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Presented by the Shakespeare Theatre Company, Washington, DC. November 17, 2015-January 10, 2016. Directed by Alan Paul. Scenic design by James Noone. Lighting design by Paul Miller. Costume design by Alejo Vietti. Sound design by Justin Stasiw. Music direction by Doug Peck. Choreography by Michele Lynch. With Clyde Alves (Bill Calhoun), Bob Ari (First Man), Robyn Hurder (Lois Lane), Raymond Jaramillo McLeod (Second Man), Christine Sherrill (Lilli Vanessi), Douglas Sills (Fred Graham), Patrick Ryan Sullivan (Harrison Howell), and others.
The Taming of the Shrew
Presented by the Shakespeare Theatre Company, Washington, DC. 17 May-26 June 2016. Directed by Ed Sylvanus Iskandar. Music by Duncan Sheik. Scenic design by Jason Sherwood. Lighting design by Seth Reiser. Costume design by Loren Shaw. Sound design by Jeremy S. Bloom. Music direction by Jody Schum. Choreography by Chase Brock. With André De Shields (Gremio/Vincentio/Curtis), Drew Foster (Biondello), Peter Gadiot (Petruchio), Rick Hammerly (Widow/Pedant), Telly Leung (Lucentio), Gregory Linington (Grumio), Maulik Pancholy (Katherina), Matthew Russell (Tranio), Tom Story (Hortensio), Oliver Thornton (Bianca/Haberdasher), Bernard White (Baptista/Tailor), and others.
Washington, DC's Shakespeare Theatre Company neatly coupled Cole Porter's Kiss Me, Kate and The Taming of the Shrew in a single season, offering an opportunity to reflect on these classic scripts' resonance in the twenty-first century. Sadly, while both productions boasted elaborate and fairly brilliant aesthetic elements, neither thoroughly nor successfully confronted the problematic aspects of the texts, rendering the performances enjoyable to an extent, but ultimately unfulfilling.
Kate and Shrew share a narrative core, of course, and to many that core comes across as, if not rotten, then overripe in our contemporary culture. Kate's central on-again-off-again romance between actors Fred Graham and Lilli Vanessi, engaged in a musical adaptation of Shrew, does not precisely parallel the source material, yet their bitter back-andforth mirrors-if not endorses-the male-dominated world Shakespeare represents. Fred, especially, echoes Petruchio, belittling Lilli from the first. During an early rehearsal scene, she says, "I have a question about my character." He replies, "With psychiatric help, you'll be fine"-a barb not that far from the demeaning double-entendre of "You lie, in faith, for you are called plain Kate, and bonny Kate, and sometimes Kate the curst" (2.1.183-84). Such difficult material demands keen critical attention in its performance, but that kind of...