The Taming of the Shrew

Fresh from her triumphs with the tragedies of Othello and Macbeth starring John Douglas Thompson, Theatre for a New Audience’s associate artistic director Arin Arbus turns to comedy. For Ms. Arbus, in The Taming of the Shrew, “Shakespeare depicts a rough world where everyone is out for themselves — scheming, fooling and hiding beneath disguises. Kate and Petruchio are the only characters who see things as they are. The play is an intimate, brutal, hilarious negotiation between a husband and wife about the terms of their contract, about their respective roles and responsibilities. What’s remarkable about their relationship is not that they fight, but that through their wars, they find love and mutual admiration. As Harold Bloom writes ‘Kate and Petruchio…are clearly going to be the happiest married couple in Shakespeare.'”