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Jul. 24th, 2006 02:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
godreamSo we finally got out to see Shakespeare on the Common -- this year they were doing the Taming of the Shrew. I tend to like the comedies a bit more than the tragedies, with a whole bunch of significant exceptions, so I had fairly high hopes... it'd been an awfully long time since I read tTotS, though, and I've never seen a production of it before, and I forgot that I sorta hate it a little.
Sooooo I consider myself a feminist and not ashamed of the label either, though a little sad at all the feminazi man-hater baggage it carries. At the same time, I generally don't demand a feminist perspective in my entertainment. I watch stupid romantic comedies and I play video games and I don't throw a fit when I see an helpless, ditzy, & unredeemed damsel in distress. And yet oh my god this play -- the fifth act, specifically -- makes me flinch.
If you haven't read it or seen it, here's the really quick synopsis: a man has two daughters; the younger (Bianca) is sweet and biddable and the elder is the Shrew of the play's title, Katherina, cranky and violent and fiery and unreasonable. He declares the younger will not be wed till the older is, so the man in love with the younger convinces (with a bit of reverse psychology and, of course, mention of a rich dowry) a friend to woo the elder. Initially, the elder is angry as expected, holding her own in fiercely witty arguments with her would-be suitor; she must marry him nonetheless and eventually (through withholding food, drink, and sleep) he breaks her temper. By the end of the show, the Shrew is a "better" wife than her sister, which pretty much translates to more obedient. The end.
The Commonwealth Shakespeare Troupe sets their production in the North End -- I can't identify the decade they're aiming for, 'cause I suck -- cheerfully changes every instance of "Padua" to "Bostonia", and outfits their characters with thick Italian accents... with the exception of Tranio, who's all Boston, broad As and dropped Rs -- I adored it, the New Yorker I saw it with called it "grating". I really liked their set and setting, but it did mean that the class issues inherent in the play (one main plot thread involves a servant and master impersonating each other) get sort of muted, leaving the title plot thread as the big clear glaring example of Shakespeare's favorite role-reversal plot, even more so than it might be otherwise.
I enjoyed the first couple of acts -- Bianca's suitor Lucentio is suitably starry-eyed and innocent; Tranio is a good-tempered sly cynic; Bianca is thoroughly blonde and occasionally sulky; Katherina and her suitor Petruchio spar enthusiastically and engagingly, he twists the scene into a dance, it's fantastic. In fact I was totally into it even up to Act 4 where Petruchio decides no food is good enough for Katherina, much to her dismay. It was hilarious, well-acted, well-staged.
But -- completely predictably -- the moment Katherina caves, I'm done. I'm bored, I'm offended, I'm convinced that this is pointless and archaic and clearly here we have the Shakespeare play that just isn't applicable to This Day And Age. I hate it. I can barely listen to Katherina's closing monologue where she proclaims the role of the proper wife -- an excerpt: "Such duty as the subject owes the prince/Even such a woman oweth to her husband;/And when she is froward, peevish, sullen, sour,/And not obedient to his honest will,/What is she but a foul contending rebel/And graceless traitor to her loving lord?" -- And maybe I'd flinch less at that if they hadn't (like I said) ditched most of the questions of class: there's an irony in the lines about subject and prince, servant and master, when we've just watched characters swap around those roles, and maybe I'd find that more prominent were it harped on more earlier. Certainly there's the potential for irony and sarcasm in her 30-line speech. Maybe they were trying to play on it in the production and I just missed it. Maybe. Maybe the whole point was just: see, she delivers this speech just like she delivered the ones at the beginning, the same angry rasp/screech/shout, she just likes bitching and she doesn't mean a word, she's lecturing and shouting simply because she enjoys it no matter who the target...
... but I sat there on the Common and all I saw was Katherina delivering this speech for the amusement of the laughing, cheering male characters -- the father who's glad anyone will marry her at all and the suitor who's practically tortured her, the men who've made bets on "their" womens' obedience -- strutting around for their attention and approval, and I thought about getting up and leaving, 'cause ... fuck.
Anyways. Taming of the Shrew runs for another two and a half weeks, and in spite of all that I'd recommend seeing it -- I really liked most of it, after all. Also, a different company is doing A Midsummer Night's Dream in a bunch of public parks in New England. Unfortunately I'm out of state for both of the Massachusetts ones, (and I'm really sad about it -- it's one of my favorites,) but fellow MIT kids -- go see the Arlington one on the 6th, it's public transportation accessible! And free!
