Posted in: Audio Dramas, Review, TV | Tagged: shakespeare, Shrew!, The Taming of the Shrew
SHREW! is Amy Freed’s feminist rewrite of Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew that recreates the bawdy, broad humour with out the misogyny.
Audio drama podcasts are nonetheless a Wild West with untapped potential, and SCREW! is the most recent swing in attempting one thing completely different: a feminist rewriting of Shakespeare’s most sexist play. That play is The Taming of the Shrew, a comedy about how a domineering man “tames’ his new fiery and bad-tempered spouse into turning into an obedient and submissive spouse by, nicely, abusing and torturing her like depriving her of meals and water till she submits to his will, after which brainwashes her into scolding her sisters into being servile wives as nicely. There isn’t any denying the sexual politics of the play regardless of many apologists over the a long time attempting to defend it as “ironic commentary.” The uncommon try with some feminist studying simply cannot get previous the textual content itself. Prolific playwright Amy Freed actually thought that and determined to rewrite it, therefore SHREW!
SHREW! purports to inform the “true” story of The Taming of the Shrew. It begins with pub landlady Mistress Slapbottom (Tessa Auberjonois) clearing the joint of all its rowdy revelers, leaving her alone together with her go to from an previous good friend: an unnamed feminine playwright (Susannah Rogers) who has to disguise herself as a person to reply her calling as a author. Stated author is fairly pissed off about being tasked with ghostwriting a sexist play concerning the taming of a shrew for a hack playwright who could not crack it himself by his deadline. Within the privateness of the pub, she begins a web page one rewrite to entertain herself and her good friend. Referencing the unique play’s framing sequence, the motion shifts to the rewritten play.
Right here the “shrew” of the play, Katherine, is now a lady who loves studying and can’t stand being cooped up by the lads who attempt to management her (which was actually the unique play, solely this time she’s the hero as an alternative, the antagonist). As within the authentic Shrew, it begins with gents Lucentio and Tranio, who’re visiting Padua. Strolling by the college, Lucentio is straight away obsessed with Katherine’s sister, Bianca, an airhead who loves being in a person’s world. He conspires with Tranio to disguise himself as a tutor and get near Bianca by pretending to present her classes. In the meantime, Petruchio arrives on the town along with his trusty servant, Grumio, to go to his pals. They’re greeted by Petruchio’s previous pal, Hortensio, and issues kick off, however not the way in which the unique Shrew goes.
Shakespeare as audio performs will not be a brand new factor. BBC Radio does it on a regular basis and you’ll find current American productions throughout Audible with well-known TV and movie actors within the forged. SHREW! is a shot at doing one thing previous and new on the similar time. It is stuffed with raucous double entendres and daring, broad performances supposed to play to the rafters. The actors double up in different roles. Maybe Shakespeare is a distinct segment amongst Individuals, however that is nearly as good a Shakespeare explainer of how a beforehand established story might be modified with only a completely different perspective.
SHREW! is out there on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and all main podcast platforms
SHREW!
Overview by Adi Tantimedh
8/10
A feminist rewrite of Shakespeare’s “The Taming of the Shrew”, Amy Freed’s audio comedy drama recreates the raucous jokes of Shakespearean theatre with all of the bawdy jokes, double entendres and broad performances and in addition deconstructs the character of storytelling and the way characters, themes and a well known story might be modified with only a completely different standpoint.
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