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The Taming of the Shrew

July 19, 2026

What ultimately distinguishes this production is its refusal to flatten Shakespeare into a contemporary thesis. It neither apologizes for the play's misogyny nor sensationalizes it. Instead, Otto trusts that audiences are capable of holding competing truths in their minds simultaneously: that "The Taming of the Shrew" is uproariously funny, dramatically exhilarating, and profoundly unsettling. In embracing the play's ambiguities rather than escaping them, Shakespeare CSE has launched its "Shakespeare Entirely" series with a production that is not only intellectually invigorating but also enormously entertaining—a reminder that the greatest classics endure not because they provide easy answers, but because they continue asking impossibly difficult questions with inexhaustible theatrical delight. [more]

The Taming of the Shrew (Shakespeare in the Park)

June 18, 2016

Aside from the obvious misogyny of Shakespeare’s comedy for modern audiences, there is the problem of the heroine’s unpalatable final speech in which she berates women for not being more subservient to their husbands. Lloyd’s solution is to frame the play as a country-western beauty pageant to choose “this year’s Miss Lombardy” whose emcee sounds an awful lot like presidential candidate Donald Trump. In fact, there is a good deal of satiric political talk with comedian Judy Gold as suitor Gremio doing an interpolated monologue complaining that the director is a woman and that “we’ve got a broad running for President.” [more]