This is the best thing I've seen in ages. Wiltons makes a wonderful Neo Italian setting for what can be a difficult play. A uniformly strong cast revels in Nick Hutchison's liberating interpretation and on the night I saw it the packed house was captivated throughout. Leave your preconceptions at home: the shrew isn't who you thought she was and the story makes great, modern sense. - Jock Mawson
25 Mar 07
Shrew reads as an unsympathetic attack on women who talk too much and it's a conundrum for a director to make something acceptable to a modern audience out of it. Nick Hutchison solved this one very well, and he had a dream of a Katerina to do it with in Rachael Stirling. From the moment she came on, ranting and raging, you could see there was something desperately out of kilter in her surroundings and not an innate fault in her. She'd been stuck since childhood with a stuck-up, goodie-goodie younger sister and a father too besotted with his spoiled brat to notice how he was neglecting the much more intelligent, interesting elder child. Oliver Chris as Petruchio produced a very subtle piece of characterisation in response to this - he saw at once what the problem was, not to mention falling headlong for Kate from the first instant, and he could see how to win her and save her by being a sparring partner who actually cared for her. When she finally got the point that he was playing with her, it was very touching. These two transformed what can come across as an oafish comedy into a true love story. Thoroughly recommended for anyone with a heart. - Robert Rowe
25 Mar 07
Very, very funny production which engrossed and amused the full capacity audience the evening I saw it. Hauntingly beautiful, crumbling Wiltons Music Hall is a bold choice of venue for this controversial comedy of relationships and non PC behaviour. Leave your preconceptions at home and go and revel in the sheer fun and delight presented by the excellent cast. - Valerie Noble
