Katherina In Souliloquy.

Katherina In Souliloquy from In Souliloquy on Vimeo.

This Kate knows well the value of her kisses.

Katherina In Souliloquy by Tilly Lunken
After William Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew
Directed by Victorine Pontillon and performed by Annie Mackenzie.

Katherina in the play is full of great dramatic juxtaposition, but her choices are taken away from her - possibly the only active choice she makes is to marry Petruchio. Certainly, she is tricked and coerced into it but she willingly agrees to the match. She is then resoundingly abused into a submissive wife, an echo of what her husband wants her to be. I is as if there is no choice here or in her speech at the end.

Our Kate takes control back of that final speech, in that it is her decision to submit and fall into the 'simple wife' role because she knows the man she married won't actually like that and soon enough she can become her true rebel self.

Katherina was an interesting one to write because her first incarnation was very angry at Petruchio, defiant and understandably cross about her treatment in the play. It took a director (Victorine) to point at the undercurrent of love in the play and use that as motivation for Kate. I think this gives her depths not seen before, her anger is there yes - but this is about more than that. It's about her wants and needs and her future.

Annie captures a quiet strength, we see her love shine - but there is going to be no compromise on her part if her husband doesn't change.

Incidentally this was especially a fun one to write because of the excellent production at The Globe (programmed by Emma Rice). The performances of the two leads in that were so good and really reinforced how right the redrafted version of our Katherine was.