The Taming of the Shrew leads, Ylaria Rogers as Petruchia and Michael Cooper as Christopher (Kit). Photo: Lakespeare.
Let’s face it, laughing at a woman being starved, tortured and humiliated these days is going to struggle to raise a laugh.
That’s the challenge of putting on Shakespeare’s great relationship comedy, The Taming of the Shrew, in the post-#MeToo era and amid an epidemic of domestic violence and coercive control.
But if it happens to a bloke? Well, that’s going to be easier.
Canberra public theatre institution Lakespeare is staging a very different The Taming of the Shrew for its seventh summer season of productions in various settings this month.
It wanted to return to laughing this year after delving successfully into a couple of the Bard’s big dramas, Henry V and the dark Macbeth, in the past two years.
Enter director Karen Vickery, who, when approached, immediately thought a Sydney version of The Shrew she was in would work in the national capital.
“The whole idea of the Playwrought Project production was to actually examine what would happen if we flipped the genders, and to great delight, it was a huge success,” she said.
“We had a very good attendance at the play and a wonderful audience response, and what really seemed to happen in that version was the releasing of the comedy again.”
Karen said it was a very crazy, mad play in the vein of Comedy of Errors and some of Shakespeare’s earlier works, with three love stories, not just one, that have different trajectories and different kinds of results.
“It’s very much based on the Commedia dell’arte and huge, bold, ridiculous characters relentlessly and ridiculously pursuing either love or money or both, adopting disguises,” she said.
“My belief is that what Shakespeare intended within the misogynistic sort of construct of his time was that two difficult people encounter each other, battle their way through, and actually end up with a terrific relationship.
“I think that’s actually what the play is talking about. It’s just the terms in which it is couched and discussed, and the behaviours are just not acceptable anymore.”
The cast of The Taming of the Shrew: “They’re getting funnier and funnier.” Photo: Lakespeare.
Shakespeare aficionados can rest easy, though. The text is still sacred.
Karen said no modifications were required, noting that it was more the intention and degree of playfulness the actors brought to their parts that drove the different perspective of the play.
“We’re doing what we believe works best in the current climate, but also what we believe reflects perhaps something of the original intention,” she said.
While Petrucha and Kit battle it out, they ultimately find an honesty in how they see each other; the other love stories are delusory and tangled by social expectations.
Karen said that, unlike the main characters, Lucencia and Bianco’s journey is a relationship blinded by love and essentially superficial.
“You start to see the cracks in that relationship, that it was superficial and that there’s gonna be a lot of wrangling in that relationship, whereas Kit and Petrucia have found a path forward that is working for both of them,” she said.
“That’s very much what we’re examining in the play, and it’s very much there in the text.”
Karen said The Taming of the Shrew was also perfect in its adaptability to the outdoor and indoor configurations Lakespeare stages during the season, whether that be in the park or on the lawn, or in a theatre or a dining setting.
“Lakespeare has that wonderful sense of the touring company, which I love,” she said.
“There’s a real joy, as theatre makers, for us in exploring all those different venues and experiences and the different ways in which you interact with the audience.”
Audiences can also look forward to some wonderful costumes from WAAPA graduate Helen Wojtas, who also worked on the Playwrought Project with Karen and Canberra Youth Theatre.
Karen said the production was using the Elizabethan silhouette but with non-traditional fabric.
“They’re bright, they’re colourful, they’re flamboyant, and they’re really quite spectacular,” she said.
“We also have the services of a professional milliner [Rachael Henson], so there are five extraordinary hats as well, so it’s pretty fabulous.”
With the first performance on 17 February, at a sold-out Verity Lane, the cast has been honing their performances and wringing the laughs out of the script.
It’s a good sign for Karen that rehearsals have been a hoot.
“I think that everyone’s rising to the occasion and there’s some wonderful bold characters. They’re getting funnier and funnier,” she said.
“I actually was crying with laughter the other night in the rehearsal room.”
The cast is:
Petruchia: Ylaria Rogers
Christopher (Kit): Michael Cooper
Lucentia: Shontae Wright
Bianco: Alastair James McKenzie
Trania: Anneka van der Velde
Grumia: Yanina Clifton
Gremia: Alice Ferguson
Baptista: Giuliana Baggoley
Biondello: Blue Hyslop
Hortensia: Claire Noack
Vincentia: Jill Young.
The season runs to 1 March and includes four free outdoor shows in various parks around Canberra.
For performances and other information, visit Lakespeare.
