Spaniels Barred From Bard Audition
Dogs have been invited to audition for the a role in a production of “Taming of the Shrew” at Bath Spa University in England. Director Terri Power said: “Usually in a modern performance of the play no actual dog is brought on stage. But in Shakespeare’s time they did so. They had a troupe of dogs specially trained to perform and do tricks or a jig as part of Elizabethan entertainment.” But why no spaniels?
Power explained that spaniels could not be considered because in the play the character Petruchio asks his servants to bring him one, only to be brought another breed.
“What dogs are these?” he angrily asks in Act 4 Scene 1.
The production itself is billed as “a zany cross-dressing version.” Oh, so men can play women and women can play men, but spaniels can’t play hounds or herders? Discrimination!