Ayesha Dharker as Shakespeare’s Titania: ‘The forgeries of jealousy’ – video

To mark the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death, we asked leading actors to perform key speeches from his plays. Here, Ayesha Dharker plays Titania, the queen of the fairies in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Titania has quarrelled with Oberon, king of the fairies. As the pair have control over the weather, their argument leads to a vision of nature’s chaos.

• Read the full text for this speech
  
• Read more about Shakespeare Solos
  
• Michael Billington on the video: ‘it is as if she feels a regret for mankind’
• Ayesha Dharker stars in the RSC’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream: A Play for the Nation which opens at the Royal Shakespeare theatre in Stratford on 17 February and is on tour around the UK from 16 March to 4 June
• View this video with subtitles on our YouTube channel