THE PLAY: PERSPECTIVES Meryl Streep and Raul Julia behind the scenes of Taming the Shrew, directed by Wilford Leach, 1978
“The play explores the arbitrariness, variety, and fluidity of roles and their constructive as well as constricting potential ...Through its array of role changes, Taming demonstrates that stable identity can persist beneath radical transformations of role . . . and that role playing can create some flexibility within social hierarchies without threatening their essential stability.” —Carol Thomas Neely, Broken Nuptials in Shakespeare’s Plays, 1985
“What I’m saying [in Kate’s final speech] is, I’ll do anything for this man. Look, would there be any hang-up if this were a mother talking about her son? So why is selflessness here wrong? Service is the only thing that’s important about love. Everybody is worrying about ‘losing yourself’—all this narcissism. Duty. We can’t stand that idea now either. It has the real ugly slave-driving connotation. But duty might be a suit of armor you put on to fight for your love. I don’t think the last speech jumps out of nowhere. It’s the logical emotional end.” —Meryl Streep, 1978
“And in the end The love you take Is equal to the love You make”
Andy Grotelueschen and Maggie Siff in The Taming of the Shrew, photo by Gerry Goodstein
—Lennon and McCartney
A Viewfinder
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