The Taming of the Shrew...

[fajrdrako]

I saw another outdoor play this evening: The Taming of the Shrew done by A Company of Fools in Windsor Park. It's a lovely park on the Rideau River, one I've possibly never actually been to, though I used to live near there.

The play was wonderful - and well-attended. My guess is that there were at least 300 people sitting around on lawn chairs or blankets. And kids, and dogs. There was a gorgeous, huge black lab lying right in front of me. He loved the play so much that after a scene or so he started barking in appreciation at the end of each speech or bit of slapstick, wagging his tail wildly, and then got so happily excited over it he started to howl at the actors. His owner mercifully took him away. (I hope he thought it was the end of the play.)

I know The Taming of the Shrew is generally seen as problematic; it isn't my favourite Shakespeare, but I quite love it for its wittiness. This play got past the problem-angle by making it so outrageously wild and exaggerated that it couldn't be offensive. They altered the occasional line, occasionally sang bits as twangy country-western or nursery rhymes - one speech was set to the tune of "Do, Re, Mi" from The Sound of Music and it fit astoundingly well. At one point a character got excited and said, "Call the Mounties! Call the S.W.A.T. team!" which isn't exactly how Shakespeare wrote it. Yeah, they got the best of the comedy. I love Shakespeare that is this lively. Rollicking. Not the least bit highbrow. It's nothing like what I've seen at the Stratford Festival or with the R.S.C. and on the whole, I prefer it, even though more than half the characters were puppet-masks manipulated by the principals with poles and bits of cloth. Not that I haven't seen brilliant highbrow productions - just that I prefer to see it performed as a manic farce than a pedantic bore.

I can't afford to go to Stratford this year, and the National Arts Centre doesn't have Shakespeare on the schedule, so this may well be the only Shakespeare I get to see for a long time. At least it was a good one.

Comments

[j-bluestocking.livejournal.com]

I recently got my hands on a DVD of a production I remember fondly from years ago; Marc Singer and Fredi Olster, American Conservatory Theatre of San Francisco. I remember it as very lively, lots of physical humor, and a Kate who gave as well as she got. I haven't had a chance to watch yet; I hope it holds up to my recollection.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I didn't even know such a DVD existed - I must look for it. Somehow of all the Shakespeare comedies, "The Taming of the Shrew" seems one of the very best suited to physical humour - unlike, say, "Much Ado About Nothing", which is all in the words.

[teenygozer.livejournal.com]

YES! I clicked through to mention this wonderful play in the comments, and here you had done it already.

It was a comedia delle'arts production and it was on PBS many years ago. Very whacky & rowdy & lots of physical humour.

http://www.broadwayarchive.com/catalog_detail.asp?id=90050025

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the link. I just checked, and my library doesn't have it. (Though they seem to have a pile of CBC and BBC productions on videotape.) I wonder if I cna get it on interlibrary loan?