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Miami Theatre students Lys Olsen playing the role of ?Rouge Tigress and Jason Howard, playing the role of ?Lion Dog.?Click to enlarge

OXFORD — It's not uncommon, maybe even expected, that modern productions of William Shakespeare's plays be performed in some other style than pure Elizabethan.

But while we've seen "Hamlet" performed in a 1940s' film-noir motif and "The Merry Wives of Windsor" in the Wild West, the Miami University Theatre production of "The Taming of the Shrew" takes the conceit a step further by setting the show in the Ming Dynasty and performed in Jingju, a traditional Chinese performance style that combines acting, singing, dancing, pantomime and acrobatics.

Adapted and directed by guest artist Hsing-lin Tracy Chung, professor of Jingju at the National Taiwan College of Performing Arts, the production is a re-working of the famous comedy using the traditional roles of Jingju: Little sister, suitors, guests, relatives and servants.

The main characters' names hint at their personalities: Rouge Tigress, Old Wine Pot, Lion Dog, and his mother, Old Pill Bottle, a character not found in Shakespeare's play but which emphasizes the Chinese value of family obedience, Chung said.

"Jingju actors are trained over many years to be consummate performers who act, sing, speak, dance, and often perform acrobatics as well," she said. "Therefore, Jingju theatre is also called 'actor theatre.' Male can play the female roles, and female can play the male roles, too."

The colorful Jingju costumes rely more on conventions rather than historical authenticity, differentiating characters according to their personalities and social positions.

The Jingju aesthetic value is "everything within the world of the play must above all be beautiful, and the highest praise that can be given a performance is to say that it is beautiful," Chung said. "For me, this cultural exchange experience has been a beautiful journey too."

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how to go

WHAT: "The Taming of the Shrew: A Jingju Version of Shakespeare's Comedy"

WHERE: Gates-Abegglen Theatre, Center for Performing Arts, Miami University, Oxford

WHEN: Nov. 20 to Dec. 7

COST: $9 adults; $8 seniors, $6 Miami students and youth

MORE INFO: (513) 529-3200; www.tickets.muohio.edu.