Shakespeare Coursework
‘The Taming of the Shrew’
[Mel, the director, is sitting on the floor, sipping at a steaming mug of black coffee, in her studio. She flicks through ‘The Taming of the Shrew’ script]
Mel: [sighs] My actors are of a strange nature, and I, being not of their boisterous humour, shall have to dive deep into the pools of male shame.
Many troubles shall arise from this strange mix of men. To be content is not to be content at all (as I am not content with such odd fellows to surround me).
And as a simple woman, amongst this mob of crows, it shall be my horrid burden to disperse their brawls and rows.
Say that they moan, why then I shall take Petruchio’s path, and say each word is a blessing to the tongue.
Say that they rail, I’ll say they sing as sweetly as the nightingale.
[There is a knock at the studio door]
Mel: No time to plan what events may happen. I stand alone on this stage, and now, Melanie, speak.
[Mel closes the script, puts down the mug and goes to open the door]
Enter Paul (actor playing Petruchio)
Mel: Paul, hi. How are you?
Paul: Quite satisfactory, thank you. [Paul strides across the room to where the mug of coffee is. Mel closes door and follows]
Mel: Good, good. [Paul sits down and picks up the coffee, he takes a sip] Thank you Paul! [Snatches back coffee, placing it back on the floor]
Paul: So, [Looks around the room, grinning] where’s my fierce female?
Mel: Female? What female? [Takes a sip of coffee, not looking at Paul]
Paul: My wild wench, my brutal bride, my lusty lass, my…Kate!
Mel: [laughs] Oh Paul, you’re so funny.
Paul: [Looking confused] I didn’t know you were amused by alliteration, Mel.
Mel: [Stops laughing] um…Paul…there is no female.
Paul: Excuse me?
Mel: It’s a traditional performance. [Paul continues to look puzzled] It’s an all male cast, like in Shakespearian times.
Paul: [Paul jumps up] The cast is all WHAT?!
Mel: Male, Paul. Male. [smiles slightly]
Paul: You misled me to think that I would be along side a ‘young budding virgin, fresh and sweet’
Mel: ‘Why, how now,’ Paul, ‘I hope thou art not mad!’
Paul: I believe I am! Mad, as in angry- most certainly! Mad, as in insane- most probably!
Mel: Paul, it takes quite the masculine man to act alongside a man as though they are in love.
Paul: A man? A MAN? Mel, you can’t be serious?!
Mel: Is it against the law to have men playing women?
Paul: Should be!
Mel: ‘Should be? Should-buzz!’
Paul: [glares] Oh please? I won’t play your silly quote game! [begins to pace] Why didn’t I know? I mean, I auditioned for the part and you didn’t, bloody well, tell me! What’s up with that, Mel?
Mel: I thought your agent might have told you. And as for ‘audition’? I think ‘audition’ is a bit of a stretch; more like walked into the room, read the script and then walked out again.
Paul: [Sarcastic] Ooooh, well in that case-
Enter Lesley (actor playing Katherina)
[Lesley bursts through the studio door, with a big grin and looking quite feminine]
Lesley: Daaaaaaaaaarlings! [Strides across the room and grabs Paul by the shoulders, turning Paul to look at him. Lesley looks Paul up and down] Well, well- look at you! Aren’t you the most fabulous Petruchio that I ever met? Ooooooo, I just want to eat you. [Paul moves backward looking disgusted. Lesley turns to Mel] Oh this is all just too fabulous, I’ve been waiting for this opportunity for like…a life time! [claps hands excitedly] I’ve learnt all my lines, every single one!
Paul: [Still staring disgustedly] What, in God’s name, is that?
Mel: [Stands, taking a drink from her mug of coffee] This, Paul, is Lesley Argyle- aka Katherina. [Paul opens his mouth to speak but Mel interrupts] Well, let’s get to it then. I think it’s best we start straight away. I asked you to write a diary from your character’s point of view so that you could get to know them a little better and explore them in depth, so you ought to know them inside out by now. So tell me, in short, what you’ve found out.
Lesley: Oh I do know. She wants to be….a man!
Paul: SHE WHAT?
Lesley: I mean she wants to be an equal. She wants to be free, to be herself. But it’s not just men that she wants to be equal with, she wants to be equal to Bianca, like when Katherina says ‘Why, and I trust I may go in too, may I not?’ she means that she hasn’t been mentioned by Baptista and her skills have not been told of, so she is not asked to go in- meaning that she is not equal to Bianca.
And then again when she says ‘What, will you not suffer me? Nay, now I see she is your treasure, she must have a husband…’ Katherina is jealous of her sister being the apple of Baptista’s eye, and all men’s eyes.
She also does not wish to marry against her will- ‘I must forsooth be forced to give my hand, opposed to my heart’.
Mel: Good exploration, you know her mind and opinions. Paul, what about Petruchio?
Paul: Petruchio sees it as his task to tame Katherina, she’s a real challenge to him and he’s up to taking the burden ‘For I am he born to tame you, Kate, and bring you from a wild Kate to a Kate comfortable as other household Kates’ and this also shows that he’s very determined because he keeps saying Kate, which we already know she doesn’t like from the moment she says ‘Well have you heard, but something hard of hearing; They call me Katherine that do talk of me’. I think he has a very pronounced view of women for her tells Kate that ‘women are made to bear, and so are you’ meaning that women are born to have children.
