MEMBERS of a York theatre group plan a complete gender reversal when they take on Shakespeare's "sexist" play.

Not content with the occasional male-female role-swapping which already crops up in the Bard's works, the York Shakespeare Project is turning The Taming Of The Shrew on its head, to give its famous line "Kiss me, Kate" a whole new meaning.

In the production at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre and Pocklington Civic Arts Centre next month, boys will play the girls' parts, and vice versa.

Director Paul Toy, who was assistant director for the Millennium Mystery Plays in York Minster, said: "In The Taming Of The Shrew, Shakespeare deals with marriage and the relationship between wife and husband.

"The views expressed, particularly in Katrina's final speech, were strongly

patriarchal, even in Shakespeare's time, and have caused many modern

actresses and actors and audience members - both male and female - unease and concern.

"So for this production we have cast men in the role of the women and women in the role of male lovers.

"I don't believe a woman would say 'You can walk all over me'. Because we have got a strapping man saying the words it is not real, not naturalistic and it gives the audience a jolt and makes the play double-edged."

The project is aimed at showing all the Bard's 37 plays

in approximate chronological order in York over the next 20 years.

The Taming Of The Shrew will be performed at Pocklington Civic Arts Centre, on Friday, June 13, and Saturday, June 14, then at the Rowntree Theatre, from Tuesday, June 17, to Saturday, June 21.

Updated: 11:18 Saturday, May 17, 2003