The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare

 genre: fiction, theater

Baptista has two daughters.  His older daughter, Katherine, is the "Shrew" of the title.  She's headstrong and has a wicked comeback to any comment.  Bianca, the younger sister, is exactly the sort of mild mannered maiden a 17th century father would be proud of.  Baptista, when he sees men ready to court Bianca, decides to make things tricky:  Bianca cannot be married until Katherine is.  And who would want to marry Katherine?

While there are lot of other antics going on in this show, the crux revolves around Katherine and Petruchio, the gold-digger who is looking for a wife.  The tricky part about reading a play is that you don't have someone that's studied the character using their own emphasis and body language to help you understand their interpretation of it.  I wrote this back in 2009 when I saw the play performed: 

The hilarity abounded. The actors were spot-on, I believed them and laughed at their antics, was mildly embarrassed by their bawdiness (it's different when the making-out is happening RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOUR FACE) loved the style and feel of the production. Sabrina LeBeauf's Katherina was brutal (remember her from The Cosby Show?) and I LOVED the Petruchio. LOVED him. It's so satisfying to be so incredibly entertained, and this one makes you think a little bit too - it felt strange to see Katherina played and ground into the dirt. But I tell you, when Petruchio says "Kate" and you KNOW he loves her now, for real - and you can see that she's ready to let him be her boss but then he doesn't require it of her - MAN. That is some awesome theater. This play has SO many great one-liners and the feel of actors playing to an audience is just so different than watching it on tv. With Shakespeare, especially, live is just the best way to go. I appreciate reading it, I like reading it, but the ultimate experiences is a well done live production.

Because I did NOT love Petruchio in this reading.  I did NOT see hilarity unbounded.  I wanted to punch Petruchio in the throat.  At face value, this play feels abusive and misogynistic.  It takes some real time and effort to look beyond the surface and see what's happening underneath.  That maybe Katherine's long speech at the end is her giant "wink" to the audience and that scenes that come off as strangely comedic are actually Petruchio giving Katherine way more leeway to make choices than it would seem like at first glance.  

I really appreciate literature that has layers to stretch me and make me think.  Reading things as someone four hundred plus years older than the original actors also makes for a dizzying experience, in some ways, with so much context and language lost to me.  I really like the Folder version that gives so much information on the left while we read the text on the right, so if I get stuck or lost, I just look left to sort myself out.

I've never yet been sorry I've given Shakespeare some of my time.