"Taming of the Shrew" at Chicago Shakespeare Theater on April 14 in Chicago, IL

First, let me say that this is by far the best production of "Taming of the Shrew" I've ever seen. It's critical of Shakespeare's script and the play within the play that we normally think of as "Taming of the Shrew" is more engaging than any I've ever seen.

"Shrew" of course, is a play within a play. The story of Kate and Petruchio is being performed for someone but the scenes that frame the play are almost always cut from the productions. For this production, Neil Labute, the consummate gazer on misogyny, has written new scenes that frame the play within the play.

The truth of the matter is that"Taming of the shrew" is incredibly misogynistic. Kate is a shrew because she knows that marriage means agreeing to become a man's property. Petruchio breaks her of her headstrong ways by starving her, preventing her from sleeping for days, keeping her in her dirty wedding dress for days, and keeping her from her family. Eventually, Kate accepts that the only way to eat is to do what her husband tells her. If he says it is day, then she agrees. If a second later he says it is night, then she agrees. In the play's closing scene, Kate preaches to the other women that they should always obey their husbands. In fact, they should lay their hand on the ground for him to step on. And then she lays her hand on the ground and he steps on it.

That is all typically played for comic effect and in this play much of it funny. However, at some point we realize that Kate is only pretending and the people who are so happy about her submission seem like the problem, not her shrewishness. By the time we get to the scene where Kate preaches to the other women, her repressed anxiety is palpable and incredibly sad. Disturbing even.

All of this works because of the Labute scenes that frame the play. There are somethings to dislike about them. They seem to go too far in search of humor at times. They even seem to explain the themes of the play too much. That much explanation is unnecessary since the directing and acting are so good that the point comes across anyway. Yet, this interpretation of the play, one that is critical of Shakespeare, needs the framing device for the commentary to work. Or rather, this way of doing it works. As the play entered its final 20 minutes I found myself almost anxious, wondering how the production would integrate this critique of sexism in the play considering where the script goes. Eventually, the framing device takes care of this surprisingly and effectively. I won't give it away but I'll say this much: there is a lot of talk about kissing in the play, both in Shakespeare's text (Petruchio thrice asks Kate to kiss him as a sign of her submission -- we won't talk about symbolism but I'm sure you get it) and in the framing scenes the woman playing Kate has some ambivalence about being kissed by the actor playing Petruchio. That kiss, the one that is asked for in the play and discussed among the actors, is important to the final scene of the play and it is the final commentary of the play.