Enter the Body" speculates on how the theatre 'plays' women's bodies, and how audiences read them. Ideal for literature, theatre and gender studies courses, it covers topics such as sex, death, race, gender, culture and politics. Carol Rutter explores the five female characters, Ophelia, Cordelia, Emilia, Cressida and Cleopatra to reconstruct specific theatrical moments that put their bodies spectacularly in play. One of the most provocative writers on women's performances of Shakespeare in Britain today, Rutter also situates these roles on the early modern stage, observing performers such as Kate Winslet, Judi Dench and Whoopi Goldberg.