I'm going to be very unoriginal here and say that Shakespeare has
written some excellent parts for women. Forget for the moment that the
parts would have been played by men. It is still the case that these are
strong female characters who are matching, or indeed outwitting, their male
counterparts. Sometimes they do this in the guise of a man such as Rosalind and Viola and to a smaller extend Portia. However, in 'All's
Well That Ends Well' and the character of Helena, we have a female lead
who raises herself up as a woman to be then knocked back only to rise
again stronger than ever. And she does it all with out once putting on a
pair of britches! Of course this does beg one question - if she is so
strong a character why is she bothering to chase a brat like Bertram?
Getting back to the personal aspect of this challenge I remember unsuccessful trying to use a speech by Parolles for entrance auditions
for Drama Schools. With audition pieces the trick is not to go for something too ambitious (it's a brave person
who will go for Hamlet's "To be or not to be..") but also avoid something that the panel will
have seen ten times already that day (Viola's
"I left no ring with her..." speech being a prime example). However, at the age of eighteen I still hadn't read all that much Shakespeare except for the obvious ones which were therefore either ambitious or done to death. My standard piece, Edmund the Bastard's "Thou nature art my goddess..."
was proving to be a bit too popular, hence the the reason for trying
Parolles and his "Virginity" speech. But at the time I couldn't get a handle
on it and so it was abandoned after only one outing.
And Finally - The Bard does it again with yet another Nostradamus Game-show moment - this time 'Dating in the Dark'! And remember, it may be that if-you-like-it-then-you-should-have-put-a-ring-on-it but just be sure it's the right ring and, more importantly, the right 'it'!...
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