best beware my sting
Jun. 22nd, 2005 09:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ironymaideni was addled enough from my headache Monday to have completely forgotten that i saw Taming of the Shrew at Seattle Shakes.
Shrew is one of the "problem plays" these days. Kate's final speech makes audiences choke. (i find Measure for Measure much less palatable, but whatever.) so we are moved to couch the play in a concept that will connect with the audience. i'm generally in favor of the concept approach, as an illumination of the text and an invitation to the audience. for example, Richard III as a Hitleresque fascist pre WWII gives the audience a familiar handle on the military and political situation so that we can get on to the storytelling. this production was all male.
i admit that i was looking forward to some slashygoodness. (featuring the delectable Beethovan Oden as Bianca!) this production (a remount) is completely sexless. it's also not a power play. it's closed, so i can do all the spoiling i like. the play is done as a male rite of passage, a guy wraps up his workday, joins his friends, and they begin chanting an invocation and dressing up, do the play together, and then Kate puts on a tux and apparently heads off to get married.
the concept was seamlessly and faithfully executed. the movement and voice work was outstanding (lots of singing, chanting, and stomping.) the cast was full of explosive energy, and they kept it very clean, asexual without tipping into homophobic stereotyping. except for some dialogue spoken too rapidly (a common Shakespeare complaint of mine - saying it faster will not make it easier to follow) and some tacked on business, it was a good play.
i don't know that it was a good Taming of the Shrew though. i had a hard time following the story in the text and connecting all the relationships. of course, i've read the play, and worked with scenes from it as a student and seen several other productions. i've been trying to figure out if it left me dissatisfied because i had certain expectations, but i think i was disappointed that the director had a cool story to tell and had to hang it on an entirely different play. i wish that perhaps she had written her own. the best dialogue in the play was lost to an excellently rendered high school wrestling match.
my biggest problem though, was the stripping of all the joy from "what, with my tongue in your tail?" no sex, no power struggle, and nothing at stake. in the final speech, Kate breaks character for a moment, and then (for the first time) reverses pronouns, having been taught a Great Lesson about how men should treat women. in all the playing and grandstanding, i completely failed to observe Kate's humiliation and struggle...the cap, for example, carried no symbolic value in this world. there was no journey - Kate was always a willing, if not enthusiastic, participant in the process.
rather than taking on the difficult task of creating depth and believability in the characters and situations, director Shine skillfully sidestepped the entire play.
Shrew is one of the "problem plays" these days. Kate's final speech makes audiences choke. (i find Measure for Measure much less palatable, but whatever.) so we are moved to couch the play in a concept that will connect with the audience. i'm generally in favor of the concept approach, as an illumination of the text and an invitation to the audience. for example, Richard III as a Hitleresque fascist pre WWII gives the audience a familiar handle on the military and political situation so that we can get on to the storytelling. this production was all male.
i admit that i was looking forward to some slashygoodness. (featuring the delectable Beethovan Oden as Bianca!) this production (a remount) is completely sexless. it's also not a power play. it's closed, so i can do all the spoiling i like. the play is done as a male rite of passage, a guy wraps up his workday, joins his friends, and they begin chanting an invocation and dressing up, do the play together, and then Kate puts on a tux and apparently heads off to get married.
the concept was seamlessly and faithfully executed. the movement and voice work was outstanding (lots of singing, chanting, and stomping.) the cast was full of explosive energy, and they kept it very clean, asexual without tipping into homophobic stereotyping. except for some dialogue spoken too rapidly (a common Shakespeare complaint of mine - saying it faster will not make it easier to follow) and some tacked on business, it was a good play.
i don't know that it was a good Taming of the Shrew though. i had a hard time following the story in the text and connecting all the relationships. of course, i've read the play, and worked with scenes from it as a student and seen several other productions. i've been trying to figure out if it left me dissatisfied because i had certain expectations, but i think i was disappointed that the director had a cool story to tell and had to hang it on an entirely different play. i wish that perhaps she had written her own. the best dialogue in the play was lost to an excellently rendered high school wrestling match.
my biggest problem though, was the stripping of all the joy from "what, with my tongue in your tail?" no sex, no power struggle, and nothing at stake. in the final speech, Kate breaks character for a moment, and then (for the first time) reverses pronouns, having been taught a Great Lesson about how men should treat women. in all the playing and grandstanding, i completely failed to observe Kate's humiliation and struggle...the cap, for example, carried no symbolic value in this world. there was no journey - Kate was always a willing, if not enthusiastic, participant in the process.
rather than taking on the difficult task of creating depth and believability in the characters and situations, director Shine skillfully sidestepped the entire play.
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no subject
Date: 2005-06-23 04:38 am (UTC)I hope to be able to spend time with you over the summer. You're neat-o!
no subject
Date: 2005-06-23 04:41 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-23 04:44 am (UTC)