Kassandra Darnell

Online: Production of Shakespeare’s “Taming of the Shrew” challenges gender roles

“The Taming of the Shrew,” the University of Indianapolis Department of Theatre’s

second production of the 2021-2022 season, concluded on Oct. 30. Set in artist Andy Warhol’s

Factory in the 1960s and 1970s, this adaptation of the classic Shakespeare comedy highlighted

gender and presented it in fluid ways within the sphere of leather, rock and androgyny, according

to an email from UIndy Arts.

Associate Adjunct Professor of Theatre Grant Williams directed the play, and while he

said he had never adapted Shakespeare before this production, it was something that he wanted

to tackle. Williams said that “Taming of the Shrew” is by no means his favorite Shakespeare

piece, but the show has a legacy that speaks to gender and power within our culture and he

wanted to reexamine those relationships. According to Williams, he had this idea several years

ago and wanted to adapt the show and try to reverse or complicate gender specifically by

utilizing gender blind casting.

“I auditioned anybody for any part, and just kind of put people where I thought would be

a good fit for them, a good counterpart to someone else in the play,” Williams said. “It greatly

complicates the notion of gender expectations. And, to that end, I wanted to recall or situate it

within the world of that particular 1960s Andy Warhol, New York club setting where gender was

rather androgynous or ambiguous. Power differentials still exist, sexual impulse obviously is still

present. But the gender expectation of man as man, woman as a woman, or is kind of

complicated and less forthright, less prominent.”

Junior theatre and sociology major Kelli Thomas portrays Petruchio, who is meant to be

the male lead in the play. Thomas said she does have experience with Shakespeare and has
played gender-swapped roles before, but has never done it in this way. In her portrayal of

Petruchio, Thomas said it is much more gender-fluid, as opposed to playing the role as if it was

always meant to be performed by a woman.

“It's like I'm dressed as a woman, you can tell I'm a woman, but I have more masculine

attributes,” Thomas said. “I've never played a role where I'm kind of both the feminine and

masculine kind of joined together and make it very fluid and open to different concepts of

gender.”

Thomas said she struggled to get into the mindset of Petruchio when she was preparing

for the role because it is meant to be a male character that is meant to be almost an abusive

husband figure, as Williams described it to her. One of the main challenges, Thomas said, was

having to figure out different techniques and physical gestures in order to ensure the audience

knew what was going on within the story in case they did not understand the Elizabethan English

used by Shakespeare. Overall, she said she felt that being a part of this show has helped her

improve as an actor.

“I think Shakespeare in general challenges you,” Thomas said. “I think just the

challenges that came along with it… now I'm more comfortable doing physical comedy and

comedy in general. I've done Shakespeare before, but it's given me a better perspective on how to

go into Shakespeare because Shakespeare is very popular in the theater world. Having that skill

is really essential as an actor, so being able to grow with Shakespeare is really important as an

actor.”

Williams said he feels it is important to have shows like this that complicate gender

because there are still many issues today with gender and power, and that argument is still

something to be discussed and looked at. In doing so, he said he may have complicated the
narrative understanding for the audience, but that was important in order to make viewers look

deeper into the meaning.

“This is a story that a lot of people have seen from something like ‘10 Things I Hate

About You,’ or the trope of the story kind of is a little bit understood in contemporary society,”

Williams said. “I wanted to further that understanding and maybe muddy it a little bit and make

people think a little bit deeper about [the play]. I also hoped that it would just be fun. I don't

know how well all the jokes are landing, but I wanted people to walk away thinking that

Shakespeare wasn't something to be completely intimidated by, that it could be something that's

just entertaining.”