Shakespeare Magazine 05

Interview: Lois Leveen
project. Which maybe is an indication of
my naiveté.
“One of the things that I’ve realised
is that anytime anybody performs
Shakespeare, they are always doing an
active interpretation and adaptation.
No actor delivers the lines the same
way every day in every performance.
And there’s not much stage direction
in Shakespeare so directors are always
making staging decisions, but also often
making decisions about casting, changing
lines, cutting lines. And so this idea of
revising Shakespeare is really inherent to
Shakespeare.
“I realised the enormity of taking on
Shakespeare when I spoke at the Shakespeare
450 conference in Paris, this past April.
There were so many scholars from all over
the world who had spent a lifetime studying
Shakespeare, and not just his work but his
reception across the centuries. But I think in
some ways the people who love the play, or
know the play well, particularly appreciate the
novel. So my paper at Shakespeare 450 was
very warmly received.”
Did your past experience of
writing historical fiction affect
your approach to Juliet’s Nurse?
“Well, the novel – like the play – is set in
the 14th century. It’s really that moment
when Italy is beginning to move from the
Middle Ages to the Renaissance. Scholars
appreciate the kind of work the novel
can do to bring scholarly research to a
broader audience – and I have tried very
hard to get that right. The part of me that
is trained as a historian wants to make sure
that people are learning about the past
in accurate ways from my work, although
the novelist in me also understands that
character and story needs to drive that.
So it’s about the sensory experience of
whatever place the characters are in –
Lois channels Juliet
at the famous
balcony in Verona.
And yes, we know
there’s no balcony
in the play…
(Image: Chuck G.
Barnes)
everything from cookbooks to fashion.
Reading up on clothing, reading up
on food, reading up on the religious
practices.”
With so much going on in the play
– so many characters, conflicts,
and themes – how did you decide
what to focus on and expand upon
in your novel?
“In some ways, I had to stop looking
at what the core theme might be for
Shakespeare, because I had to discover
what it was for Juliet’s Nurse. There are
plot points, and certainly characters, and
even lines or riffs on lines, that I pull over
from Shakespeare. But it really is ultimately
Angelica’s, the Nurse’s, story.”
To read the opening chapter and order a copy of
Juliet’s Room, go to www.loisleveen.com
“Romeo and Juliet were not, for many decades, considered
the prime roles. It was really the Nurse and Mercutio”
46 SHAKESPEARE magazine