By Jan Sjostrom
Is William Shakespeare’s bawdy comedy The Taming of the Shrew misogynistic or is it a ahead-hunting romp driven by potent women of all ages?
Which is a query Contemplating Cap Theatre requires up in its re-imagining of the enjoy in its manufacturing at the Broward Heart for the Executing Arts’ Abdo New River Space in Fort Lauderdale.
According to the company website director Nicole Stodard’s staging will “explore our shifting perceptions of what’s playable, offensive or amusing.”
There is a great deal to take pleasure in in Wondering Cap’s staging, but there is little doubt wherever Stodard stands. Alternatively of provoking assumed, she normally hammers dwelling her viewpoint.
In Stodard’s adaptation of the 16th century participate in, the characters’ missteps into what 21st century audiences probable would regard as chauvinism are signaled by a flashing red button on a screen over the phase accompanied by a loud buzz, fairly as while the participate in were a television activity present.
The cast is multiracial and girls sometimes enjoy gentlemen and vice versa. As Petruchio and Katherina, the major combatants in this battle of the sexes, Noah Levine and Karen Stephens transform spots for a while in Act Two to participate in each other’s roles. The stage Stodard is creating with this device is unclear, until it is to clearly show how permeable gender boundaries have come to be.
In the story, the rich Baptista seeks to get his shrewish daughter Katherina off his palms by giving her a extra fat dowry and barring her sought-right after youthful sister from marrying until eventually Katherina is securely wed. The main thread follows Petruchio’s taming of Katherina. A secondary plot tracks the adventures of Bianca’s suitors and requires a whole lot of trickery and disguises.
Stodard sets the tale in a present day-day company place of work exactly where the people are dressed in boring gray company apparel. Christopher Sly, the drunk for whom Shakespeare’s engage in-in just-a-enjoy is staged, will become a corporate pooh-bah.
The performers don scraps of costumes, these as funny hats and capes, to suggest their roles in the play and a shift to Shakespeare’s era. Many actors enjoy a number of figures.
Stodard fails to make a relationship between the business office framework and Shakespeare’s tale unless of course it is to emphasize the evident level that sexism persists these days. Fortunately, Shakespeare’s words carry more than enough zest to override hefty-handed treatment and it’s doable to savor the locations in which the gamers land his saltier badinage.
Levine helps make a much better Petruchio than he does a Katherina. Armed with a smug smile and boundless self-confidence, Levine swaggers, coos and bullies his way past Katherina’s formidable defenses. But his pallid Katherina improvements the balance of electric power among the figures so wholly that a lot of the entertaining of looking at her tamed is misplaced.
Stephens reaches for the spitfire in Katherina but falls quick of making Shakespeare’s lines audio normal and spontaneous. She would seem to get far more of a kick out of enjoying Petruchio.
Bill Schwartz remarks drunkenly from the sidelines as Sly. Robert Ayala runs a marathon with wit and aplomb as Participant Two, the Hostess, Biondello, Curtis and Hortensio.
Cameron Holder convincingly shapeshifts into a lord, Tranio and a tailor. Randy Coleman provides irony to his roles as Player Just one, Grumio and a merchant. Pete Rogan performs Gremio and Vincentio and Phillip Andrew Santiago is the show’s Lucentio.
Melissa Ann Hubicsak’s Bianca is most fetching in a schoolroom scene with her disguised suitors. Beverly Blanchette plays Baptista as well as a hostess and a widow.
Contemplating Cap’s production doesn’t truly lose new light-weight on the concern of misogyny in Shakespeare’s perform. But it could make you assume about it immediately after the display.
The Taming of the Shrew runs as a result of April 3 in the Abdo New River Area at the Broward Heart for the Doing Arts, 201 SW 5th Ave., Fort Lauderdale. Performances are held at 7:30 p.m. March 28-30, 3 p.m. March 31, 7:30 p.m. April 1 and 11 a.m. and 7:30 p.m. on April 3.
The clearly show operates 2 hrs and 20 minutes with a person intermission. Tickets are out there at BrowardCenter.org or Ticketmaster.com, by cell phone at (954) 462-0222 or at the Broward Center box business. Tickets value $45 additionally expenses for frequent admission and $25 in addition expenses for college students.
The article The Taming of the Shrew at Pondering Cap Theatre first appeared on Florida Theater On Stage.