A few weeks ago we announced that Shakespeare ZA will be publishing new work by South African poets that responds to Shakespeare’s plays. In this second installment, Lauren Bates weaves her own words into lines from Kate’s speech in Act Four Scene Three of The Taming of the Shrew.
My Tongue will Tell
To the men who drown our voices with their noise
Why sir I trust I may have leave to speak
To the men who say that boys will yet be boys
And speak I will. I am no child, no babe
To the men who hide their failures in our pain
Your betters have endured me say my mind
To the men who see our losses as their gain
And if you cannot, tis best you stop your ears
To the men who leer at us with eyes of lust
My tongue will tell the anger of my heart
To the men that blame us for our misplaced trust
Or else my heart concealing it will break
To the men who build their triumphs on our loss
And rather than it shall I will be free
To the men who nail us to another cross
Even to the uttermost, as I please, in words
To the men who feel that we are theirs to take
I see a woman may be made a fool
To the men who think that we are theirs to break
If she had not a spirit to resist
Remember you who crush to gain control
Do desecrate the temple of your soul
About the author
Lauren Bates is a South African English and Drama teacher, Shakespeare Scholar and Theatre in Education practitioner. After completing a second master’s degree in “Shakespeare and Creativity” at the Shakespeare Institute in Stratford-Upon-Avon, she has embarked on a PhD through Wits University to unpack the past, present and future of Shakespeare in the South African high school curriculum. Based on her experience working with the Education Departments at the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, she has launched the educational theatre initiative Educasions.
Lauren is directing a production of Matthew Hahn’s play The Robben Island Shakespeare at the Artscape Theatre on 16 April and at the Baxter Theatre on 11 May.
