THE TAMING OF THE SHREW. Nottingham to 2 March.

Nottingham

THE TAMING OF THE SHREW
by William Shakespeare

Nottingham Playhouse To 2 March 2002
Runs 2hr 40min One interval

TICKETS 0115 941 9419

By Farr, the best Shrew I've seen in years.Set in a 1950s American admass dreamland, Nottingham's production is all mom and apple-pie order. Except for the rebel daughter, from whose handbag no-one's safe. Kate torments her sister out on the lawn, tying her to a recliner and threatening her with the implements the neighbours use to keep everything in the garden lovely.

She's a rebel without a pause; yet it's no bike-bestriding James Dean who comes to usher her towards the sixties, but an impeccably neat boy-next-door type Petruchio. No wonder she seems to have more than ten things to hate about him. Until she starts getting to know him.

Usually this comedy's made tolerable by showing Kate and Petruchio as kindred spirits recognising each other among a tedious populace. This setting's made for it, more than making up for un-Yankee references to Aristotle, kings and lords.

The sympathy's there in smiles and details of recognition, and at every 'Kiss Me Kate', but it's the kiss on the way home to Padua, where the relationship seems finally sealed.

If there's a limitation it arrives at Petruchio's home, where Kate suffers starvation, humiliation and sleep deprivation. Ti Green's skilful set leaves behind the bright comic-book colours of the first half for a grey, shrouded Frankenstein's castle, backed up by howling winds, huge creaking door sounds and weird, white-faced servants. Doubtless this place is a Hammer house of horror to Kate, but the point's less precise than elsewhere.

Phillipa Peak's Kate is outstanding, even amid this strong cast. Always sympathetic and intelligent, she leaves no doubt Petruchio's got the right girl, rather than the alternately simpering and self-aware Bianca the other guys are after.

There are theatrical bonuses in opening and closing movement sections. Shakespeare's Induction goes, but Farr adds a superb epilogue. As easy riding days approach Kate lets down her hair and takes the driving seat, till in the final, smoochiest and unasked for kiss, Stephen Ventura's excellent Grumio has to keep the lovers on the road. It's at once a final, comic reference to Hollywood and a superb summing up of what the play's been all about.

Bianca: Coral Beed
Lucentio: Nicholas Burns
Hortensio: Justin Butcher
Pedant: Derek Crewe
Biondello: Harold Finley
Tranio: Andrew French
Baptista: John Guerrasio
Petruchio: David Partridge
Kate: Phillipa Peak
Gremio: Roger Swaine
Curtis/Vincentio: Will Tacey
Grumio: Stephen Ventura

Baptista's Wife/Widow: Kate-Alice Woodbridge

Director: David Farr
Designer: Ti Green
Lighting: David W. Kidd
Sound: John Leonard/Scott George for Aura
Choreographer: Caroline Hinds

2002-02-18 00:16:54