Proms Plus Literary - The Taming of the Shrew
Arts & Ideas
BBC
4.2 • 599 Ratings
🗓️ 2 August 2014
⏱️ 22 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Rana Mitter talks to the actors Janet Suzman and Alexandra Gilbreath about Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew. Both women have played the part of Kate -- both in acclaimed RSC productions and both made it their own. They'll be discussing the play's sexual politics and what Shakespeare has to say to audiences today. This programme was recorded in front of an audience at the Royal College of Music as part of the BBC Proms. To find out further information about the events which are free to attended go to bbc.co.uk/proms
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome back to the home of the oxymoron. Evil genius. He asked the newspaper to print his obituary early so he'd enjoy it. That's like hiding at your own funeral. Yeah, it's a big, great gig. I'm Russell Kane. Join me to weigh in on whether the biggest players in history are more evil or genius. Becoming that rich, I'd say that at some level of genius. It also helps that it's a long time ago, right? |
| 0:23.4 | It's like the podcast version of telling your kids the ice cream van plays music when it's out of ice cream. |
| 0:28.9 | Listen to evil genius on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:32.1 | This is a download from the BBC. |
| 0:34.0 | For more information and our terms of use, go to BBC.com.uk slash radio three. |
| 0:43.4 | Hello, when people draw on Shakespeare for great universal truths, they turn to Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet or King Lear. |
| 0:51.8 | You wouldn't think they'd be so keen on the taming of the shrew, the tale of a sharp-tongued |
| 0:56.3 | young woman who learns to obey her husband. Lines like, thy husband is thy lord, thy life, thy keeper, |
| 1:03.5 | don't go down so well in an era when women want to lean in, not keep stum. And yet, this play |
| 1:10.2 | keeps bouncing back. Often, it's an adaptation, like tonight's |
| 1:14.9 | prom, Cole Porter's Kiss Me Kate, or the charming Julia-styles, Heath Ledger movie comedy, |
| 1:20.4 | Ten Things I Hate About You. But over the past half century, the original play has been one of the |
| 1:25.7 | most popular of Shakespeare's dramas at Stratford, |
| 1:29.0 | cutting a termagant swath through the era of feminism. So, how do you make this play work for a |
| 1:36.0 | 21st century audience? Well, to help me find out, I have here Dame Janet Sussman. Now, Janet is one of the |
| 1:42.1 | best known actors and directors, both in South Africa and in Britain. |
| 1:46.1 | And she directed the first production of Othello in apartheid South Africa, |
| 1:50.3 | in which a black actor played the lead. |
| 1:53.2 | And over the years, she's played many of Shakespeare's greatest heroines, |
| 1:56.4 | including Cleopatra, Lady Macbeth, and of course the shrew herself, Katharina. |
| 2:02.1 | And with me also is Alexandra Guildbraith, known to millions as Stella from the hit television show Monarch of the Glen, |
| 2:09.2 | but she's also a distinguished Shakespearean who's also played Catherine. |
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