The Taming of the Shrew

Synopsis

Two wealthy sisters in Padua must be married off. The modest, demure Bianca has no shortage of suitors, but who on earth will take the wild, ungovernable, ?shrewish' Katherina? Perhaps the gold-digging Petruchio, as maddeningly strong willed and perverse as Katherina herself, will be equal to the task of bullying her to the altar. Shakespeare's outrageous comedy introduces one of the theatre's great screwball double-acts, a couple hellbent on confusing and outwitting each other right up to its controversial conclusion.

Our Review:

22 August 2003

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 Petr...

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Latest User Review

USER: Whatsonstage.com (195.40.198.162) - 22 September 2003:

janet mcteer so good by the end i fancied her...

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