The story behind Shakespeare's female character with the most lines

BarcelonaMargaret of Anjou has more lines in Shakespeare's plays than any other woman, and even more than King Lear or Othello. And yet, the British playwright never dedicated a play to her. To rectify this injustice, director and playwright Pau Carrió has created The wolf queen, a show created from the character's appearances in the three parts ofHenry VI and in Richard III who finally sees that combative queen. "She has a singular, unique story. She interacts with power, she sees that there are struggles and she fights. In the eyes of other men, she comes to be seen as an evil character, a she-wolf," explains Carrió. The actress responsible for embodying this protagonist is Maria Rodríguez Soto, who is accompanied on stage by six men –Quim Ávila, Pepo Blasco, José Julien, Xavi Ricart, Pau Roca, and David Vert– as well as Queralt Casasayas. The show premieres this Wednesday in the Sala Petita of the TNC.

The wolf queen It was born, in part, out of Carrió's desire to work with Rodríguez Soto again – they had collaborated on previous pieces such as Hamlet (2016) and Crime and Punishment (2022)—and to give her a leading role. "It's a wonderful challenge, because it's a play full of strong emotions and at the same time very basic. Hatred, the instinct for survival, and revenge are paramount, and my job is to make it believable. I think I'm succeeding," says the actress. Through Shakespeare's verses and fragments recreated by Carrió herself, the show traces the life of Margaret of Anjou from when she is 15 years old and a prisoner of the Marquess of Suffolk until she returns to England at 50 to announce the end of Richard III's reign of terror.

In between, Margaret of Anjou will be a bride, wife, lover, queen, mother, warrior, and widow in a life surrounded by men who hate her and wish her harm. "Throughout her life, she encounters a court of men who cannot bear her reigning. She has the same ambition as any man. Shakespeare's portrayal is very complex, full of revolutionary moments, such as when she tells her husband she is divorcing him from her table and bed," Carrió points out. "She is a very intelligent character with a tremendous will to survive. This strength allows her to persevere. And there is also love, sadism, revenge, and the lust for power," Rodríguez adds.

An Elizabethan company

For the staging, the director has chosen to play with Shakespeare's era. "We've worked with a rather theatrical language, as if we were an Elizabethan company. The performers take on different characters, and there are very rapid costume changes and metatheatrical elements. We represent wars and time jumps on a practically empty stage, with the intention that the audience's imagination will run wild," he says, adding that he wants to "pay homage to the craft of acting." The production also includes live music by Ana Nicolás de Cabo, which she composed for the occasion and performs live. "Essentially, it's percussion music that accompanies Margarita's journey from the beginning. The music transforms along with her," says Nicolás.