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The Tufts Daily
Where you read it first | Thursday, March 28, 2024

Kiss Me Kate' is two plays in one

                Cole Porter's "Kiss Me Kate," the first of the Tufts drama department's productions for fall semester, starts tonight. Though a 60-year-old play might seem outdated for a college audience, Associate Professor and Director Barbara Wallace Grossman hopes to captivate students with the play's theme of eternal love.
    Written in 1948, "Kiss Me Kate" was Porter's return to the spotlight. Many consider the play to be a love letter to his wife, Linda Porter. The story focuses on two actors, Fred and Lilli, who are given the lead roles in Shakespeare's "The Taming of the Shrew" (1590). Juniors Andrew Kluger and Carolyn Berliner play the bickering, divorced couple, as well as their theatrical counterparts, Petruchio and Kate.
    Complicating Lilli and Fred's already tumultuous relationship is Fred's new girlfriend, the actress playing Bianca in "Shrew," and Lilli's infatuation with another actor, who gambles using Fred's name. As the production of "Taming of the Shrew" continues, Lilli and Fred are forced to come to terms with their love for each other despite their differences.
    The fall production always takes place in the Balch Arena Theatre, but working in the round space can be difficult.
    The play calls for three different sets — a backstage area, Lilli and Fred's adjoining dressing rooms and the city of Padua where "The Taming of the Shrew" takes place. Since the play within the play also requires a curtain, Grossman and company have decided to rig a ceiling-to-floor red velvet curtain. Actors must change back and forth between sumptuous Shakespearean-era costumes, with tights and corsets, and sexy '40s lingerie actors of the period might have worn backstage.
    Compounded with the fact that "Kiss Me Kate" is a massively complicated production is the semester's late start this year, meaning the cast had one week less than usual to rehearse. The musical numbers also posed an interesting challenge.
    Porter uses Shakespeare's verses for a couple of songs in the play, but the rest are all his own creation. Songs like "Too Darn Hot" and "So In Love" were both popular songs during the '40s after "Kiss Me Kate" first premiered, and the tunes are just as fresh and fun as any heard on the radio today.
    Grossman isn't concerned about scaring off students with decades-old music, and she believes that ultimately, everyone can relate to the tumultuous nature of love.
    "There's definitely a timelessness to it because of the music," Grossman said. "But, really, each of us knows what it's like to love someone, what we have to sacrifice because no one is perfect."
    When watching "Kiss Me Kate," modern audiences must take into account gender differences from Porter's time — and Shakespeare's as well. "The Taming of the Shrew" features a headstrong woman who eventually must succumb to her husband's will.
    "Shakespeare's play has problems in it because of the misogyny that was endemic to the period," said Grossman. "Shakespeare was a fairly enlightened writer, so it's unusual how Petruchio is trying to win Katharine over with kindness."
    "Kiss Me Kate" calls for a spanking scene that many see as sexist in which Fred loses his temper with Lilli. Grossman dealt with this and other arguably sexist occurrences by moving them offstage.
    "We didn't want to subject a Tufts woman to being spanked on stage in full view," said Grossman. "For me, this show isn't about men ruling over women, but rather the complicated nature of love. I took a different approach to the ending that I hope people see as Fred and Lilli accepting each other on equal terms."
    Despite challenges, the cast and crew has pulled everything together for tonight's opening production. The play runs this weekend and next, Oct. 29-31 and Nov. 5-7. All shows start at 8 p.m. with an extra Sunday matinee on Nov. 7 at 2 p.m. Tickets are available at the Balch Arena Box Office for $7 with a student ID and $12 without one. Tickets are $1 on Nov. 5.