What is a shrew? How do you tame one? Should you?

       River Company in Damariscotta has taken on a formidable challenge in the era of #timesup and #metoo. Partly in answer to this movement, partly as clever wordplay, they adopted #meshrew as their byword for their production of one of Shakespeare’s earliest and bitterest comedies, The Taming of the Shrew.

       It concerns a husband “taming” his wife. Katherina, the “shrew,” is wild and angry, perhaps even violent. As Kate’s new husband Petruchio systematically deprives her of food, sleep, and clothing, she gradually becomes more and more malleable, until at last she is willing to agree to whatever he says: The sun is the moon if he says it is, and an old man is a young woman if he tells her so.

        At the end of the play, she gives a speech about how it is a woman’s place to be obedient and how a wife should place her hand beneath her husband’s foot. “My hand is ready,” she declares; “may it do him ease.”

        Kate wants ferociously: to be respected, to have her freedom, to punish those who would thwart her. On the page, she sparkles; on the stage, she is a force of nature, all implacable will and exquisite, sharp-edged wordplay. She’s living in a world where a man can do to a woman what Petruchio will do to her and never be so much as reprimanded. She should be angry.

       This battle is not evenly matched. Petruchio has the entire patriarchy on his side, while Kate has no legal rights and no weapons but her sharp tongue. She can call him a fool in as many elaborately clever ways as she likes, but it won’t do her any good when Petruchio controls her access to food, when her literal survival depends on pleasing him.

      But their dynamic is compelling. It’s easy to see why so many directors and writers keep returning to Shrew, searching for a way to retell it that doesn’t feel like a ringing endorsement of domestic abuse.

      Is a story all about how a man tortures a woman into submission “hilarious” or is it the perfect platform from which to mansplain how men are the real victims of oppression? In #meshrew, the buzz hashtag for this River Company production, the company strives to make this story more about how a couple may choose their own way, no matter how roughly things begin, to present themselves to the world. It’s no “50 Shades of Shakespeare”, thankfully, but there is plenty here to get people talking.

      Is Kate, bargained off so her younger sister can marry, sold into slavery? Has she landed with perhaps the one Elizabethan man in history who wants a wife with spirit, just not too much? Audiences will have the  opportunity to “talk-back” with cast and Director Missie Liu after each show. They anticipate some lively discussion, as well they should. Make up your own mind, to Shrew or not to Shrew?

       The dynamics of this production are marshalled by Liu, in a collaborative, one might say democratic way, with her cast voting on various aspects of the production. Leading a large group in such a way can be a challenge but the effort seems to be paying off, at least as far as could be seen in early rehearsals. The show will certainly give attendees plenty to hash (and hashtag) over,

The cast:

KATHERINE: JESSICA DELISLE

 PETRUCHIO: BEN MEADER

BAPTISTA: NICK AZZARETTI

BIANCA: ANNIE LECK

LUCENTIO: RYAN TYLER

HORTENSIO: ALLISON EDDYBLOUIN

GREMIO: SUMNER RICHARDS

VINCENTIO/MERCHANT: MITCHELL WELLMAN

GRUMIO: MIKE ROWE

WIDOW: CHRISTINE TUPPER

TRANIO: JOHN HENRY EDDYBLOUIN

CURTIS: BETH ROWE

BIONDELLO: TEDDY EDDYBLOUIN

TAILOR/HABERDASHER: CINDY SEIGARS

SERVANT: CALLIE GREEN

PRODUCER: TORIE DELISLE

 DIRECTOR: MISSIE LIU

 Tickets on sale now at 563-8116 or online at https://rivercompany.ticketspice.com/shrew

Student or child under 12: $5.00; Seniors (65 and up) $10.00; Members, $15.00; Regular admission, $17.00; 1 adult plus 2 or more children under 12, $25.00.

 Skidompha Library Atrium, 184 Main St, Damariscotta, ME 04543

Evenings at 7:30 PM - July 27 and 28, August 2 and 4

Sunday Matinees at 3:00 PM - July 29 and August 5