Holt Adds Shrew to Her Shakespeare Schedule???

Impresario Thelma Holt filled us in on her myriad producing plans in a recent 20 Questions interview. Coming to fruition quite shortly are Ninagawa's Japanese production of Pericles at the National and Ingmar Bergman's Swedish production of Ghosts at the Barbican, while later this year she'll present a new Hamlet directed by former Almeida artistic director Jonathan Kent. But now we've received an intriguing update. As part of her bard initiative with the Theatre Royal Plymouth (See News, 25 Jun 2003), Holt will co-produce not just another Ninagawa (in fact, another Hamlet) but also The Taming of the Shrew, directed by up-and-comer Mark Rosenblatt. The real surprise to the latter is in the choice of casting, with Petruchio and Kate to be played by Ross Kemp (think Grant Mitchell from EastEnders) and the supremely shrewish Nichola McAuliffe (aka Chitty Chitty Bang Bang's bitchy Baroness). Though we can't really comment on Kemp's suitability, it seems like spot-on casting otherwise. Following Plymouth in 2004, the plan is to take the Shrew on tour ahead of a possible West End airing. Meanwhile, this month in Stratford, the RSC is presenting its own Taming of the Shrew along with John Fletcher's lesser-known 'sequel' The Tamer Tamed. The first major pairing of these two plays in some 370 years, they'll both be directed by Gregory Doran and will feature Alexandra Gilbreath and Jasper Britton as the alternately wooing and warring lovers.

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