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The Heroine was...

‘The Heroine was …’ is a digital publication that gathers responses from visitors to my stall at Henley Street during Shakespeare’s 461st birthday celebrations on Saturday 26 April 2025.

Ania Bas

The second year of the Trust’s long-term project researching the Women Who Made Shakespeare is centred on the heroines from his plays. In response to that I decided to enquire about them, poke at collective memory and see what we recall about females in the bard’s plays. I asked attendees of the celebrations to recall their favourite heroines and share with me what they knew about them by simply finishing the sentence, the heroine was...

View responses for the heroine was... (opens PDF).

I have learnt heaps about diverse heroines but also about people’s personal connections to them. Some people shared the name, some played female character in a school play while being a boy. Juliet was the most popular choice with 24 mentions.

The publication offers a snapshot of collective memory and is in itself an insight into what remains in our minds about a character once the play is long finished.

Ania Bas www.aniabas.com