My favorite moment of this week was seeing everyone on stage for the first time. We stepped on deck and had to find our sea legs. Imagined two-dimensional doors had finally been brought into the real world. Images on paper became 3D, everything was shiny and new, although unfinished. The colors were bright, the space new, the movement slow but steady and filled with potential. Going back the second day was like peeling back the second layer of the onion. The lights went on, the projection went up, and suddenly it felt like we were somewhere else. This world is starting to reveal itself moment by moment, the pieces falling into place, all the rehearsal feeling like it’s actually leading to something real, rather than a mass fantasy we’re all participating in.
One problem I do have with this play, or rather with the modern audience’s opinion of this play, is the double standard represented by Kate and Bianca. When this play is discussed from a feminist perspective, Kate’s treatment is the one shouted out as problematic, as sexist, as misogynistic. Very rarely do we hear about the sexist nature of Bianca’s story. The way she is manipulated by men, and the way she manipulates the men around her. The problem doesn’t come from the story, but the fact that we, as the audience, see no problem with Bianca essentially being bought and sold. The only redeeming factor is the fact that, despite the money thrown at her, she manages to choose the one she wants in the end, through a heavy dose of her own brand of manipulation. When the violence becomes physical, we complain, but if it is folded in and hidden within the double standards of our society, it is invisible. I think it’s time to start seeing both sides of the standard, pointing it out, and speaking up.
The FAIR Experience 