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Years ago I read a memoir by a Lebanese-American who mentioned in passing a movement among his countrymen to cliam Willie as one of their own--seriously--the name, Sheik Espir, was a dead giveaway. "A camel, a camel..." There are, nonetheless, some pretty juicy female roles in Shakespeare-the-Irishman, altho fewer than for men, and usually the female lead gets more words than any but the male lead, thereby trumping an army of secondary characters. But there's also the question of memorability--Juliette, Lady Mac, Cleopatra, Cressida, Rosalind--make your own list--it's not for nothing that actresses fight to the death to get these parts. The characters are incredibly rich, the words beautiful, and there'd be no play without them. As to Miranda, she's probably about thirteen years old, but only a ninny would direct her as a ninny. In that most allegorical of Shakespeare's plays she acts the part of Youth seeing all things new. Maybe the director should reread the play. At 06:42 PM 7/9/2000 -0400, you wrote: >In the most recent Abbey Theatre (Dublin) production of The Tempest, I >found Miranda unbearable. I know some of the lines attributed to Miranda >in some versions are given to Prospero in others. It's not just the >lines though: it's how far you're willing to push them, or hide within them. >In this production, Miranda was directed to be a ninny. I would imagine >that the fact women's roles were played by young boys had the effect of >shrinking them: women's roles in Shakespeare already come shrunken, in >terms of lines to be spoken. So there's a shrink within a shrink. In >other words, if you're paid by the word, few people playing women's roles >in Shakespeare are going to make a killing. But there's no need to go to >Shakespeare, who was one of the greatest Irishmen ever. Women's roles in >most contemporary movies are similarly shrunken, and actresses are >similarly directed to be ninnies, e.g., the mom in E.T. >Mairead > >On Sun, 9 Jul 2000, Jon Corelis wrote: > >> Something sent here recently implied that Keats's female characters >> were defective because they weren't created by a woman. >> >> Would the same thing be argued of Shakespeare? >> >> This is a serious question. I'd really like to know if any woman has >> looked at Ophelia or Miranda or Cleopatra or Rosalind or Mistress >> Quickly and said, "No, he's got it wrong." >> ________________________________________________________________________ >> Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com >> >> > > %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%