Review-Taming of the Shrew-ABA Productions

  2-10-13

Editor's Note: The team at HKELD was very excited about The Globe coming to Hong Kong for their production of Taming of the Shrew. We were not invited to review the production but two of our critics attended the show on their own. Their opinions were so vastly different on the production we thought it would make for a very interesting article. This is a boy's and girl's opinion on a show that's all about men vs. women.

By: Tom Hope

I’m a fan of the London Globe.  I’ve watched over 16 productions there in as many years (since it opened in 1997).  I make a point of boring strangers at parties about its special audience-actor dynamic, the groundlings in reach of the cast, the convention that those wanting a drink or a piss can move in and out of the theatre at will.   And I’ll bore on too about the quality of the shows, the way the verse is made sensible, how humour is wrought from so much happening outside the words, the joy/pathos/rage/fear etc that blossoms on stage and o’erspills itself…

I’m a fan too of ABA Productions for having the vision and production muscle to bring Shakespeare’s Globe to Hong Kong.  Until last night, I’d yet to see a Globe touring production – and I’d heard good things about them, along with the outreach it does to schools and the community generally in the UK and now elsewhere…

So, yes, you guessed it, I trotted along to the APA Lyric Theatre with high expectations.  What a great idea for a Taming of the Shrew – an all actress cast to offset the play’s troubling chauvinism – women beating up women – assertion of masculine power askanced by female intuition – it had to be a winner…

And yes, you guessed it, I was disappointed.  This production is a mismatch of form and content. Nothing about it gells or transforms the text.  Nothing about it convinces in terms of re-appraising the play’s sexual politics or other core themes.  It has its moments of comedy and pathos and anger – but they are stuck on like candles on a cake that’s seriously soggy from under-baking.

Here’s a few of the ways it doesn’t work:

• The setting is a big top circus tent which looks great on stage but serves no apparent thematic purpose besides allowing people to do quick changes behind a large pull-back curtain.  There’s no clowns, acrobats, jugglers, tight-rope walkers. Instead there’s a mishmash of retro 30s to 70s clothing that could have been cobbled together from a local jumble sale.  (Maybe the big top is meant to be a garden marquee and the all-lady cast are meant to be women’s institute members having a lardy-dah-Sunday-afternoon-lark-about – but if so there’s not a hint of mining this context from opening to close, other than Christopher Sly’s laying out by fox-hunters at the get-go – and, following the Folio text, Mr Sly rests unresurrected thereafter.)

• That famous full-on scream-the-house-down entrance of the Shrew: well, Kate strolls out in a sort of coma, doing her not very best to half-poke a chiffon down Bianca’s throat – a Bianca whose voice and general mien (albeit be-skirted) are a lot butcher than her elegantly trousered and melancholically wistful sister.  Why the under-play (without any supporting sub-text)?

• The sexual chemistry between Petruchio and Kate:  within minutes of meeting, this supposedly pulls them into a full-on French lip-smacker for which they have given no hint of a clue besides a momentary double-take from Kate when she first spots her ‘man’ and a totally out of character ‘lost for words’ stumble-butt from Petruchio.  Perhaps the two are supposed to fancy each other rotten in a love-at-first-thunderbolt way – but if so why does Petruchio immediately thereafter re-make with the macho – and get super-slapped for his pains?  

• When Petruchio commands Kate to leave her own wedding, Kate (at long last) full-bloodedly asserts herself – but one countermand from Petruchio and she allows herself to be flounced off-stage in her wedding gear. Why? (And if it’s because ‘he’ is just so damn attractive, this doesn’t come through from the way it’s played.)

• When Kate finally submits and obeys her husband’s every whimsical command, Petruchio double-takes as though to say ‘who are you kidding?’ – another post-modern ironic gloss for which we have not been prepared in any way.  But then Kate makes a fine (and apparently straight-up) speech about the need for women to obey and submit to their man.  What (if anything) is the point?

• There’s also no hint from Petruchio (or any of the other actresses – and they all get to play at least one male part) of being really a woman disguised as a man.  Instead they (mostly) do their un-ironic best to be blokey chap-ettes, with ever-more irritating hand-slaps, arm-thrusts and foot raisings, supposedly underscoring male camaraderie but actually implying a lack of any over-arching vision for the show itself.

• There’s music – some of it very lovely music – performed by the multi-talented cast, who sing and play angelically or demonically as required – but it’s hard to hear the words (and I was in the stalls) – and it’s almost always slapped on rather than supporting the narrative.

• There’s sub-plots – well, of course there is, cos this is Shakespeare – but you have to be very quick witted to work out whether Lucentio and Hortensio know who each really is when disguised as Bianca’s suitor-tutors, why Hortensio pretends to be Lucentio’s dad and why Lucentio’s real dad transforms into a Jamaican housewife for Hortensio.  And those aren’t the only bafflements from a multitude of quick changes where character differentiation is NOT aided by costuming, vocal shifts or the like.

