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This Shrew still has plenty of fire

The Taming of the Shrew - Open Air Theatre
Iltyd Harrington

THE Open Air Theatre in Regent’s Park opened its 2006 season on a perfect Monday evening with The Taming of the Shrew.
Baptista Minola is a rich man of Padua with two unmarried daughters the eldest Katherina is a woman with a caustic tongue and a violent temper. She is the Shrew. Her beautiful sister Bianca has two persistent suitors, Hortensio and a senior but wealthy citizen Gremio.
No mild-mannered man wants Kate. Even strong-minded ones take one look and rush to the high road. But the despairing father will not consent to Bianca’s marriage and dowry until Kate is wedded and bedded. Therein lies the problem – soon to be resolved by the arrival of Petruchio from Verona, a man of good birth and swaggering ways. To her father’s surprise and relief Petruchio says he will marry Kate and “tame her”. At first she resists and doubtless wins the approval of feminists. But his is a rough wooing and she becomes a ‘wife’. So what do we conclude? Well the director for some reason sets the play in the late 1930s and 40s while Kit Surrey’s exquisite set makes it all downtown Padua.
John Hodgkinson’s Petrucio starves Kate of food and drink, pours scorn on her, and contradicts her every word. For me it was too grey and rigid a performance. No fizz. More Wuthering Heights than starry, starry nights.
Sirire Saha makes a feisty Kate. Who of course has the last word in that peerless final speech, which should be read at all weddings – a definition of love.
As always in the Open Air Theatre superb support comes from those experienced actors who slip easily into character.
Timothy Knightley is the bruised and bewildered Baptsita while Andrew Melville as Gremio lusts after Bianca in vain (Sherian Smith). All passion spent early, he must eventually return to counting his futures in ducats.
The Shrew is a boisterous play. At its core is not the triumph of the wife-beater but the joy of partnership wrapped up in delight.
Director Rachel Kavannaugh ends it all with fireworks, which all wise heads know occur in all long-distance relationships.

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