Edinburgh University Footlights are dusting off the Shakespeare folio and polishing their best Porter patter for a fresh staging of Kiss Me, Kate, the backstage musical where the real drama crackles just beyond the footlights. As a touring company prepares to open The Taming of the Shrew, sparks fly between divorced leads Lilli Vanessi and Fred Graham, whose fiery offstage history keeps bleeding into their onstage bickering. Add in nightclub ingénue Lois Lane, her hapless gambler boyfriend Bill, and a pair of unexpectedly theatrical gangsters, and the result is a heady mix of chaos, charm, and classic show tunes from Cole Porter’s golden-age songbook.
Kiss Me, Kate is famously a show-within-a-show. How do you navigate the shift between Shakespearean performance and backstage farce, and where do those two worlds bleed into each other in your interpretation?
“In a literal sense, the way in which we have tackled the show within a show aspect of Kiss Me Kate relies heavily on the complexity that is set design. Creating a set for the backstage world, the Padua world and the dressing rooms was a challenge that I found extremely fun to navigate, and I am so proud of the result – I feel like we have managed to create a world that reflects the limitations of student budget but offers a warm and personalised environment.
In a non-literal sense, the beauty of Kiss Me Kate is the similarities between Fred and Petruchio, and his gradual realisation of how his treatment of Lilli is not one that’s necessarily funny, but one that exposes his vulnerabilities and the misogynistic nature of the period. I especially like the double comparison of Petruchio to the General – with many of his lines being literal parallels – fully bridging the audience between the two worlds. I think the show within a show aspect is not necessarily restricted to Fred and Lilli either – Lucentio being the relentless suitor who chases the sweet Bianca around the stage is much like Bill’s feelings towards her during Always True to You. And obviously, the way in which the gangsters bleed into the Shakespeare world is rather obvious – seen by their amazing costumes at the end of Act 1!”
– William Freebairn (Director)
The score is packed with iconic numbers. Which musical moment challenged you the most—vocally, choreographically, or emotionally—and how did you find your way into it?
“In a show so torn between comedy, sensuality, and Shakespearean seriousness, there was only one number which demanded all three aspects at once: Tom, Dick, or Harry. What we had originally thought to be a brief number quickly became a lengthy technical and creative challenge to choreograph. We are so lucky to have performers with such incredible talent, and complete willingness to entertain our (somewhat unhinged) ideas. It quickly became obvious that the only way to truly do this number justice was to allow its comedy to drive all other aspects, with incredibly challenging technical choreography being taken with absolute gumption by the suitors, each with their own caricature of a character. Before we knew it, a song we had anticipated being our nightmare number became an absolute shining star within this show, electrified by such incredible performers!”
– Lyss Britton and Caitlin Visser (Co-Choreographers)
“The musical moments in this show range from somber to big band jazz so making these moments cohesive whilst still keeping what makes the show amazing was a challenge. In too darn hot putting our own artistic stamp on it is incredible to see play out and we can’t wait for everyone to hear it for themselves!”
– Josh Chamberlain and Emily Smith (Co-Musical Directors)
The show’s gender politics are often debated. What conversations did your team have about updating, reframing, or interrogating the text for a contemporary audience?
“Our version of Kiss Me Kate asks audiences to confront the blatant sexism in The Taming of the Shrew by actively reframing it. By placing Vanessi as the driving force of the show (rather than Graham) her role is given far greater agency, allowing sexist themes to be exposed rather than endorsed. Graham is therefore forced to confront his misogynistic nature – his vulnerability culminating in ‘So In Love, Reprise’ – and his growth becomes clear when he joins Vanessi in singing ‘I am ashamed’, a directorial choice I feel completes the idea of a shared resolution, rather than a submission. Although important to display the themes of Shrew honestly, I wanted to make it clear that as a collective society we should aim to remove the sexism that is promoted in many early productions of this show, whilst keeping to its comedic, lighthearted and energetic nature.”
– William Freebairn (Director)
Backstage chaos is part of the show’s DNA. While we’re sure this has gone off without a hitch: how has the whole process been in creating the show?
“Although luckily our show process has been a lot less chaotic than that of the fictional Shrew team, a lot of the backstage sentiments within the show still ring true in a lovely way. We have been working tirelessly on the show since September and then all of a sudden you are in the theatre and it is opening night, and you can’t help wondering where all the time has gone! I feel very connected to the character Ralph, played hilariously by Rosie Hopson, who spends the entire show telling people there is no time and to get on stage. Regardless of the pressures show week undoubtedly brings, we have been so lucky to be working on a show with such passionate and talented people, and it has been truly incredible watching all of the different elements of the show come together.”
