Courtesy of the Folger Shakespeare Library.
This is the second year the Folger has produced The Reading Room Festival, “with new work and conversations inspired by or in response to the plays of William Shakespeare.” The four-day festival features open rehearsals, screenings, readings of world-premiere plays, talk-backs, as well as lively receptions. It is an opportunity for participants to go behind the scenes of the creative process and talk to the artists, critics and scholars.
To say that Shakespeare’s “Taming of the Shrew” is a problematic play by today’s standards (or frankly, by any era’s standards) is putting it lightly—especially given the portrayal of gender roles; the unfathomable onus of expectation; and the power dynamics at work in this comedy. On a modern stage, the play almost immediately begs for a vehement feminist deconstruction of the most incisive kind. During the Folger Theatre’s Reading Room Festival, that is precisely what the play got.
This classic Shakespearean comedy was on the receiving end of a multi-pronged, no-holds-barred critical postmortem—much to this reviewer and Shakespeare lover’s delight. The festivities kicked off with an audience-centered talk, “Kiss Me Kate: Powers Dynamics in ‘Taming of the Shrew’” moderated by DC-based director Nadia Guevara and UMD professor of Theatre and Performance Studies Carla Della Gatta. Time and again the discussion returned to the misogyny that seems to drive this script. Katherine’s “taming” at Petruchio’s hand is a difficult pill to swallow for any woman who considers herself a thinking, sentient being. Yet, the play has endured. Why? Why the continued fascination with this troubling and ostensibly woman-hating message? This “how come rubbernecking is a phenomenon” aspect of the discussion certainly seemed to occupy the attendees and moderators alike. Is it our innate voyeurism, that “can’t look away” impulse inherent in human nature, which compels us to want to see this type of disturbed tableau brought to life?
The audience talk also featured some impromptu readings from the play in which two participants took to the “stage” and dove into their assigned roles. It was a highly enjoyable and intellectually provocative hour in which fitting Shakespeare’s work into the context of a 21st century worldview became at once both a perplexing and invigorating project.
Carmen Pelaez’s “The Cuban Vote,” a play originally commissioned by Miami New Drama, dives deep into the Katherine/Petruchio quagmire but with a decidedly contemporary spin, speaking more directly to prevalent attitudes about gender, race, and socio-cultural disenfranchisement. Presented as a staged reading directed by Kelsey Mesa, the play tells the story of Carolina (Carmen Pelaez), a self-described “smart and thick” Cuban American running for the office of Mayor of Miami. Looking to follow in the footsteps of her father, Carolina wears her heart and her political messaging on her sleeve—in other words, her purpose and platform are authentic. The hitch in her political plans comes in the form of campaign manager and one-time political star maker, Alex (Gabriel Alejandro). At the urging of his “bro,” Benji (Thony Mena), Alex offers to help Carolina. After all, he is batting a thousand when it comes to getting his candidates elected but will he be true to his word?
Nodding to the plot of “Taming,” the play sets up a scenario in which Carolina’s younger sister Blanca (Fabiolla da Silva) purportedly cannot marry her beloved Benji until Carolina is elected mayor—hence Benji’s impassioned plea to Alex. Add into the mix, Carolina’s mother (Mariela Lopez-Ponce), a formidable woman who abandoned her own political dreams to “stand by her man,” and the late-in-the-game candidacy of bar fly Gilberto (Jonathan Nichols-Navarro) who morphs into an improbably popular straw man, and Carolina faces one heck of a battle.
It is a deliciously fun play with a very serious message. The gender roles and dynamics of “Taming” are spiritedly upended in this cutthroat world of Miami politics. The mystique surrounding a “politics as usual” gameplay is stripped down to its fundamentals: the candidates behind the politics, or even more fundamentally, the people behind the politics. As Pelaez notes in a Folger Theatre Q&A, “I wanted to lay bare the different ways the electorate is manipulated in the hopes people will choose substance over style when they hit the voting booth.” Substance over style—a key theme in a piece filled with so many “make you think” moments.
Followed by a highly-deserved love fest for Pelaez’s work in the form of an audience talkback, the show (and the entire evening for that matter) was a roaring success. It was perfect for a DC audience primed for the election year to come and for a perspective that reframes numerous outdated narratives in order to celebrate the strength of women; the resilience of underrepresented cultures; and the at times troubled (and troubling) legacy of this particular Shakespeare play.
The Reading Room Festival runs from January 25-28, 2024 at Folger Theatre, 201 E Capitol St SE, Washington, DC 20003. For more information on the Folger Theatre Reading Room Festival and to purchase tickets, go online.
