THE TAMING OF THE SHREW. To 2 September.
London.
THE TAMING OF THE SHREW
by William Shakespeare.
Open Air Theatre Regent’s Park In rep to 2 September 2006.
Mon-Sat 8pm Mat 1, 13, 15, July, 12, 31 August, 2 September 2.30pm.
Runs 2hr 40min One interval.
TICKETS: 08700 601811.
www.openairtheatre.org
Review: Timothy Ramsden 29 June.
Fine, well-considered comic production.
Rachel Kavanaugh’s production skilfully overlays sympathetic characterisation on a story involving Petruchio’s use of physical abuse and mental cruelty against his wife Katharina, based on a husband’s economic and social power in Renaissance society. Or, as here, merry 1940s Padua (with the wireless music and lipstick to prove it), where Sirine Saba’s Katharina alone avoids fashionable peroxide and perms and sits, her long black tresses combed back, in sober colours reading the newspaper.
When she tries to be pleasant, her father Baptista (Timothy Kightley, excellent, even his moustache worn grey worrying over his elder daughter) just walks away; no wonder her next comment, to the men around, is waspish. Sweet young sister Bianca’s a manipulative minx, all coyness and smiles to daddy, but hard-featured and spiteful to her sister. Her final comment to her eventual husband suggests marital troubles ahead.
But Saba’s Katherina grows in personality, recognising and colluding with Petruchio, actually enjoying the joke when he mixes sun and moon and calls an old man a young virgin. Meanwhile, she lands quite a few punches (plus a bite that continues sore even as Petruchio praises her) on her future husband.
It’s in John Hodgkinson’s fine Petruchio that Kavanaugh makes her major contribution. He enters with a black armband. His father Antonio’s recent death is more than narrative infill; it explains his emotional volatility. And he’s by no means confident. Assurance may flow as he talks to others, or sees Kate but there’s real concern about the job he’s taken on, and how to go about it, as he waits to meet her.
Several times it’s a struggle, physically and in terms of inventing tactics, to keep up his mastery. This Petruchio is calmer than most, more a Volvo driver than the usual biker, and Hodgkinson brings an unponderous sense of deliberation to the script which shows this is a contest where both sides have personal hills to climb.
Add a general acting style happily free of the excitability, gesticulating and facial mugging that too often passes for humour in Shakespeare and this is a distinguished, clear-headed, often funny production
Lucentio: Dominic Marsh.
Tranio: David Partridge.
Baptista Minola: Timothy Kightley.
Katherina: Sirine Saba.
Bianca: Sheridan Smith.
Gremio: Andrew Melville.
Hortensio: James Wallace.
Biondello: Leo Conville.
Petruchio: John Hodgkinson.
Grumio: Gerard Carey.
Curtis: Thomas Adridge.
Servants: James Bisp, Selina Chilton, Matt Dempsey, Haley Flaherty, Helen Owen, Martin McCarthy.
Tailor: David Burrows.
Haberdasher: James Bisp.
Pedant of Mantua: Stuart Nurse.
Vincentio: Michael Medwin.
Widow: Billie-Claire Wright.
Director: Rachel Kavanaugh.
Designer: Kit Surrey.
Lighting: Jason Taylor.
Sound: Colin Pink.
Composer: Terry Davies.
Movement: Jenny Arnold.
Voice coach: Mel Churcher.
Fight director: Terry King.
Assistant director: Robert Cameron.
2006-07-02 13:56:26