SHAKESPEARE: LISTENING TO THE WOMEN

MEDIA RELEASE November 9, 1999

Let us now praise famous women!

Shakespeare: Listening to the Women, by Alice Arnott Oppen, was launched at the N.S.W. State Library by Jane Singleton, respected first for her voice of commitment in media, and now in the corporate scene.

"Modern, fun and scholarly, Shakespeare: Listening to the Women is a marvellous way of understanding both his creations and the "real" women of his time - still enormously relevant. Shakespeare is instructive not just because we learn of what goes on in women's minds, but we learn how women interface with men, and that of course - in his day and in ours - means the law, the church, business and capital." Jane Singleton

Written over five years, including the time of the author's vigorous battle for Arnotts, Shakespeare: Listening to the Women reflects humorous independence of mind in a lively text, meticulously researched and analysed. Current stage productions, many by the Sydney Theatre Company, illustrate changing interpretations of women's roles. Women character's voices range from:

"Would it not grieve a woman to be overmastered with a piece of valiant dust? To make an account of her life to a clod of wayward marl?" Beatrice, in Much Ado about Nothing

"...for you I would be trebled twenty times myself, a thousand times more fair, ten thousand times more rich, that only to stand high in your account I might in virtues, beauties, livings, friends, exceed account." Portia, in The Merchant of Venice

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