The Taming of the Shrew (review)

This Taming of the Shrew was set in 1930s Italy, cut the Sly scenes that would have damaged the naturalism on which this production relied, and was based around a beautiful and detailed onstage Italian village set. One building was tavernkeeper Hortensio's "trattoria," with tables outside, where characters met and caroused throughout the production. The atmosphere and social life of a small town was expressed by non-speaking extras, who observed and participated in scenes throughout the play: two waitresses served Hortensio's customers, a policeman checked Petruchio and Grumio's papers and took a bribe as they entered Padua, young men loitered, and a housewife tended her washing on the balcony above the square. This crowd filled out celebrations and weddings, and also conveyed the public nature of small-town relationships, as nosy neighbors appeared at windows and doors during disputes in the street.

This light and romantic, crowd-pleasing Shrew seemed ideal for the airy space and picnic-filled audiences of the Open Air Theatre at Regent's Park. Director Rachel Kavanaugh insisted, in the program notes: "I wouldn't direct [the play] if I thought it sexist. [ . . . ] it's very romantic," and the dominant theme of the production was the depth and suddenness of the love between Katherina and Petruchio.

In their first scenes, Katherina and her sister were played as childish adolescents. Katherina's assault on Bianca took place after bedtime (Bianca in a slinky nightie, Katherina in pajamas), the better to avoid grown-up intervention, and Katherina tormented the wailing Bianca by ripping the head and limbs from Bianca's doll. When later sent out to meet Petruchio, Katherina emerged doubtfully. Stunned by the attention, and still in her pajamas, she cut an immensely vulnerable figure, and was deeply affected from the very first by Petruchio's compliments. Although she fought physically and verbally, and Petruchio fought back—throwing her to the ground when he claimed to find her "passing gentle," and kicking her before he claimed she did not limp—she laughed uproariously at his "tongue in your tail" joke, and was obviously smitten by his comparison of her to the goddess Dian. By the time that he proposed marriage, she seemed willing to acquiesce. Her agreement was temporarily interrupted by the arrival of her father and his male friends, which prompted Petruchio to a macho display of belt-brandishing male chauvinism for their benefit, thrashing the stage while threatening to tame her; this prompted another rebellion from Katherina, but at the end of the scene she willingly kissed him, and they exited happily hand-in-hand at a point where most productions have them storming out at separate doors.

This reading of the play as a story of true love was attractive and enjoyable, but with a Katherina so quickly compliant, it made Petruchio's cruel "taming" of his new wife seem unnecessary and strange. The explanation for Petruchio's behavior, so far as there was one, apparently lay in his melancholy at the loss of his father, and his speech about the success of the taming was depressed and self-doubtful rather than triumphant. He stressed the words "with kindness" in justifying his actions, and sincerely asked the audience to tell him if there was a better way to tame a shrew.

The taming passed quickly and lightheartedly, however, and any unease that audience members may have felt was smoothed over by the suggestion that Katherina was unharmed and undefeated by the taming. When Petruchio demanded that "It shall be what o'clock I say it is," it was a childish tantrum...