Review: The Taming of the Shrew, Shakespeare’s Globe

Review: The Taming of the Shrew, Shakespeare’s Globe

Summary

Rating

40

Ok

A diverse and visually creative production struggles to balance the dark themes of coercion and control with moments of playful absurdity, ultimately leaving the audience both confused and disappointed.

The Taming of the Shrew is included in Shakespeare’s comedies, but therein lies a problem: the themes it contains don’t hold much humour for a modern-day audience. However, laughter did arise from this diverse and international audience, though very rarely collectively. The loudest collective laugh tonight came at the confusion of the players over an unexpected response from an audience member!

The central story involves Petruchio (Andrew Leung) taming the shrewish Katharina (Thalissa Teixeira). On the face of it, this involves gaslighting and coercive control – hardly laughable themes in reality! The original text sets the story within a framing device of a drunken Christopher Sly (Nigel Barrett’s entrance is sublime) being duped into believing he is a lord, and the play is performed for him. In this production, there is an additional framing device: a troupe of players, dressed like characters from a circus or the theatre of the absurd, force the inebriated Sly to join the performance. He, in turn, drags a reluctant Teixeira from the audience to play Kate before he is corralled into a child’s playpen.

The set, designed by Rosie Elnile, includes a huge cuddly toy, which the players’ lounge on and emerge from. There are moments of great playfulness and joyful dance and song – much-needed breaths of fresh air in a production that is at times awkward and stifling.

Coercion and control occur in many forms throughout, with the inclusion of puppetry and forced compliance from Jamie-Rose Monk, a player who takes on the role of director/dictator, as well as Vincentio. Monk sits reading magazines on a sofa at the back of the stage, intervening when the players deviate from the expected plot, their presence unnerving throughout. A potentially dramatic intervention occurs when Teixeira seemingly has enough of the absurdity and refuses to continue. This unexpected moment fills me with hope for something enlightening. It’s brilliantly acted by the scintillating Teixeira; nevertheless, the character capitulates, either due to despair or shock, it’s difficult to say, and ultimately delivers the infamous speech signifying that Kate has indeed been tamed, berating all other women to be subservient to their husbands.

This production, under the direction of Jude Christian, has the potential to highlight the absurdity of this tale and the attitudes it satirises, but it loses its way. The costumes, puppetry, music, and dance all have a lot to say, but sadly they drown out any message it’s trying to convey. On occasion this is literally true, when the live music composed by Corin Buckeridge, makes the clarity of lyrics and text difficult to decipher. The cast as a whole are superb, delivering interesting and engaging characters, offering many moments of delight and genuine playfulness, but I come away perplexed and disappointed.

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Directed by: Jude Christian
Design by: Rosie Elnile & Emeline Beroud
Costumes Supervised by: Jackie Orton
Musical Direction by: Richard Henry
Music Composed by: Corin Buckeridge
Fight and Intimacy Direction by: Haruka Kuroda
Movement and Puppetry Direction by: Emma Brunton
Dramaturgy by: Liv Morris

TheTaming of the Shrew plays at the GlobeTheatre until 26 October 2024. Further information and booking can be found here.