Are There No Great Roles for Women in Shakespeare?

In 2010 Christopher Plummer announced that The Tempest would be his farewell to Shakespeare, because he had reached an age where there were literally no more parts left for him to play.

Are we going to lose Helen Mirren as well? She's played Cleopatra and Lady M, but at 67 years old what else should she play?  She did get that chance to play a female Prospero in Julie Taymor's movie.

It's a good question. The men of course have Lear, Prospero, Polonius, Falstaff, Gloucester... the list goes on. Although, granted, if you start a list with "Lear" it's going to drop off pretty quickly.

How about Volumnia? That seems an obvious choice. Any others?


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