Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival's 'The Taming of the Shrew'

Some context: in June, the Reject Theatre Company's adaptation-commentary-parody, called SHREW, confirmed for me the misogyny of Shakespeare's romantic comedy. A man arranges to marry a woman who’s "intolerably cursed" with a bad attitude, an "irksome, brawling scold." He opts to "tame" her. Whether we call it tough love or stooping to her level, he whisks her away by force from their wedding to his home, where he denies her food and sleep, and insists that she accept whatever he says as truth.

The Taming of the Shrew sounds horrible, though it has played successfully as a romantic comedy for over 400 years. The play ends not with their wedding, but with a speech in which Katherina apparently pledges obedience (in order to help her husband win a bet) — and that couple is not only happy, but the best matched of the play's three newlywed pairs.

Taming the shrew today

I think Pfeiffer and PSF succeed through skillful machinations, calculated charms, and a few careful cuts and additions. I saw an audience eat it up without reservation, and reward the company with a standing ovation.

David P. Gordon appears to set the play backstage, or on an empty stage in transition. Brick walls loom behind wood scaffolding, props and furniture are strewn about, costume racks roll around, and a piano is prominent. Actors are onstage talking, stretching, waving to friends, and singing and playing instruments (an ongoing motif, set to Alex Bechtel’s terrific original music). It’s a relaxed, friendly atmosphere.

Olivera Gajic’s whimsical costumes suggest Elizabethan shapes, but are a motley mix of periods and styles. Eleanor Handley, who plays shrewish Kate, steps forward wearing jeans and a black corset over a white t-shirt to deliver an informal curtain speech; before the play begins, we’ve bonded with her.

We like you, we really like you

Other casting likewise helps our minds resist darker thoughts. Ian Merrill Peakes, one of Philadelphia’s most accomplished actors, plays Petruchio, the would-be tamer. Sure, he seems tough at first with slicked-back hair, sunglasses, leather jacket, black jeans, and boots, but his Petruchio is smart, funny, and adorably self-conscious, seemingly not a likely abuser.

Other decisions also help: Linda Thorson plays both Katherina’s father Baptista, who offers Petrucchio a huge dowry to marry her, and her mother. This breaks up the “boy’s club” feeling. Handley’s Katherina is likewise more complex than most, aided by silent moments not in Shakespeare’s script. For example, when they first meet, both react with instant mutual attraction. Later, she’s about to run away, but sees her wedding dress and has a change of heart.

Pfeiffer also emphasizes slapstick violence (staged by Dale Anthony Girard), not only between Petruchio and servant Grumio (Eric Hissom), but also in his big confrontations with Katharina; Petruchio wins their first battle by tickling. Katherina instigates violence and seems the greater bully; when the hapless fellow responds in self-defense and is humorously overmatched, we’re sympathetic. His mature restraint softens his declaration that, “I will be master of what is my own,” meaning Katherina.

At Petruchio’s house, the cruel treatment satirized so effectively in SHREW likewise is tempered with laughs. When Petruchio rejects the food Katherina so desperately wants, he throws each item over his shoulder and the servants catch it all — a nifty bit.

The action around their relationship enhances the good feeling, peopled with terrific character actors led by lovely Ally Borgstrom as Katherina’s sister Bianca; Bechtel and Carl N. Wallnau as her suitors, joined by Brandon J. Pierce as newcomer Lucentio, who switches places with his servant Tranio (Dan Hodge) in order to gain access to Bianca; and a fine ensemble, who all contribute musically as well. The biggest laughs and ovations, however, are for Katherina and Petruchio.

What to Do?

Given our society’s struggles to treat women equally, should we blithely enjoy a play that depends so much on a woman being mistreated, even (or especially) if a production softens and obscures that mistreatment? We can’t just toss this play; it exists, and because it’s Shakespeare, it will be considered for production, whatever its faults. Moreover, all Shakespeare’s plays are prodded, trimmed, and twisted to suit today’s audiences and to express directorial preferences, biases, and concepts. (The Merchant of Venice poses much the same challenges, as its characters’ happiness depends on destroying a Jewish man they despise.)

A full production that embraced what Rejected’s SHREW highlighted, by focusing on the brutality of Petruchio’s actions toward Katherina and society’s harsh and unfair treatment of women in general, could not be the romantic comedy that The Taming of the Shrew must be to succeed. To do the play today — not an entertaining commentary, like SHREW — means producing it as Pfeiffer and PSF do. I’m sorry that’s such a qualified compliment, but there it is; I hope that everyone who sees the play feels a twinge of discomfort.

The other lesson, perhaps, is that even for his shortcomings and after 400 years, Shakespeare is still relevant.

For Mark Cofta's review of SHREW, click here.