Oh what sweet revenge. As part of the season of regime change, the Globe theatre's all-women company attempts Shakespeare's most misogynistic play, and, despite some uncomfortable moments, it's rollicking good fun. Phyllida Lloyd's production is a gentle (and sometimes not so gentle) satire on the male sex. While it is true that the central premise of the play is still somewhat difficult for modern audiences to swallow (even in this all-women production, there was some hissing during Kate's final 'submissive' speech), Lloyd makes great play of the fact that most of the male characters here are blockheads of the first order.
Lloyd emphasises the comic nature of the play - some elements veer close to farce - but one might have expected an all-female cast to play up a gentler side to Petruchio, not a bit. Janet McTeer gives us a Petruchio, grotesque in his manliness.
This Petruchio is an adventurer in every sense, and there is no attempt here to establish the Petruchio/Katherine relationship as one of equals: he trains her as one would a dog. There are some funny scenes with Petruchio's spaniel, but behind the comedy, the intent is obvious: here is a man more at home with his hounds than a woman.
The text suggests that Petruchio suffers the same privations as Katherine, but this Petruchio doesn't. Only at the end, when Petruchio realises that he might have gone too far in his treatment of Katherine, is there an indication of humanity in this performance. The final scene, with them shouting at each other in a fierce argument, kindred spirits at last, seems uncomfortably tacked on.
For all that, Lloyd is well served by two fine performances, McTeer's Petruchio might be grotesque but is superbly funny, and Kathryn Hunter's dignified Katherine is a perfect foil to him.
They shine in a cast where mediocre performances are the norm; the glowing exception being Amanda Harris's Tranio, plainly enjoying every aspect of playing the lord.
A packed Globe clearly enjoyed the play and it certainly drew plenty of laughs. But I couldn't help thinking that a talented director has missed an opportunity to explore some of the subtler nuances of the play. By settling for a cast of male stereotypes, she has done the audience as much of a disservice as those directors who relish the misogyny of this troubling play.
- Maxwell Cooter
