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The Taming of the Shrew Q&A podcast: What do modern feminists think of Shakespeare’s problem play?

In Audio, Features, Interviews, London theatre, Native, Opinion, Photos, Plays by Terri PaddockLeave a Comment

Is Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew inherently misogynistic? Particularly with its treatment of spirited Kate, the Shrew of the title, who is starved and mentally tormented into the role of an apparently submissive wife, is there any way around that charge?

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Photos and podcast: Why we should edit classics like Hamlet and Marlowe’s Tamburlaine

In Features, Interviews, London theatre, Opinion, Photos, Plays by Terri PaddockLeave a Comment

When Lazarus Theatre artistic director Ricky Dukes invited me to host a post-show discussion at Tamburlaine, the uproar around the Barbican Hamlet’s “To be or not to be” seemed like the perfect, topical jumping-off point: Should we or shouldn’t we ‘tamper with’ the classics? Or, given the scarcity of actual practitioners (as opposed to newshounds) prepared to argue that we shouldn’t, put another way: what do we gain by tampering with the classics?