Six-Gun Shakespeare

Thou hath spurs that jingle, jangle, jingle?

"Guns, pistols, vests, pocket watches, the gold rush and rough-and-tumble cowboys -- it puts to rest any nervousness students have watching Shakespeare," says Benjamin Brinton, who portrays Petruchio as a gosh-durn prospector in an Old West-set "Taming of the Shrew" at the College of Southern Nevada.

"It's surprising how well it comes over," says director Jan Shelton Hunsaker. "There's even one character that has a kind of Southern gentleman drawl. It's funny and translates really well."

Should we need to put the Bard in the saddle and transform "Shrew" into an Elizabethan "Gunsmoke"? Or is it another legit riff on the tradition of transposing Shakespeare into other eras, accents and wardrobes? And is "Shrew" a sexist piece of patriarchal nonsense? Or is it a savvy battle-of-the-sexes comedy?

Merely suggested questions for valley middle and high school students -- and perhaps adult theatergoers -- as this "Shrew" performs for both audiences. A Shakespeare-in-the-Schools touring production from the Utah Shakespearean Festival and staged for students through Feb. 12, it also will give public performances tonight and Saturday.

"Any time you wear a concept on top of Shakespeare, it provides challenges," says Katrina Kuntz, who portrays Kate, the untamed shrew of the title. "But the language is so beautiful that you can put it in a different time and make (students) realize, 'Oh, this can fit anywhere.' "

"Shrew" remains one of Shakespeare's most adaptable plays in everything from musicals "(Kiss Me, Kate") to television (Bruce Willis chasing a corseted Cybil Shepard in a "Moonlighting" fantasy episode) to film (Heath Ledger wooing Julia Stiles in "10 Things I Hate About You").

Yet "Shrew" still provokes debate over its man-tames-woman-into-her-proper-place tale. Briefly recapped, the main plot concerns the courtship of Petruchio and Katherina, the headstrong firebrand who resists and rejects his advances until he uses psychological torments to "tame" her into an obedient bride, who ends the play with a speech extolling the virtues of submitting to a husband.

Madcap or misogynistic?

"When I was first cast, I felt that way," Kuntz says about doubts she harbored over "Shrew's" intent. "But I had to approach it with a different sense. I realized by the end of the show, Kate's change, I don't view that as weak anymore, but her stepping outside herself, willing to compromise and understand a different point of view. She had been completely selfish. Petruchio helps her see the light in that by 'taming' her, he's not conforming her to the ideas of society, but allows her to be in a relationship."

"Shrew" defenders cite the show's "induction" -- a framing device that stands outside the action, often to comment or moralize on it -- as proof that Shakespeare was, well, punking the audience. In the original setting of "Shrew," a nobleman amuses a drunken peasant by having a play performed for him that leads into the action.

In effect, "Shrew" advocates insists, it amounts to: Chill, people -- it's all a gag.

"You wonder if there are abusive actions," Brinton says, referring to Petruchio's "taming" tactics, including spiriting her away against her will, concocting reasons why she can't eat, and buying her gorgeous clothes, only to rip them up.

"The original depicts Kate as ridiculous, excessive, spoiled, whiny, an extreme of negative roles. But ours really doesn't show that excessiveness, and by the end of ours, there's a real sense of Kate affecting Petruchio, that he's just as ridiculous and finds this is a person and a partner in a positive way."

Tellingly, the "obey" section of Kate's climactic speech has been excised, though Hunsaker says it was removed for time purposes. "Where Petruchio is giving his monologue, he says all of this is done in 'reverent care of her,' " Hunsaker says. "Lines like that were kept in so there would be a sense of not how to tame a shrew, but how to treat each other."

Cowpoke Petruchio would be smart to treat her better than the horse he rode in on.

Contact reporter Steve Bornfeld at sbornfeld@ reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0256.