed 18 Apr. 2017.

Brantley, Ben. "Review: In ‘The Tempest,’ Liberation and Exhilaration." The New York Times. The New York Times, 18 Jan. 2017. Web. 31 Mar. 2017.

Clapp, Susannah. "Shakespeare Trilogy Review – Phyllida Lloyd's Searing Triumph." The Observer. Guardian News and Media, 27 Nov. 2016. Web. 18 Apr. 2017.

Dickson, Andrew. "Harriet Walter on Antony and Cleopatra: 'You Have to Play It Fast or It Falls Apart'." The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 04 Jan. 2016. Web. 31 Mar. 2017.

Elmhirst, Sophie. ""The Good Guys Have Got to Shout Louder. It's Always The Way."" New Statesman 140.5074 (2011): 34-35. Academic Search Premier [EBSCO]. Web. 31 Mar. 2017.

Hollander, S. (2015, Nov 11). Arts & entertainment: Shakespeare, as played by women playing

inmates. Wall Street Journal Retrieved from http://jerome.stjohns.edu:81/login?url=http://search.proquest.com.jerome.stjohns.edu:81/docview/1732232778?accountid=14068

Mead, Rebecca. "The Boards: Women's Work." New Yorker 91.36 (2015): 30-32. Academic

Search Premier [EBSCO]. Web. 31 Mar. 2017.

Scott, A. O. "Dread Rattling Thunder! Yes, It’s Shakespeare." The New York Times. The New York Times, 09 Dec. 2010. Web. 18 Apr. 2017.