The Taming of the Shrew Performance Review

  Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew is, in my opinion, one of his most problematic and offensive plays. Though this play has been staged for many centuries, it is unclear to even the most knowledgeable Shapespearians if this is Shakespeare’s original text. The Taming of the Shrew was first published in the first Folio of Shakespeare’s works, but a similar play titled The Taming of a Shrew was published in a Quarto roughly thirty years prior. The two texts are similar in many ways, such as overarching storylines and characters, yet the two are also different from one another, such as the character Christopher Sly having more of an involvement in the text of The Taming of a Shrew. Regardless of whichever text is being performed or if it is a combination of the two, scholars (and myself) believe that this is the one Shakespeare play that should not be staged. 

After a quick Google search, I found that the term “shrew” has been used since the 11th century, possibly even earlier. To be called a shrew is to be called spiteful, nagging, and sometimes even hot tempered or moody. In the context of Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew, I am sure the title is helpful to piece together what the context of this play is, and why it is incredibly offensive to women. Unfortunately, I am not surprised to learn that The Taming of the Shrew has remained a very popular Shakespeare play since its first production in the 14th century, as well as the fact that someone other than Shakespeare took it upon themselves to write a sequel for this play. Though every production of this play, new and old, unwittingly takes some type of creative direction, those who are not familiar with this piece of text may know the popular 1999 film 10 Things I Hate About You, which is a modern adaptation of this play. The word ‘adaptation’ may even be a stretch, as there are many changes from the original text and plot, specifically the lack of outright misogyny and abuse towards women. 

After watching The Globe’s interpretation and production of The Taming of the Shrew I am not only appalled at what I watched, but deeply saddened that anyone would expect people to enjoy their staging of this play. Before I dive into my personal biases on The Globe’s take on this horrifically misogynistic play, I want to address their use of props, costumes, and stage design that simply did not work for me. If I am to name one thing that I did enjoy about The Globe's production of this play, it would be the casting. I was and continue to be very happy about the plus size representation that I saw on stage, so we can consider that a win for The Globe.

Throughout the duration of the play, an alarmingly large teddy bear was fixated on center stage for characters to enter and exit through. Whenever characters use this entrance, they literally walk through the belly of this bear. Along with the teddy bear, there was a trampoline for characters to catapult themselves onto a mattress, and a cage that the character Christopher Sly stood in during almost the entire production. Characters wore costumes that were just as obscure as the giant teddy bear, such as pillows duct taped around their mid-sections and what looked to be large puppet heads as shirts; when those characters would deliver their lines they would physically move the mouths of the large puppet-shirts. Characters such as Bianca, Petruchio, the Merchant, and the Widow were also seen delivering their lines through hand held puppets - at least these were less concerning to me than the puppet-shirts. The makeup that most characters wore highly resembled marionette dolls to me, as well. 

I still have a hard time understanding the use of all of these props, costumes and stage design, but if I had to make my best guess I would assume that the use of all of these equated to this production being staged through the eyes of a child. Maybe because within the original text this is a play being performed within a play to a drunk Christopher Sly, and drunk people typically have the minds of children? The combination of all of these aspects reminded me of a toddler’s bedroom, and I feel confident that if a toddler were to watch The Globe’s staging of The Taming of the Shrew even they would not have enjoyed it. The only other thought that I have on their take with this production revolves around the giant teddy bear on stage. There has been a recent ‘trend’ on social media in which women are asked if they would rather be alone in the woods with a man or a bear, to which most women choose the bear. The sentence “I choose the bear” is one that I have repeatedly seen in comments on social media posts recently. You can find more context regarding ‘choosing the bear’ here. Looking at the context of the play as well as the giant teddy bear on stage has made me begin questioning if the placement of the bear is hinting to the popular statement “I choose the bear.” I know if I was left to choose between Petruchio and the bear, I would choose the latter every day. 

Though I do not fully understand what The Globe was trying to accomplish with these choices, I do understand that there was some sort of direction being taken. I am sure this may have worked for some when watching this production, but I found it to be incredibly distracting - regardless of the fact that it was a welcomed distraction for the horrors happening on stage. 

To say that I hated The Globe’s production of The Taming of the Shrew would be an understatement. During acts 2 through 4 I was bored out of my mind, and then immediately gutted as the real horror began. For starters, the act of shooting and killing Biondello on stage with a gun that looked so realistic is one of the many things that I found to be in poor taste. It is no secret that America has a serious issue with gun violence, with 58% of Americans either having experienced an act of gun violence or know somebody who has, as well as roughly every eleven minutes someone in America dies of an act of gun violence. The Globe is a very large tourist attraction for all London visitors, including Americans, so I found the addition of the gun to be highly insensitive given today's political climate.

Immediately following the horrific death of Biondello, we as the audience watched as Petruchio forced Katherine to kiss him. I cannot speak for others when I say this, but I was so unnerved and uncomfortable that I began to cry. To watch Petruchio and Katherine have this conversation which was then followed by an act of sexual abuse was absolutley terrifying. In act 5, scene 1 Petruchio and Katherine have the following conversation: 

KATHERINE Husband, let’s follow to see the end of 

this ado.

PETRUCHIO      First kiss me, Kate, and we will. 

KATHERINE What, in the midst of the street? 

PETRUCHIO      What, art thou ashamed of me? (5.1.145-49)

Following this conversation, Katherine approached Petruchio to kiss him while visibly shaking out of both fear and uncomfortability. I have never been so physically ill from a piece of live theater. To make matters worse, Katherine’s final monologue is one that I will remember for a lifetime, and not for good reasons. The feelings of grief, sadness, and fear that I felt for Katherine was and remains so palpable. When Kathrine says “The husband is thy lord, thy life, thy keeper, / Thy head, thy sovereign, the one that cares for thee,” (5.2.163-164). I couldn’t contain my tears. I feel as though The Globe as well as actress Thalissa Teixeira, had an opportunity to do something empowering with this monologue, but rather they made a mockery of women who have experienced domestic violence and/or sexual abuse in their lifetime. In my humble opinion, when Katherine delivered those lines in such a convincing way, I honestly felt like she had taken a step back for all women who fight daily to escape such abusive situations. Everything that women have ever worked for had been absolutely shit on at that moment. 

I think I would be happy to know that The Globe’s production of The Taming of the Shrew was to never be performed again, yet the mere fact that they performed it in the first place leaves me feeling sad for those who spent their hard earned money to watch it, and angry for every woman who has ever experienced an act of violence at the hands of men. This production truly solidified for me that in every situation I will always choose the bear.