Revisiting the Script: Shakespeare On Stage in 2012

Playgoing in 2012 (squeezed in before the Olympics began) included a very funny Taming of the Shrew, a magical Tempest, a spirited Henry V, two versions of Richard III, and productions of King John and Timon of Athens modified to deal trenchantly with contemporary England.

In his approach at the Globe to The Taming of the Shrew director Toby Frow (whose surname echoes the term froward used to describe shrewish behavior) chose not to highlight feminist issues but to concentrate on comedy so as to generate the funniest of the roughly twenty productions I have seen. Sight gags and surprises were frequent. At each of the three mentions of the death of Petruchio’s father in 1.2 Grumio (Pearce Quigley) kicked a bucket; to begin the second half a rendition of a bawdy song (“The Cuckoo’s Nest”) with pantomimed actions re-energized the playgoers, many of whom sang along; in 4.2 Hortensio stationed below was dismayed by the presence of Bianca and Cambio-Lucentio romancing above that included a jettisoning of various items of her clothing. As scripted, Bianca (Sarah MacCrae) in 2.1 was led in with her hands tied (and also blindfolded), but, as has been true in many recent productions, she proved more than a match for Katherina so that her goody-goody pose in front of her father concealed her obvious spitefulness (and gained her frustrated sister the sympathy of the Globe groundlings).

Frow provided several distinctive choices. Most directors either omit Christopher Sly completely or, to complete what seems to be an incomplete story, buttress the first two scenes (the so-called “Induction”) with material taken from the 1594 The Taming of a Shrew. Not so here. Rather, a drunken Sly made a fuss in the yard, staggered onto the stage, urinated on a playgoer, was accosted by a pretend stage manager, collapsed, was found by a Lord, and, when awakened, was convinced he too was a lord. In this version Sly ended up back in the yard with his “lady” watching the action of 1.1, near the end of which the actor (Simon Paisley Day) exited and (as I was told) had twenty-five seconds to change to Petruchio and make his entrance in 1.2. The sequence was closer to the Folio (in which Sly does not double as Petruchio but somehow does disappear for good during 1.2) than any professional production I have seen. Meanwhile, Samantha Spiro’s spitfire Kate intimidated Gremio and Hortensio, kicked down the upstage door that had been closed against her, and showed herself the mistress of the headbutt and other moves, so that the 2.1 rough wooing scene with Petruchio was especially active and ended with her physical attempts to signal to her father a rejection of the marriage turned into dance moves by her wooer. Typically in the marriage scene (3.2) Petruchio appeared in an outlandish costume but here he also stripped down to his jockstrap and boots and paraded his bottom, and Kate rode off on Grumio’s back.

The pivotal scene in which Kate chooses to abide by Petruchio’s rules (4.5) was played with wit and understanding along with some accompanying music to heighten the romance effect. New to me was having the true Vincentio in response to his being addressed as a “Young, budding, virgin” respond in kind so as to address “Fair sir” to Kate” and then “you my merry mistress” to Petruchio (4.5.37, 53).¹ As for the controversial final scene, Kate’s famous (or infamous) speech (5.2.136–79) was played straight with no winks or irony. At the performance I saw, her initial lines that single out Bianca and the Widow for censure (that include a reference to their husbands as “thy lord, thy king, thy governor” – 138) elicited a gasp, perhaps even a hiss, from a few playgoers, but, given Spiro’s forceful and eloquent presentation as she built to her climax, the remainder was greeted with total silence. At the close (“In token of which duty, if he please, / My hand...