“Why are we reading this?”
The question resounds every year in English classes all across America, especially during the inevitable William Shakespeare unit. All teachers will preach of its perpetual relevance. The passion of young love in Romeo and Juliet. The corrosive effects of ambition and revenge in Hamlet. All of Macbeth.
What about The Taming of the Shrew, his comedy about several men who conspire and act to break the headstrong and willful nature of a young woman so that her younger sister can be married? It’s one of his more obviously sexist plays; it’s, also, one of his wittiest.
John Dunn as the Pedant, Patrick Fretwell as Tranio, and Marc Alba as Biondello
Photo by Natasha Nivan Photography.
In a battle of wit and will, Katharina and Petruchio go at each other until Petruchio is finally able to subdue the town Shrew. Petruchio has molded Katharina into an obedient wife, and Katharina is happy to obey and seeks great satisfaction in doing so.
Now that feminism has become just as commonplace an idea of democracy, the plot of the play reads like Gloria Steinem’s worst nightmare. The whole battle-of-the-sexes dynamic seems like a regressive relic of a time no one should earnestly want.
Yet in 2024, the desire for traditional gender roles has taken on new relevance. Trad wives and Alpha males have taken the internet by storm. Gender roles and sex-based stereotypes that used to be seen as limiting and confining have now been revamped as purpose-giving and innate. How outdated is The Taming of the Shrew really?
Rather than downplay the problematic gender elements of the play, Dana Bowman, director of Classical Theatre Company’s production of The Taming of the Shrew, embraces the misogyny of trying to tame a woman. Bowman’s zany decision to frame the story as a 1950s sitcom unleashes the bawdy comedy with no reservations. There are no attempts to downplay the blatant misogyny, but the sound effects of the laugh track alongside other sound cues are enough to signal that there is a distinction to be made between humor and truth.
What’s funny doesn’t have to be true. Is that the extent to Bowman’s perspective?
The sitcom framework can only go so far. While a shrewd decision to adapt this classic this way, once the conceit loses its novelty, this production becomes just another Shakespeare play set in a new period. The laugh track becomes intermittently used. Lively '50s inspired commercial breaks devolve into obvious breaks needed for set changes. At points, the momentum flounders. The scenes don’t transition well into each other, and the comedy loses its rhythm. Thankfully, it has actors who breathe vitality into this show when its ideas are running on fumes.
From the moment Fretwell appears on stage with Eagleton, it’s clear that he has completely bought into the conventions of the sitcom. His physical comedy when he’s both Tranio and Tranio-playing-Lucentio is enjoyable to watch. The way he nimbly moves his body to evoke the confusion of a servant pretending to be upper class highlights reveals a playful use of his body. Tranio’s loyalty and resourcefulness comes through comprehensively.
Cuellar is the coquettish ingénue. Every doe-eyed glance is both beguiling and endearing. Her smile is both inviting and perfunctory. Cuellar effectively weaponizes her charm as a tool to further her own desires. She’s the sister who marries exactly who she wants to marry while Katharina ends up with a lively brute. Cuellar’s stage presence evokes that of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Daisy Buchanan — all the enchantment and allure with none of the shallowness.
Kaldis plays the stubborn sister with zeal alongside Dailey’s boisterous and capricious Petruchio. Hall delivers the most insensitive and unkind words about his eldest daughter in such a naturally glib tone that his amusing disdain for her conveys a matter of fact acceptance of who she is. Ehrhardt’s Grumio a never ending source of comical misunderstandings and tongue-in-cheek innuendo.
Domonique Champion stuns as Hortensio. His comedic timing and delivery of certain lines showcased not only his clear grasp of the language but also his ability to use his physicality to heighten a joke. At a certain point, his hat became just as much a part of his body as his arms and legs. He does not only excel at delivering multiple moments of laugh-at-loud laughter.
His failed courtship of Bianca, while funny, finds balance in his earnest display of crushed hopes and rejection. His sadness for the courtship’s ending is palpable. That sadness is also felt when Benito Vasquez as Gremio is rejected. Despite his self-interested desires for wanting Bianca as his bride, Vasquez’s disappointment is real just as much as his desire for her wealth and beauty.
What this production excels at is letting this Shakespearean comedy be a comedy. Even though the characters’ behaviors can be exaggerated, their intentions and desires are sincere and taken seriously. It’s this production’s commitment to performing the real intentions and real feelings of these characters that makes all the sexist underpinnings feel more like a bug rather than a feature.
Performances continue through April 20 at 7:30 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays, 2:30 and 7:30 p.m. Saturdays and 2:30 p.m. Sundays at the DeLuxe Theater, 3303 Lyons. For more information call, 713-963-9665 or visit classicaltheatre.org $10-$30.
