The Taming of the Shrew/The Tamer Tamed

So, for the past two months I've been working on a cool little show called "The Taming of the Shrew/The Tamer Tamed" at Blair. Most people would recognize the first half of the title as a pretty famous play by a pretty famous guy, but the second half is considerably less well-known. "The Tamer Tamed" is a play by 17th-century playwright John Fletcher, who, though he doesn't enjoy the same name-recognition as Shakespeare nowadays, was one of the most influential dramatists of his day. It's a sequel and a counter to the decidedly sexist message of "Taming of the Shrew": in "The Tamer Tamed", Petruchio (the male lead, who 'tames' Kate, the female lead and the 'shrew' of the title) marries again after Kate's death, and is shocked when his new wife, Maria, refuses to obey him, and goes to considerable measures to tame him. Once he is tamed, however, she promises never to rule over him, and the message, stated in the epilogue, is to "teach both sexes due equality."

Which is a pretty great message, yeah? When I auditioned for the play, I'd never heard of "The Tamer Tamed", but now I can't imagine performing "The Taming of the Shrew" without it--partially because it's really fun, really well-written, and generally terrific on its own, but also because the ending of "The Taming of the Shrew" really does make one cringe. Kate's final speech is a sermon of obedience, describing a husband as "thy lord, thy life, thy keeper," and stating that women are bound to "serve, love, and obey." Eeeww. It just doesn't feel right to end like that. Art is, for me, the ultimate portrayal of the human condition. You learn so much about being a person, and, if you are successful in your portrayals, the audience does, too. Ending with an expression of unfeminist values and gender roles makes me feel (or rather, would make me feel) like I had just communicated that I support that, even if just for entertainment. Thinking about it, I'm kind of surprised that people do still perform "The Taming of the Shrew" as it is.

(Incidentally, reading through the 'Controversy' section on the Wikipedia page of "Taming of the Shrew", two interesting arguments pop up: first that Shakespeare is not promoting female submissiveness, but rather arguing against the mistreatment of women by exaggeration. In other words, Shakespeare intentionally makes Petruchio and the other men as cruel and awful as possible so that the audience is repelled by their actions. He investigates misogyny, and comes to the conclusion--as does, presumably, the audience--that it's bad. While this argument is nice to think about, I have difficulty believing it, primarily because Petruchio wins, everyone celebrates, and it is acknowledged to be a comedy because it has a happy ending. If you sympathize with someone, you'll probably sympathize with the person whose burden you most identify with, and for most 16th- and 17th-century men, that would probably be the guy with the crazy wife. I don't think Shakespeare was subtly arguing the opposite of what his play is blatantly stating. The second argument is that the play is neither anti- or pro-women, but rather an more-or-less accurate portrayal of what Shakespeare saw as the relationship between men and women, and while I do think it's almost impossible to give a fictional portrayal of something without adding your own opinion or stance on the issue, I think this is the most likely argument--that Shakespeare wasn't against women (indeed, he has some remarkably strong heroines in other plays), or against women (despite what Kate's final monologue would suggest), but rather was just telling it like it was).

Anyway. "The Taming of the Shrew/The Tamer Tamed" is basically just an incredibly fun show. I play Hortensio, and am wretchedly abused throughout the whole thing--a guitar is broken over my head, I have to eat a lot of food really fast, and a bowl of water is thrown on me. It doesn't really matter if you don't especially like Shakespeare--the show is hilarious and very fast-paced, and, as Ms. O'Connor likes to say, would entertain a five-year-old. Ravyn, Christina, and Conor are also in it. If you haven't already, you should definitely come see it. The four of us are all in the Red Cast (BLOOD!), and our last two performances are Thursday at 3:30 and Saturday at 7:30. If you can't come to either of those, the White Cast is also really good, and is performing on Friday at 7:30 and Saturday at 2. See you there!