Emilia

Emilia (2021) is a film directed by Nicole Charles.

Emilia took our wooden ‘O’ by storm in late 2018, celebrating women’s voices the world over through the story of a trailblazing, forgotten woman, Emilia Bassano. 400 years ago, Emilia wanted her voice to be heard. In 1611 she penned the words to her ‘Vertuous Reader’ as part of a volume of radical, feminist and subversive poetry. Yet the little we know now of Emilia is restricted to the possibility that she may have been the ‘Dark Lady’ of Shakespeare’s Sonnets – and the rest of her story has been erased by history. Morgan Lloyd Malcolm’s acclaimed play revealed the life of Emilia: writer, wife, lover, mother, muse.

Cast

Saffron Coomber

Emilia 1

Adelle Leonce

Emilia 2

Clare Perkins

Emilia 3

Charity Wakefield

William Shakespeare/Drunk Man 2/Valentine Simmes/River Woman

Nadia Albina

Lady Katherine Howard/Desdemona/River Woman

Jackie Clune

Lord Thomas Howard/Hester/Lady Helena

Carolyn Pickles

Lord Henry Carey/Judith/Priest

Jenni Maitland

Countess of Kent/Mary/Man at the Globe 1

Anna Andresen

Lady Mary Sidney/Margaret Johnson/Eve

Sarah Seggari

Lady Cordelia/Flora

Sophie Stone

Lady Margaret Clifford/Midwife/Drunk Man 1/Priest 2/River Woman

Amanda Wilkin

Alphonso Lanier/River Woman/Emilia in Othello