February 23, 2007

'Strange Duets: Impresarios and Actresses in the American Theatre, 1865-1914'

By NINA C. AYOUB

To play the tempest Katharina in Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew, an actress must convey a fury within. For Ada Rehan, the fury was real.

The American actress was in London in the spring of 1888 with Augustin Daly's New York company to stage the play. But on opening night she refused to go on. Rehan was incensed over Daly's flirtation with the production's Bianca, says Kim Marra, an associate professor of theater arts and American studies at the University of Iowa. When Daly knelt,