He also plans his tactics first; his soliloquy before Kate and Petruchio’s first meeting presents his strategy- that he will compliment her even when she is below it.
Mel: Good, thorough for a man who doesn’t even know the cast is male. [Mel and Lesley laugh] Lesley, you’ve really caught on that she’s a modern woman, we need to really emphasise that point throughout the play.
Paul: Well, to be frank, I think it’s ludicrous!
Mel: [turning on Paul and glaring, her tone is cool] Oh do you?
Paul: Well, yes. The play is about women knowing their place, learning to live as the common housewife. Hence ‘And place your hands below your husband’s foot’. It’s showing that Kate has learnt to live under a man’s command- the way society was. None of this independence nonsense.
Mel: Well, sadly for you, I’m running this play and I say we act it to a modern equal audience, not a bunch of low-life, arrogant, beer-bellied, lazy, pain in the neck mules! [breathing deeply] I think Katherina’s speech is one of realisation that she’s in a no win situation, not that she’s learning to appreciate her husband. Perhaps an essence of love is there, we shall explore that matter, but either way, such a fearsome woman would not fall down to a man.
Paul: But what about ‘Thy husband is thy lord, thy life, thy keeper, thy head, thy sovereign’? Doesn’t that show acceptance?
Lesley: Personally I agree.
Mel: Really?
Lesley: Yes, she’s accepting the view of the time- that the husband provided for the family- it wasn’t just a view in those times, it was a fact.
Mel: [Looking defeated] I suppose you’re right, but I won’t have it all that way. She will be catty, and fierce and bold.
Paul: Rightly so. That’s who she is from birth, but the play is the story of her learning the ways of the time. I know it’s not an Elizabethan audience, but we must act in the way it was written. Mel, maybe if you think of it from Shakespeare’s perspective.
Mel: [takes a drink of coffee] Good point Paul, well done. Let’s look at act 2, scene 1. That’s very important to set straight. Go from ‘Come, sit on me.’
[Paul picks up a chair from the left side of the room and brings it to the middle, sitting himself upon it]
Paul: ‘Come, sit on me.’ [Paul grabs Lesley by the waist and pulls him down, forcefully, onto his lap]
Mel: Good
Lesley: [struggling to get up, but Paul holds him around the stomach] ‘Asses are made to bear, and so are you.’
Paul: [laughs heartily] ‘Women are made to bear, and so are you’. [Raises eyebrows]
Lesley: [turns to face Mel] Mel, I’m just wondering- do I constantly struggle through this scene, or do you want to make this more about the words?
Mel: Not constantly struggling, no, that would draw the audience away from the humour in the speech. Give in when Paul says ‘Women are made to bear, and so are you’ because you can turn to face him and glare at him.
Paul: Um, Lesley doesn’t have to actually strike me, does he?
Mel: Well, he’ll slap you when he says ‘Good Kate, I am a gentleman-’ but remember that your character is strong-willed and will not take a second blow. So grab his arms, twist them slightly and be very forceful.
[Lesley swings his arm back as if to strike Paul, but he grabs it and grips hard]
Paul: [in a threatening tone] ‘I swear I’ll cuff you, if you strike again.’
Mel: Good change in mood there. The contrast will add to the intensities of your character.
[Lesley gets off Paul’s lap and walks over to Mel, rubbing the back of his head and inhaling an unsatisfied breath]
Paul: What’s wrong Les?
Lesley: It’s Kate’s speech, I just can’t get my head around it. Is she giving in? Is she fed up? Is she genuinely a well mannered woman now?
Mel: I see your dilemma; I needed to sort this anyway. Paul your input here is vital, Katherina’s final speech are words influenced by Petruchio. We need to define what speech this really is. [A moments silence] Speak to me, I need your ideas.
Paul: Well, really I think Petruchio’s words at the end of Katherina’s transformation sums up what Kate has become: ‘Why, there’s a wench! Come on, and kiss me, Kate’.
Mel: What do you mean?
Paul: The speech isn’t a weak woman speaking her first words of a forced life, it is a strong speech that acknowledges the bond between a man and his wife, and how they are respectful of the other no matter what the circumstances. It’s the true marriage behind the wedding, not just a fancy party and the owning of a woman, but the hand in hand care and affection; the truce in a battle; the merging of two lives.
[Mel and Lesley stare a little gob smacked; Lesley’s mouth is half open]
Mel: I…I…I say we’re done for…for tonight.
[The other two agree and after waves and goodbyes Paul and Lesley exit the scene, conversing with each other]
Lesley: I’ll buy you a drink, darling. You need a whiskey after that little novel you just recited. It’s on me.
[Mel shuts the door and goes back and picks up her coffee mug. She tips the last of the coffee down her throat then places the empty mug back on the floor. She leaves the mug next to the closed ‘The Taming of the Shrew’ text. Mel puts on her coat, walks to the studio door and opens it. She steps inside the door frame and then faces the audience]
Mel: Now, Mel, go thy ways, thou hast tamed a curst shrew.
[She closes the door behind her]
