I'm an ac-tor, I am

Yesterday I took part in a production of The Taming Of The Shrew, based on William Shakespeare's play 10 Things I Hate About You. The version we were using had taken some liberties with the original work and had set all the action in Verona, Italy. Or somewhere similar. It was hard to tell because it looked more like a friend's living room to me. I guess this is a danger of home-based shakespeare.

My main role was to play Hortensio, a tall handsome Italian in his late twenties who's looking for a wife. Part of his wife finding tactics is to disguise himself as a music tutor and then try teach the flute to the girl he likes:



Sadly this ploy doesn't work, and some other people get together and do things and it all ends happily I think, the shrew is tamed and we all do a little dance. It was hard to tell what was going on - the standard of acting was low. The other actors couldn't emote if they'd lost a leg. I, on the other had was so convincing that I had a second part: Lusty Widow:



Now potentially this could have been confusing because Lusty Widow ends up marrying Hortensio. Although I do have the talent to pull that off, it would have been hard without preparation and rehersal, two words which I lacked. Luckily we had an abridged script which, although it did require me to appear in the same scene as myself, did not need me to to ever actually speak to myself.

We'll be touring the country soon. Look out for us.