William Shakespeare’s “The Taming of the Shrew” is a difficult play to stage, even by Shakespearean standards. The play does not have any major action scenes, and the plot revolves around a convoluted scheme to wed off the elder “shrewish” daughter of the lord Baptista, so that her more favored younger sister can wed one of many suitors. Bianca, the younger daughter, is pursued throughout the play by at least three suitors, and a fourth can appear depending on the interpretation.
But “The Taming of the Shrew’s” complicated plot is not the only factor in making the play a challenge for any university troupe. To modern ears, the text’s apparent morals are questionable, at best. What to make of a play whose female lead ends the show by declaring “Thy husband is thy lord, thy life, thy keeper / Thy head, thy sovereign; one that cares for thee… such duty as the subject owes the prince / even such a woman oweth to her husband”?
The American University in Cairo’s Performing Arts Department has been tackling this challenge for the past week, and their effort, under the direction of theatre professor Leila E. Saad, has produced some impressive results.
One of the best bits of producing Shakespeare is deciding where the action is to be set. Saad has chosen Southwest California in the 1850s, just after the Mexican War.
“[With the setting] I am stressing the romantic comedy and not the farce,” Saad told Daily News Egypt. “To me, the battle of the sexes started way before Shakespeare. He just put it on paper.”
The setting gives the production an excuse to build a Pueblo-inspired set and bathes it with red and gold light. The costume designers, led by Jeanne Arnold, have also taken advantage of the setting, dressing the cast in cloaks, blankets, and a variety of impressive vests, in addition to the cigars.
Southwest California also allows the action to be punctuated by Latin-inspired dance interludes (complete with dramatic light shifts and spotlights) along with guitar strumming by Nathan Fischer, an AUC music professor.
AUC’s shift from a campus downtown to the current one in New Cairo has had a huge impact on the theater department. Only two main productions have been staged this year, and many of the actors in “Taming of the Shrew” are appearing on stage for the first time. Only six of the actors have appeared in previous AUC productions.
“I see it as training theater,” said Saad. “[With the experienced ones] we worked on how to deal with heightened language … how to work with the verse.”
“With the rest, we had to teach them the basics,” she said. “Upstage, downstage — they’d never been on a stage before.”
Saad called the process “a privilege and a challenge.”
“It was an amazing experience,” she said. “That’s what educational theatre is all about.”
The entire cast, which has been in rehearsals since mid-February, has a good chemistry about them.
Jason Will, playing Petruchio, holds himself with the right level of arrogance. Dahlia Abou Azama, playing Katherina (the “shrew” of the title), sinks her teeth into her character’s idiosyncrasies — and, in a strange impulse, even sinks her teeth into other characters’ shoulders.
Noha Gaafar, playing Bianca, gives her role an appreciated complexity, acting the perfect child in her father’s presence, while fighting with her sister and stealing kisses from Lucentio, another suitor (played by Alaa Shafei).
Other highlights include Salma Amen, playing Biondella with admirable commitment, and Moustafa Khalil, who brings a good comedic timing to his role as Gremio, Bianca’s unsuccessful suitor.
Finally, Omar Khaled and Marwan Ihab make the most out of their roles as Petruchio’s servants, showing a physicality unmatched onstage. Their comedic antics in Petruchio’s house are the unexpected highlight of the second act.
The play is not without some faults — mostly rooted in the script’s challenges. Katherina’s character transformation into the obedient wife still comes across as a bit forced and Gremio’s dismissal of his unsuccessful bid for Bianca in favor of free food lands feeling a bit contrived.
However, the production does an admirable job dealing with Katherina’s final lines, imploring women to “place your hands between your husband’s foot” — a statement Karen Newman, a Shakespeare scholar, called “the most variously … and controversially … interpreted lines in the play.”
Azama chooses to embrace the irony of her character’s speech; imploring women to “be passive” while crossing into a power position downstage center, and shouting her words with a loud, authoritative voice. Accompanied with some good lighting work by Kelly Allison, the effect is striking.
The American University in Cairo Department of Performing and Visual Arts Presents The Taming of the Shrew. Written by William Shakespeare. Direction by Leila E. Saad. Closing Thursday, May 6 at 7 pm at the Malak Gabr Arts Theater in New Cairo. LE 20 per seat. Free shuttle leaves from the downtown campus at 5:30 pm. Tel: 0121721526.
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The costume designers, led by Jeanne Arnold, have also taken advantage of the setting, dressing the cast in cloaks, blankets, and a variety of impressive vests.
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