My overall impression
The clothes make the man…right? Not in Queer Classics Padua they don’t.
In the world of the play, clothes are superfluous things that are donned, shed and traded with impunity. In this production clothing is simply a stand-in for the social construct of gender. When what we choose to cloak ourselves in is secondary to who we are, we are forced to reveal our character through our choices, our actions.
Character as a quality is revealed through physical choices, vocal quality, and how and when the characters exercise their agency.
It’s a testament to the strong acting and direction that all the characters onstage were simply who they were by their actions. They could have done this production stark naked, or clad head to toe in burlap sacks and it still would have been every bit as engaging.
But it wouldn’t have provided the same commentary on gender and how western society uses gender “norms” as power. This is not a mere “gender bent” production. This is a production that forces you to judge Kate, Bianca, Petruchio, Lucentio, Baptista, Tranio, Gremio, Biondello, and the irrepressible Grumio not by the colors of their couture, but by the content of their character.
