Squeaking Cleopatras

“That woman is a woman!'”

So thundered Simon Callow in the film Shakespeare in Love, thus underlining one of the great differences between our theatre and that of the Elizabethans where women were prohibited from appearing on the stage. In this new exciting stage project The Luvvies explore female roles in Elizabethan drama from the point of view of the men and boys who actually had to create these fascinating and dramatic parts.

Cross-dressing was a vital part of the Shakespearean theatre experience, for both the actors and the audience, but can a contemporary audience acknowledge and accept the Elizabethan stage convention of men playing women's roles? Can we forget that the Lady Macbeth, the Cleopatra, or the Juliet we watch is a man? Does it matter? This all-male production winks at and embraces some of the best-crafted female roles in Shakespeare’s best-loved plays.

“the quick comedians extemporally will stage us, and I shall see some squeaking Cleopatra boy my greatness i' th' posture of a whore.”

Antony and Cleopatra