Take that, Shakespeare

Hillsboro troupe pairs ‘Shrew’ with John Fletcher’s rebuttal creation

The Forest Grove News-Times, Feb 10, 2010

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Ashland is not the only place in Oregon where Shakespeare thrives.

Each year, Bag&Baggage Theatre Company in Hillsboro produces several of William Shakespeare’s better-known plays. Last season the company performed “A Comedy of Errors,” and summer of 2009 saw the debut of outdoor Shakespeare with “Romeo and Juliet” at the Tom Hughes Civic Center Plaza in Hillsboro.

This month, Bag&Baggage will again present one of the great Shakespeare plays, but in an entirely new and unusual way.

Artistic director and Washington County native Scott Palmer has created a world premiere adaptation of Shakespeare’s battle-of-the-sexes tale, “The Taming of the Shrew.” Palmer has distilled ”Shrew” into a single act and paired it with “The Woman’s Prize,” an Elizabethan-era sequel to Shrew written by Shakespeare’s rival, contemporary and collaborator, John Fletcher.

According to Palmer, “The Woman’s Prize” was just as popular as “Taming of the Shrew.” In fact, it was probably better known, but, over time, Shakespeare’s play has become much more famous, while Fletcher’s very funny sequel has fallen off the map.

Palmer has taken the two plays, each condensed to about an hour’s playing time, and uses the same actors and acting style to create an entirely new performance.

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