‘King John’ gets an empowering female boost at Praxis Stage

Celina Colby

Celina Colby is an arts and travel reporter with a fondness for Russian novels.... VIEW BIO

King John may be the title character of Praxis Stage’s latest performance in the company’s Shakespeare season, but it’s the play’s women who take charge in this adaptation. Director Kimberly Gaughan has masterfully enhanced the already strong female roles in the show and used gender-conscious casting to bring out new identities throughout the performance. The result is a profound show of female strength and a surprisingly contemporary political drama, running at the Calderwood Pavilion in the South End Jan. 30 through Feb. 16.

The play already features the large role of Constance, the mother of the rightful king, who is attempting to advocate for her young son’s interests. Played by Poornima Kirby, Constance is a figure whose rational and painful emotions are constantly belittled by the men around her, a narrative still very much at play in 2020. She also serves as a sort of moral compass that King John’s court does not appreciate. “The character of Constance calls people out when they’re doing crappy things,” says Kirby. “And because she’s a woman, people call her crazy and people keep telling her to shut up. And she just won’t shut up.”

To enhance the female roles around Constance, Gaughan cast The Bastard as a woman (Annalise Cain). The Bastard serves as a conduit between the audience and the play and also as a very strong, often bombastic presence in the show. The character is almost as prominent as King John himself, and there’s a power dynamic between them that becomes particularly interesting with a female-identifying actor in the role.

Blanche, played by Jane Reagan, is another woman who gets an upgrade in the Praxis rendition of “King John.” Blanche is typically a fairly quiet, innocent character. Gaughan says, “I was interested in taking that sort of ingénue, that silent female role, and giving it a voice, even when there wasn’t text for her to speak.”

Reagan researched Blanche’s historical inspiration rigorously and found Blanche was extremely intelligent and ahead of her time, which helped her flush out the character. Reagan also hinted that a romance between Blanche and The Bastard is at work in the show.

“King John” is considered a problematic play, due to its chaotic storyline and refusal to be easily categorized like Shakespeare’s other works. It’s not chosen very often for production, but Gaughan has found it to be strikingly relevant. The core of the piece is about power — who has it, who wants it and what they’re willing to do to get it. With Gaughan’s changes, the power dynamic is not just between advantaged and disadvantaged, but also between men and women.

“There are these super high- stakes, and yet it’s all so personal. These small grudges are played across international borders,” Gaughan says. “In our current political climate, I think we’re dealing with something similar. And here, Shakespeare was so eloquently and simply illustrating that, even back then.”