The power of Shakespeare’s language

From playing Celia in As You Like It to a famously gender-bending turn as Richard II, actress and director Fiona Shaw has long breathed life into some of Shakespeare’s most famous creations. But what is it like to speak those lines? How important is the rhythm of the language? And how reverent ought we to be towards his plays? Ella Whelan decided to find out…

Fiona Shaw is an actress and theatre and opera director. She won the Olivier Award for Best Actress for Electra (1990) and Machinal (1994). She played Kate in The Taming of the Shrew(1987) and Richard in Richard II (1995). And she played Petunia Dursley in the Harry Potter films and Marnie Stonebrook in True Blood.