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Disclaimer:
The reviewers' opinions are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views of TheatreLouisville.org. |
Peer Reviews The Taming of the Shrew Reviewed by Deborah Ward Entire contents are copyright © 2007 Deborah Ward. All rights reserved. "Shakespeare, Shakespeare, where for art thou, oh Shakespeare?" At Central Park, amongst the towering oaks 'neath the twinkling stars. For those who love Shakespeare, go! Go to see "Free Will" (free William Shakespeare in the Park) tonight! You will absolutely laugh yourself out of your seat with the great tweaks that the director and The Globe Players have made on The Taming of the Shrew. For those who abhor Shakespeare, find him boring, or whine "I can't understand what he's saying," BAH on you! I scream at you, "What do you mean you can't understand your own language???" But the teacher in me, who sees 7th graders that can't interpret their own handwriting, empathizes with you. Therefore, I will give you this guarantee. If you go see this production, you will understand it and you will laugh and laugh and then question yourself afterwards, "Why did I ever think Shakespeare was boring?" Yes, they use that difficult Shakespearean English, but the acting of The Globe Players, mixed with the comical muses, clowns and knaves, assists those with Will Impairment to easily understand this amazing story (plus, the program gives a simple, modern English synopsis). They even let us know when to laugh and when to gasp. You will even greatly enjoy the swordfighting scene that at first keeps us in suspense as to why the emotionally enraged are moving awkwardly in slow motion -- but with the assistant of the knaves, we soon come to the realization that we are being transported into the Matrix. Being a biology major, when I hear the word "shrew," I think of the small, fuzzy, cute subniveal, mole-like mammal that makes one want to cuddle upon seeing it. That, however, is in stark contrast with THE SHREW, Katherine (Katie Walker), in The Taming of the Shrew. Some have described Katherine as fiery, fearsome and strong willed. I would choose the biblical statement that "it is better for a man to live on the roof of his house than to live with a contentious woman." However, one brave soul (who needs her dowry), Petrucchio (Max Newland), stands up and marries Katherine to free up her younger, beautiful and sweet sister Bianca (Bethy Atkins) to wed one of the many suitors after her hand. After a comical wedding and a highly sensational honeymoon, Petrucchio turns to the audience to give his plan of turning (or forcing) Katherine into being the perfect wife. With the gasps of horror from the audience at his non-politically-correct plan, Petrucchio sarcastically reams the audience, "He who knows how to better tame a shrew, let him now speak." With this taming also comes the excited confusion of who will win the hand of the beautiful Bianca through deceit, as her three suitors Lucentio (Peter Fremin), Hortensio (Griffith Brydon-Williams) and Gremio (Matt O'Toole) switch characters more times than Katherine smacks someone. As for the ending, I will let you figure that one out on your own. For those unfamiliar with Shakespeare in Central Park, the Kentucky Shakespeare Festival is celebrating 47 years of Free Will. Every year, one professional play is produced. This year's professional play was Measure for Measure, which is now being followed up by The Globe Players' production of The Shrew. The Globe Players are the Festival's high school company. As an extra treat before the main performance, the newest addition to the Festival's family, The Revels (the Festival's children's company), gives an abridged performance of The Tempest. Now, if 12-year-olds can perform Shakespeare on a live stage, then everyone should at least be able to put forth the effort to understand it.
Performed by The Globe Players (Katie Walker, Bethy Atkins,
Marissa Lee, Max Newland, Peter Fremin, Griffith
Brydon-Williams, Matt O’Toole, Cameron
Comstock, Jon Adams, John Lemmon, Mitch Martin,
Maggie Rogers, Jason McGeeney, Courtney Hardesty,
Sydney Spears, Ceara Aubrye, Maggie McKune, Stephanie
Nowicke, Zachary Huse, Marissa Lee, John Lemmon) ALL PERFORMANCES ARE FREE OF CHARGE July 10-12, 2007 Posted July 14, 2007
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