The Taming of the Shrew

 

At Bard on the Beach until September 21, 2019
Tickets from $26 at 604-739-0559 or bardonthebeach.org
Youth Price tickets, sponsored by Global BC, are available for patrons ages 6 to 22 at 50% off regular adult prices

Posted June 17, 2019

It’s probably impossible to do The Taming of the Shrew straight up these days. Kate’s apparent capitulation to Petruchio is unpalatable but then, who really knows what Shakespeare had in mind back in 1590? Had he intended us to think Petruchio actually ‘tamed’ or broke Kate, Shakespeare might have risked his own wife, Anne Hathaway, banishing him from their ‘best bed’ or even ‘second best bed’ to the doghouse for the rest of his life.

Director Lois Anderson tweaks Taming in a way that makes everyone happy. We are in the Wild West, in Padua City in 1870; the men are toting six-shooters and the women have baked pies for “Summer Fest”.

Rough and tumble Petruchio (Andrew McNee) blows into town with his sidekick Grumio (Joel Wirkkunen); they’re broke so Petruchio is looking for a rich wife.

From Anderson’s program notes: “This is a story of how this man and this woman fall in love, and then slowly get to know each other, through misunderstanding, and mis-haps. It’s a complex love story and we in the audience root for them.”

With Jennifer Lines as Kate and Andrew McNee as Petruchio, we do really, really root for them. Lines is as shrewish as shrews can be; she chases Bianca (Kate Besworth), her pretty ninny of a younger sister, around the set, dragging her around by a rope and, eventually, by her curly ringlets. Traditionally, the older sister must be married off before the younger – but who will marry the wildcat? Lines’ Kate is every bit “the devil” the townspeople call her; and McNee – if he were a dog, he’d be a sad-faced, big black Lab puppy with a “Who, me?” look when caught chewing a leg off the settee. He’s a master of the small gesture: the thumb brushing the side of the nose, the sheepish glances and the sly/shy smile. In short, adorable but somehow sexy. I have never heard the line, “We two are married” delivered with such overwhelming, good humour mixed with complete and utter awe at his good fortune.

Director Anderson introduces a turnabout in the action, engineered by Kate and signaled a little earlier when Petruchio gently covers an exhausted, famished, sleeping Kate with his coat. It’s hard to pinpoint the exact moment when Kate takes over but my guest suggested it’s in the lyrics to Tumbling Tumbleweeds that Petruchio and his gang sing around the fire. The song, sung in lovely harmony, is about freedom and that’s what Kate finally understands: Petruchio offers her freedom to become whatever she wants:

“I know when night has gone
That a new world’s born at dawn!
I’ll keep rolling along
Deep in my heart is a song
Here on the range I belong
Drifting along with the tumbling tumbleweeds”

Sound designer Malcolm Dow had access to the late Marc Desormeaux’s soundscape from Bard’s 2007 Miles Potter’s spaghetti western take on Shrew but obviously Dow has put his own mark on it. I don’t remember Tumbling Tumbleweeds – certainly not as pivotally, at any rate. Mara Gottler, once again, dazzles us with gowns – especially those on Bianca and a spectacular plum-coloured taffeta extravaganza on the wealthy widow (Ghazal Azarbad) whom Hortensio (the always delightful Anton Lipovetsky) settles for when it’s obvious Lucentio (Kamyar Pazandeh) has won Bianca’s hand – albeit through the ruse of his servant Tranio (Chirag Naik).

In a bit of gender-bending, Kate and Bianca’s father becomes their mother Baptista (Susinn McFarlen). As Bianca, Besworth gives us a completely giddy young woman who, when excited – which is most of the time – flaps her hands and forearms like a duck. Unlucky the man who weds her.

This Taming of the Shrew will likely be another winner for Bard on the Beach. It’s definitely not for Shakespeare purists but it’s a fun, slightly – and not too obviously – feminist take on a play that’s problematic in its gender politics. Chemistry between Lines and McNee is terrific – no surprise when you put two such skilled, charismatic actors on stage together. As with many of Bard’s shows, this one will likely sell out quickly.