What would compel a college theatre director to present a play about a woman whose husband essentially abuses her?

“You do it because you shouldn’t,” says Darcey Engen, associate professor and director of Augsburg’s re-envisioning of Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew, which opens tonight and runs Feb. 5-14.

“The play has been problematic since it was written,” Engen says. “But it has helped the students think about their acting choices as political.”

The story is that if Petruchio can get Katherine to agree to marry him, Baptista (Katherine’s father) will give Petruchio part of his fortune. Katherine does not want to marry Petruchio, so he tries to “tame” her by isolating her from her family, starving her, and denying her sleep. Continue reading “Shrew tackles gender inequality” →