Theatre St. Thomas present Shakespeare at The Black Box
In a world where daughters and sons are exchanged for family fortunes, Shakespeare’s sharp comedy The Taming of the Shrew finds Lucentio concocting a plot with Tranio to win the love of “the fair Bianca” over rivals Hortensio and Gremio. But when the gallant Petruchio comes to town “to wive it wealthily” he meets his match, Kate, the eldest daughter of the money-hungry Baptista Minola in the Bard’s play about true love and “gold’s effect.”
“It’s been many years since The Taming of the Shrew played in Fredericton, owing at least in part to its provocative plot” says the play’s director and TST Faculty Advisor Robin C. Whittaker, who has also written an epilogue to frame the play. “But this is one of Shakespeare’s best comedies, the one in which he allows his audiences to believe what they wish: Do we conclude, like the drunkard Sly, that the play teaches us how a ‘shrew’ may be ‘tamed’? Or is the play about learning mutual empowerment and calling into question the lengths of parental authority?”
Theatre St. Thomas’s The Taming of the Shrew runs November 19-22 at 7:30pm (plus a Saturday matinée at 2pm) in the Black Box Theatre at St. Thomas University. Tickets are sold at the door, and are $10 general, $5 students and seniors. Non-perishable food donations for the STU/UNB Student Food Bank will be accepted at the door.