There’s more I could moan about but I’ll stop there.  I wasn’t alone – half the stalls audience didn’t return after the interval and those I talked to after the show who didn’t know the play needed the plot explained to them point by point.  

And yet… there was some magic, clearly, because at the close, there was a huge cheer from the remaining audience, a substantial section of whom stood to applaud a cast who had given their all. There was laughter, there was joy, there was even (a teeny weeny bit of) anger in the mix.  But not enough (for me, at least) to fill the emptiness of an opportunity missed.

That the cast’s all should have been so dysfunctionally rendered must, I guess, be the full-on responsibility of the (young, up-and-coming, Irish and male) director, Joe Murphy.  He’s clearly no fool – for an interview in which he explains what he’s tried to do in this production, click here.  His declared objective to get at the truth of what Shakespeare was trying to achieve is commendable.  It’s just a shame that – to my mind, at least – he has fallen so wide of the mark.

In summary, this production is likely to leave most people, however well-acquainted with the play, mystified as to why anyone should want to stage it this way – or, for that matter, why Shakespeare should have written it in the first place. 

I just hope this not-so-fiery Hong Kong baptism for the Globe does not discourage ABA from bringing out other, more easily accessible, productions from this most wonderful of contemporary British theatrical institutions.

By: Meaghan McGurgan

I went to the APA on Saturday to see Taming of the Shrew by The Globe. I had heard fabulous things about it on Facebook and I had seen very pretty pictures of it. I was intrigued to see how the play that is all about the battle of the sexes would be portrayed with an all female cast.

Overall, I really liked the show. There were things I loved. I loved the integration of music into the production. I loved the festival feel of the show. I also loved the scenic design. It helped project a Commedia d’ell Arte feel onto the show. This was a troupe of performers who were very excited to show us a timeless story.

The costume design by Hannah Clark was also a really good thing for me. I love it moved through the history of clothing during the show. We opened in the 1900’s dressed in red jackets to go hound hunting, we moved into the 20’s where Kate emulated Kate Hepburn and Petruchio wore some beautiful aviation clothes. Then we moved into the 50’s where powdered blue suits and crinolines ruled. What I found really interesting about the design was that some characters stayed in past periods and other characters evolved. Kate and Petruchio evolved but Bianca who’s happy to be mother and wife only evolved into a bias cut dress from the 30’s.

It was a show full of impressive performances by the cast. I love they performed without mics. My seat was the absolute worst in the house. I was in the very back row of the balcony and we could hear them clearly and plainly as if they had mics on. I loved the blocking of the production. The director, Joe Murphy, used the entire space to his advantage and even pulled performers into the house. None of the blocking felt forced or contrived. We were in this very funny world of boys vs. girls where outlandish double takes are the norm.

My favorite performances of the night belonged to Tranio played by Remy Beasley. I thought she had amazing physical presence as a performer. I loved how Geordie Shore she was. (In a Shakespeare play? How funny!) I also really liked the leads, Kate Lamb and Leah Whitaker. And Kathryn Hunt as Kate’s father killed it. She is supremely talented. I bow to her projection skills!

I didn’t particularly care for Olivia Morgan’s performance as Bianca. I really loved her as the other characters she did on stage but as Bianca I felt she lacked a lot of the sweetness or vulnerability that I feel the character needs. She wasn’t helpless or dainty and it made some of her scenes with Kate lose a lot of the contrast I’m used to seeing in this script.

What made the show really good was the twist at the end. I’ve always had a little trouble finding the humor in the end of Taming of the Shrew being the hardcore feminist that I am. Everyone knows domestic abuse is absolutely hilarious! *sarcasm alert*

I loved how they chose to turn the ending on its head. Petruchio gets what he finally wants but doesn’t know what to do once he gets it. In this version of Shrew it’s not just the men emotionally manipulating the women; the women are manipulating them right back. As sick as it sounds we love to watch troubled relationships explode. Whether it’s in the tabloids or our neighbors down the block. We’re attracted to the modern day sideshow. How far is he going to go this time? And how far is she going to let him?
Case one- Chris Brown vs. Rihanna.  

Taming of the Shrew has now closed. For more information, click here.

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Comments

• Satoshi
  02 October 2013

  This production was an absolute delight. While it may be more "authentic" and more fun to see an all male cast, this all female cast worked very well because of the nature of this particular play and because it is being performed today. Overall, the small cast (plus two stagehands) did a fantastic job in doing absolutely everything! Some actors were more effective in portraying different roles, but still...

• Ugh
  04 October 2013

  Ugh. Tom's writing... Notice how Megan made her point clearly in half the words?

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