Pictured: Lauren Gunderson. Photo by Kristen Lara Getchell.

As this week protests, rallies and marches over the election of President Donald Trump continue, THE COMRADES and over 40 other theaters across the country have come together to present a free performance of Lauren Gunderson’s THE TAMING on inauguration night.

Inspired by Shakespeare’s THE TAMING OF THE SHREW, Gunderson’s play is set at a Miss America pageant where a beauty queen named Katherine has trapped a liberal activist and a Republican senator in a hotel room to help her rewrite the U.S. Constitution.

“In 2013 I wrote THE TAMING, an all-female political farce for Crowded Fire Theatre, to unpack the deep frustration of a divided and obstructionist patriarchy,” Gunderson wrote in a blog post on Playscripts.com, “to laugh with the painful truth about extremism on both sides, to toy with our country’s history and wrestle with its foundational imperfections, and to make manifest a dream of reason and understanding prevailing in America. That feels more necessary now than three years ago.”

(l-r) Kate Leslie, Alison Plott, Angela Horn, and Courtney Dane Mize.

Directed by Kate Leslie, the Chicago production features Alison Plott (Patricia), Angela Horn (Bianca), and Courtney Dane Mize (Katherine).

The Comrades production of THE TAMING will run January 20th at 10 p.m. with a running time of 85 mins. Tickets can be reserved by visiting the-comrades.com.