Sooooo I consider myself a feminist and not ashamed of the label either, though a little sad at all the feminazi man-hater baggage it carries. At the same time, I generally don't demand a feminist perspective in my entertainment. I watch stupid romantic comedies and I play video games and I don't throw a fit when I see an helpless, ditzy, & unredeemed damsel in distress. And yet oh my god this play -- the fifth act, specifically -- makes me flinch.
If you haven't read it or seen it, here's the really quick synopsis: a man has two daughters; the younger (Bianca) is sweet and biddable and the elder is the Shrew of the play's title, Katherina, cranky and violent and fiery and unreasonable. He declares the younger will not be wed till the older is, so the man in love with the younger convinces (with a bit of reverse psychology and, of course, mention of a rich dowry) a friend to woo the elder. Initially, the elder is angry as expected, holding her own in fiercely witty arguments with her would-be suitor; she must marry him nonetheless and eventually (through withholding food, drink, and sleep) he breaks her temper. By the end of the show, the Shrew is a "better" wife than her sister, which pretty much translates to more obedient. The end.
The Commonwealth Shakespeare Troupe sets their production in the North End -- I can't identify the decade they're aiming for, 'cause I suck -- cheerfully changes every instance of "Padua" to "Bostonia", and outfits their characters with thick Italian accents... with the exception of Tranio, who's all Boston, broad As and dropped Rs -- I adored it, the New Yorker I saw it with called it "grating". I really liked their set and setting, but it did mean that the class issues inherent in the play (one main plot thread involves a servant and master impersonating each other) get sort of muted, leaving the title plot thread as the big clear glaring example of Shakespeare's favorite role-reversal plot, even more so than it might be otherwise.
I enjoyed the first couple of acts -- Bianca's suitor Lucentio is suitably starry-eyed and innocent; Tranio is a good-tempered sly cynic; Bianca is thoroughly blonde and occasionally sulky; Katherina and her suitor Petruchio spar enthusiastically and engagingly, he twists the scene into a dance, it's fantastic. In fact I was totally into it even up to Act 4 where Petruchio decides no food is good enough for Katherina, much to her dismay. It was hilarious, well-acted, well-staged.
But -- completely predictably -- the moment Katherina caves, I'm done. I'm bored, I'm offended, I'm convinced that this is pointless and archaic and clearly here we have the Shakespeare play that just isn't applicable to This Day And Age. I hate it. I can barely listen to Katherina's closing monologue where she proclaims the role of the proper wife -- an excerpt: "Such duty as the subject owes the prince/Even such a woman oweth to her husband;/And when she is froward, peevish, sullen, sour,/And not obedient to his honest will,/What is she but a foul contending rebel/And graceless traitor to her loving lord?" -- And maybe I'd flinch less at that if they hadn't (like I said) ditched most of the questions of class: there's an irony in the lines about subject and prince, servant and master, when we've just watched characters swap around those roles, and maybe I'd find that more prominent were it harped on more earlier. Certainly there's the potential for irony and sarcasm in her 30-line speech. Maybe they were trying to play on it in the production and I just missed it. Maybe. Maybe the whole point was just: see, she delivers this speech just like she delivered the ones at the beginning, the same angry rasp/screech/shout, she just likes bitching and she doesn't mean a word, she's lecturing and shouting simply because she enjoys it no matter who the target...
... but I sat there on the Common and all I saw was Katherina delivering this speech for the amusement of the laughing, cheering male characters -- the father who's glad anyone will marry her at all and the suitor who's practically tortured her, the men who've made bets on "their" womens' obedience -- strutting around for their attention and approval, and I thought about getting up and leaving, 'cause ... fuck.
Anyways. Taming of the Shrew runs for another two and a half weeks, and in spite of all that I'd recommend seeing it -- I really liked most of it, after all. Also, a different company is doing A Midsummer Night's Dream in a bunch of public parks in New England. Unfortunately I'm out of state for both of the Massachusetts ones, (and I'm really sad about it -- it's one of my favorites,) but fellow MIT kids -- go see the Arlington one on the 6th, it's public transportation accessible! And free!
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Date: 2006-07-24 08:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-07-28 12:17 am (UTC)