In recent weeks CHRISTINE CHAPMAN has led us on a journey through Shakespeare’s plays, highlighting the characters you could elect as the region’s favourite. To conclude, she offers her personal Top 10 (actually, 11)

SHAKESPEARE’S poetic voice is unmistakable. However, open a copy of The Complete Works and a host of other voices vie for our attention: “Your good voice, sir; what say you?” (Coriolanus, Act II, Scene iii).

England’s national poet, the world’s pre-eminent dramatist, the greatest writer in the English language – Shakespeare is all of these things, but his true genius lay in his ability to bring engaging characters to life.

His words express the things that happen to us all and what draws us to individual characters reveals much about ourselves.

Meeting Shakespeare’s creations on the page is a rewarding experience, but our strongest connections with his greatest characters are forged in performance.

Actors enable many-voiced Shakespeare to reach out to us from the past, time and time again.

In his poem For An Actor, Canadian poet Andrew Parkin eloquently captures the moment of alchemy when “We pull from the past/ his tribe of faces,/ roles that people memory,/ cling to some phase/ of our growing/ which he could never know/ he influenced just so”.

And Shakespeare’s characters have influenced the lives of countless people. I can recommend spending time in the company of any of the following list of characters.

Hearing them speak feelingly of living and loving in their own “most sweet voices” is a pleasure.

They are definitely my kind of people, each of them a worthy candidate for the North East’s favourite Shakespeare character too. I list them with their personal attributes in brackets).

1. Rosalind, As You Like It (Warm, energetic, daring, resourceful)

“Come woo me, woo me; for now I am in holiday humour,” says Rosalind finding freedom in the Forest of Arden. Dressed as a boy, under the guise of curing Orlando’s love-sickness, she daringly courts the man of her dreams. Her playful passion for life is infectious: “Do you not know I am a woman? When I think, I must speak.”

2. Mercutio, Romeo and Juliet (Individualistic, sociable, spirited, imaginative)

“Men’s eyes were made to look, and let them gaze,” he says. A member of neither of the warring Montague and Capulet clans, confident Mercutio’s energy, individuality and sparkling wit demand our attention. Steadfast in friendship, passionate to a fault, he is also a dreamer, confessing: “I talk of dreams,/ Which are the children of an idle brain.” Charismatic to the last, Mercutio lives fast, dies young.

3. Coriolanus, Coriolanus (Heroic, enigmatic, contentious, self-sacrificing)

“I play/ The man I am”, he says candidly. Coriolanus’ enigmatic, uncompromising nature is both his strength and weakness. A military hero, the scars of war are worn with pride. While his arrogance is not attractive, his inarticulacy in social situations is. “When blows have made me stay, I fled from words,” he admits. Admirably, he chooses family over fame in the end.

4. Imogen, Cymbeline (Chaste, faithful, loving, honest)

Imogen values people for themselves and marries for love. Her honesty sustains her but incites enemies. Dogged by misfortune, she refuses to give up on happiness, however, wisely determining to play the long game: “I see into the end.” Her motivation to do whatever it takes for reunion with her husband is heart-warming and inspirational: “O, for a horse with wings!”

5. Hamlet, Hamlet (Noble, questioning, perceptive, ironic)

Hamlet is Shakespeare’s most famous character for good reason. His words speak to everyone who has ever felt heartbreak: “I have that within which passeth show.” He also reminds us that our best efforts to do what is right in life are sometimes doomed to failure: “There is a divinity that shapes our ends/ rough hew them how we will.”