Harriet Walter on Imogen (Shakespeare On Stage)

By Harriet Walter and Julian Curry

Harriet Walter discusses playing Imogen in Shakespeare's Cymbeline, in this ebook taken from Shakespeare On Stage: Volume 2 - Twelve Leading Actors on Twelve Key Roles.
In each volume of the Shakespeare On Stage series, a leading actor takes us behind the scenes of a landmark Shakespearean production, recreating in detail their memorable performance in a major role. They leads us through the choices they made in rehearsal, and how the character works in performance, shedding new light on some of the most challenging roles in the canon. The result is a series of individual masterclasses that will be invaluable for other actors and directors, as well as students of Shakespeare – and fascinating for audiences of the plays.
In this volume, Harriet Walter discusses playing the role of Imogen in Shakespeare's late romance, Cymbeline, in Bill Alexander's Royal Shakespeare Company production in 1987.
This interview, together with the others in the series (with actors such as Ian McKellen, Simon Russell Beale, Alan Rickman and Fiona Shaw), is also available in the collection Shakespeare On Stage: Volume 2 - Twelve Leading Actors on Twelve Key Roles by Julian Curry, with a foreword by Nicholas Hytner.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Nick Hern Books
• Release date: Apr 27, 2017
• ISBN: 9781780018966

Book preview

Harriet Walter

on

Imogen

Cymbeline (1610)

Royal Shakespeare Company

Opened at The Other Place, Stratford-upon-Avon on 12 November 1987

Directed by Bill Alexander

With Bruce Alexander as Cloten, David Bradley as Cymbeline, Nicholas Farrell as Posthumus, Jim Hooper as Pisanio, Julie Legrand as the Queen, and Donald Sumpter as Iachimo

Cymbeline is one of Shakespeare’s last plays. It was first performed around 1610, most probably in the indoor Blackfriars Theatre. The setting is ancient Britain during the reign of the little-known King Cunobelinus, which overlapped with the lives of Jesus Christ and the Roman Emperor Augustus. What sort of play is it? In the First Folio Cymbeline is listed among the tragedies. This is odd, since the playwright went to enormous length and used great ingenuity to achieve a final act replete with joyous reconciliation. The only two characters to die are the evil Queen and her son the clottish Cloten, neither of whom are lamented. The play is more usually considered to be a tragicomedy or romance, even a