Tragedy And Comedy In The Park: Cape Cod Shakespeare Festival In Chatham Returns With ‘Othello’ And ‘Taming Of The Shrew’

At a time when even a comic book movie like “Superman” is controversial, this year’s Cape Cod Shakespeare Festival in Chatham — which begins its two-week repertoire run in Kate Gould Park July 21 — will challenge audiences by producing two of the Bard’s most problematic plays, “The Taming of the Shrew” and “Othello.”

 Both plays are seldom produced, noted CCSFC President Alan Rust, “Taming” due to its misogyny and “Othello” because of its racial overtones. But with company members perfect for the lead roles in both, it seemed as if fate intervened (as it often does with Shakespeare).

 “The season was dictated based on the history of the company,” said Rust, who is directing “Taming,” speaking during a break in rehearsals at the Chatham Drama Guild last week.

 Laura Axelrod and Reid Williams are cast as Katherina and Petruchio, the combative lovers in “The Taming of the Shrew,” while Christopher Andrew Rowe will play Othello, reprising a role he previously played at the University of Hartford’s Hartt School. All three were mainstays in recent seasons of the Cape Cod Shakespeare Festival in Chatham (CCSFC).

 Axelrod and Williams have an unmistakable chemistry and have, in fact, played couples in three previous CCSFC productions and at the Monomoy Theatre prior to its closure in 2018. They were the ill-fated lovers in last summer’s CCSFC production of “Romeo and Juliet,” sparred as Benedict and Beatrice in 2023’s "Much Ado About Nothing” and Celia and Oliver in “As You Like It.”

 “Usually I don’t know who I’m going to end up kissing,” joked Axelrod, a Hartt School graduate. “Some people mesh together, some don’t, and you have to work at it.”

 Katherina and Petruchio are known for their banter and wit; Kate is the “shrew” of the title whom Petruchio sets out to “tame.” Their verbal jousting begins at their first meeting, where it’s also clear both fall deeply in love.

 “They’re really two people cut from the same cloth,” Axelrod said. “When they meet for the first time, they’re testing each other.”

 “It feels more like dance choreography,” Williams added, and indeed the show incorporates both dance — Axelrod is a trained dancer — as well circus-type physicality. Williams, also a Hartt School alumni, recently graduated from the San Diego Circus Center, will be performing with his troupe “The Line” in “Taming” and in downtown Chatham during the last week in July. That physicality serves as a metaphor for the verbal sparring of the two characters.

 “It’s a different kind of exploration than we usually do,” noted Williams.

 Axelrod and Williams also play a couple — of a sort — in “Othello.” Axelrod is Desdemona, Othello’s wife, while Williams is loyal lieutenant Cassio. The evil Iago’s insinuation that the two are having an affair sets in motion the play’s tragic consequences.

 “I don’t know that there’s a bigger contrast in female roles,” said “Othello” director Terry Layman. 

 “Kate’s a tornado,” agreed Axelrod. “Desdemona is more like a steady breeze.”

 The racial politics of “Othello” help explain why it isn’t produced often, but Layman said the play is really about the “pathology of evil” as exemplified in Iago, played by Heriberto Cruz, Jr. in the CCSFC production. 

 “The racial part was a tool used for manipulation,” said Layman, who resisted the temptation to set the play in the modern day, despite the obvious analogies. “I’m not putting him in a red tie and blond wig,” he said.

 When he played Othello at the Hartt School, it was on Zoom due to the pandemic, said Rowe, adding that both he and Cruz also did scenes from the play when both were at the Drama Studio London.

 “As a person and actor, I’ve matured a lot,” Rowe said. Revisiting the part has brought back thoughts and emotions from his previous experience, and he credits Layman with allowing him the freedom to explore the role while also helping him focus.

 “At its heart the play is about jealousy and deceit,” he said, as well as reputation and power. When the play begins, Othello is a much loved, contented ruler. By Act 3 he is beginning to slowly unravel.

 “I’m not at a point in my life that I’m able to recognize that nuance,” Rowe said. 

 As the only Black man in his Hartt class and in the CCSFC company, “There are moments when I feel here I am, and I really stick out,” he said. “But that’s beautiful because of what the show is about.” His goal is to get the audience to sympathize with Othello and not simply see him as an angry Black man. “It’s a tricky thing,” he allowed.

 This is Rowe’s fourth summer with the CCSFC, and like previous years, the company has two weeks to rehearse the two plays that will be performed in repertoire. It’s "exhilarating," he said, “but also frightening.”

 The rehearsal schedule is a bit “insane,” Layman agreed, noting that it harkens back to the way the Monomoy Theatre was run. Students put on eight plays over the course of the summer, rehearsing one while performing another. 

 “There’s a lot of residual Monomoy” in the CCSFC, Layman said. “Both in the company and the way we work.”

 “We come in and we’re sprinting,” Williams said.

 While the CCSFC initially focused on the Bard’s comedies, last year it branched out into the tragedies with “Romeo and Juliet.”

 “Eventually you run out of good comedies,” said Layman. Rust added that there was some concern about how the tragedies would go down with the local audience, which often includes families and kids. But the audiences have grown every year; last year, an average of 300 to 400 people attended the shows, both tragedy and comedy. Rust said he believes people will welcome seeing this year’s productions, even though they are challenging.

 Said Layman, “If they decide to come, they’ll get a good taste of the traditional telling of these plays.”