– Amy Stinton (Production Manager)
Cole Porter’s wit is razor‑sharp. How do you balance honouring the period style with keeping the humour alive and resonant for audiences today?
“As a show that was both opened and set in 1940’s America, it is not a surprise that some of the humour in the show is to be lost when considering its audience is made up of British university students. (I am predicting that few people will catch the humour behind the General’s decision to choose Dewey in his upcoming presidential election). Nevertheless, I have aimed to create humour not only through line delivery and comedic timing, but also through costume and dance. By adding in small moments like the gangsters in where the life was, or the many screams and solo dances performed by our ensemble cast, I have aimed to ensure that our audience recognise the comedic nature of the show in all of its aspects, and (hopefully) leave the theatre with several memorable moments. I am a firm believer that a comedic musical is the best kind of musical, and so ensured that every funny part of this show that I can bring light to is fully deserving of the reaction it gets from our audience.”
– William Freebairn (Director)
For the creatives: what design element—set, costume, lighting, or sound—most transformed your production, and how did it help articulate the tension between theatrical glamour and backstage grit?
Without spoiling it, these two moments have been some of the most thought about in the process. These are two key moments as one is the height of the play’s life, and the other the height of its death. I wouldn’t want to claim we’ve been innovative, I think that’s for others to decide, but these are two moments that have moved me most, and are the “Kiss Me, Kate is a costumer’s dream: not only giving the chance to make both 40s and Shakespearean-style costumes, but to make Shakespearean costumes as though they were designed in the 40s.
Here I had the most fun with the girls’ skirts – adding jarring waistlines and drapery to honour the fabric decadence of Dior’s “New Look”. Given that the musical serves to celebrate the chaos of a theatre’s backstage, the show itself has ‘costumer’ characters. Designing the women’s Shakespeare costumes to fit-in with 40s fashion, I was intending to complement this backstage storyline.The men of the show provided an entirely different case, however. Finding a lack of inspiration in traditional 1940s suits – typically duller tones and boxy shapes which are inconsistent with the bold fabrics of Elizabethan men – I went in a different direction. Realising that the easiest way to source this fabric was through paisley waistcoats (easily available on Vinted), I adjusted them to achieve the tighter-fit style of the period. My inspiration for this was the eccentric look of The Globe’s 2024 Much Ado.”I’m tackling this play.
– Eloise Rux-Burton (Costume Designer)
“The initial sketches were a brilliant starting point to consider the colour palette of each character, and the symbolism this carries. For our main characters, we learnt from our first sit-down with our director, Will, that he was keen for Lilli to wear red-tones and Fred blue ones, to create a clear divide between the unhappy pair.
To balance this, we decided on bright yellows and greens for our other central pair – Lois and Bill – to highlight their optimistic and youthful characters. Having the consistency between their 1940s palettes and their Shakespearean ones contributes nicely to the blurry lines between the drama occurring backstage and onstage.”
– Florence Morgan (Deputy Costume Designer)
“For lighting we tried to emphasize the difference between backstage/40s aesthetics with a more vibrant and lively Shakespeare ‘show aesthetic’, through the use of colour and facelight. The backstage was darker, with blues and reds to mimic the backstage blues often found in theatres and the Shakespeare states much brighter, and with more of a wash, to mimic a more traditional show, with warmer tones throughout.”
– Lily Goodchild (Lighting Designer)
If you could borrow one trait from your character to use in your own life—whether confidence, chaos, charm, or sheer stubbornness—what would you take and why?
“If I could, I’d borrow Lilli’s sheer audacity. She knows what she wants and is never afraid to speak her mind, and I think the way she doesn’t bend to the people (particularly the men) around her is really admirable. And, of course, it’s a whole lot of fun to play onstage!”
– Nina Birbeck (Lilli Vanessi)
“I think something has to be said for Fred’s mix of resilience and stubbornness that allow him to just keep things rolling despite things falling apart around him. Considering everything that goes wrong during the show, I reckon he does a pretty good job of taking the hits as they come (literally) and still persisting through the challenges he faces to put on the best production that he can given the circumstances. A trait like that would be very useful for working through deadline season!”
– Ewan Robertson (Fred Graham)
Edinburgh University Footlights runs at The Churchill Theatre from February 10th – 14th
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