THE TAMING OF THE SHREWBy William Shakespeare
No suitor can win lovely Bianca ’til her older sister, “Katherine the Curst,” is married off as well. Fresh from her directorial debut at Oregon Shakespeare Festival Shana Cooper brings to Cal Shakes a dynamically physical reimagining of Shakespeare’s most biting romance. The final show of our 2011 season is sure to shed fresh light on courtship, gender roles, and, of course, the crackling, battling wits of Katherina and Petruchio. |
 Shana Cooper, director: “Sometimes we want to distance ourselves from The Taming of the Shrew because it has the reputation of being a misogynistic play, and these are issues that we’ve supposed to have gotten over. But I think the play is more nuanced than that. It takes place in a patriarchal world but there are also women in it with great power. [Katherine and Petruchio] are just trying to sort out the difficulties of joining these two lives together, and the sacrifices you have to make in order to do that. And I think that is incredibly relevant.” Photo by Erik Pearson. |
