July 2, 2011 Thoughts on Taming of the Shrew and other ramblings

Enjoyed a very entertaining performance of Taming of the Shrew in the park at CLU last night, complete with a lovely picnic made by my daughter and her boyfriend.  I even managed to get in and out of the low lawn chair the venue requires without assistance!  Was it the hill or is that tendon gaining strength even when it's paining me greatly?  Although I could definitely do without the pain, if it's part of getting the strength back in my leg, well, the end justifies the means.

My friend, Christine, shared a most amazing collection of Tarot cards with cat themes, one of which was done by taking photographs of cats, scenes in Prague and various miniature baroque themed costumes and putting them all together to create simply beautiful scenes.  I may have to locate and purchase (or purr-chase) the deck for myself!  I think I could learn to read that deck as well because the scenes are very detailed and fitting of the cards they depict.  Granted, the readings I would get with one of these decks would vary to some degree from the same reading done with my Spiral deck, but then, that would be the case regardless of which deck was used.  The imagery definitely impacts the reading.

At any rate, back to Shrew.  I had not revisited the play in a very long time, and had not remembered that the story for which I remember the play was actually a play within a play, although, by the end, the part about the joke being played on an unsuspecting traveler seemed to have gotten lost somewhere.  At any rate, I found myself feeling quite annoyed at how Petruchio essentially beat Kate into submission by starving her, denying her sleep and denying her visits to her family until she agreed that black was white, and even then, continued to humiliate her in front of his friends and servants.  It makes me wonder if Shakespeare wrote the play as a tribute to the male dominated world of the time, or to ridicule the process by showing a blatant and cruel abuse of the belief system which saw women as little more than chattel and men as the gods they were supposed to adore and obey, no matter what?  I, myself, would surely have been like Kate in the early part of the story, and would more likely remained unwed and perhaps working in some menial position to support myself rather than be owned by some mere male of the species!  Isn't it fortunate that I'm living in the current era with such untoward thoughts and beliefs? :) 

Either way, the performance was extraordinary, the actors drawing us into the story quite skillfully.  I look forward to The Merchant of Venice at the end of the month. 

Love and light