Abraham's Interpretation Of Bianca In Taming Of The Shrew

Chris Abraham’s production of Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew took a new and clever spin on a classic piece of literature that’s stood the test of time. Abraham’s interpretation of Bianca, however, is what really captured the audience’s attention. Although many of his characters were portrayed as drastically different than how they appeared in the play, Bianca was perhaps the most shocking. Under his direction, Bianca shifts from a perfect angel with a hidden dark side to forthright and even promiscuous, barely attempting to preserve her facade. First off, we see her retaliate to Katherine’s attacks. Unlike the text where Bianca was meek and victimized, she fights back just as viciously as her sister. She’s just as bold and brash right off

Secondly, Bianca was incredibly childish. Both sisters in this interpretation appeared far more childish than they did in the text version taking on much sillier and light-hearted roles. This goes so far as to include things such as tantrums and silly faces when no one’s looking. Furthermore, Baptista’s treasured chaste daughter left little to the imagination with her blatant advances on Litio (who was later revealed to be Lucentio). Bianca’s progressive courtship methods would leave any self respecting man of the Renaissance completely indignant and taken aback, but Lucentio is all for this new free thinking lady and the two become a rather amorous pair early on. Lastly, as the play progresses we see Bianca not have just one, but three, onstage kisses. Some of which were incredibly raunchy and almost hard to watch (or listen to!). Not even Katherine, the Shrew herself, would readily kiss her husband in public. For Bianca to kiss so willingly, quickly, and obviously a man she hardly knew and had yet not wed, in public even, was a wide stretch from the timid girl Shakespeare has originally

He shows Bianca as a lustful yet childish young lady rather than the perfect modest woman. His portrayal shows an interesting grasp of the play, making is more tongue and cheek than sincere. However, in a play like this with very serious and dark underlying themes, it is a very wise call on the part of the director to derail some of that sensitive material with humor. It’d be unfair to subject an unknowing audience to an intense dramatic depiction of what’s supposed to be one of Shakespeare’s comedies. To keep things light he made Bianca into a silly girl who threw caution into the wind for love and teased her sister rather than making her an overly perfect character or even a possibly manipulative fallen woman of the Renaissance. His interpretation of the play was fun and full of laughs for the audience instead of a darker more serious representation, which is successful in it’s own