Auckland University Quad
Review: Susan Budd
The second production of the 37th Outdoor Summer Shakespeare could not be more different to the first, Henry V.
Whereas Henry was a triumph of style over content, iconoclastic, vigorous and outrageously original in interpretation, Shrew is a traditional production but for one element. And that is cross-dressing.
Katherine and Bianca are played by men and the assorted males are played by women. Extra material has been taken from The Taming of a Shrew, purported to be a pirated version of Shakespeare's play, in order to expand the first scene.
Drunken Christopher Sly and the Lord remain to watch the play from a balcony and to comment on the action. As their gender roles are straight, the conceit is that we are watching a group of mainly female travelling players.
It is a curious fact that when men are dressed as women, to be convincing in their roles they must lose their masculinity.
In Elizabethan times, men played female roles with, presumably, great success. But the converse is not true. Women dressed as men tend to remain women despite their masculine attire.
The reasons are hard to define, but the overwhelming impression left by Penni Bousfield's production is that it is performed by a group of very bright pupils in a girls' school.
Shakespeare's most riotous comedy of sexual relationships is made bloodless.
Yin needs yang for the sparks to fly. Rachelle Tomlin's Petruccio is intelligent and energetic but, to put it crudely, he lacks balls. Marc Laureano is a delightfully fiery Katherine. They are both excellent performances but there is no sexual tension to power the play.
Madeleine Hyland is a charming Lucentio and Harrison Mitchell a winsome, if inaudible, Bianca but their lovemaking is dull indeed.
The production is so straightforward that it threw some woeful overacting and hammy business into too sharp relief.
The effect of playing Katherine's final speech of submission to her lord and master as a chorus in which all take part is to lessen its dramatic impact and lose its sense.
Performance: Taming of the Shrew
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