one4review | On 08, Oct 2024

The Taming Of The Shrew – Globe Theatre London 4th October 2024 Four Stars.

Wonderful! Challenging retelling still manages to be colourful and silly.

Set in Padua, the plot follows the courtship of the headstrong and sharp-tongued Katherina by Petruchio, who takes on the challenge of taming her unruly nature to make her a submissive wife. In tandem, Katherina’s younger sister Bianca is also wooed by multiple suitors. Who will succeed and who will fail?

Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew is a tricky one to navigate in today’s society. Audiences over the years seen it as a whimsical comedy, with pithy dialogue with fun and frolics. As time and tastes has moved it has rightly been re-evaluated as his most controversial comedy, with the misogynistic themes running through the spine of the play.

The Globe has a reputation for bringing Shakespeare’s undercurrent themes to the fore in ingenious ways and this production is no exception. The colourful costume design which resembles an explosion in the 90s (that’s vintage these days folks) clothes shop fits in well.
Set designer Rosie Elnile’s huge white flumpy teddy bear taking up most of the stage where the cast come and go through, down from its naval is strange, subtle for what it’s trying to say and effective.

The intermittent character puppetry is cleverly used by and on the cast, showcasing a plethora of the art – classic vaudeville, Punch and Judy, and even a bit of Avenue Q for good luck. Also, we have some jazz/folk music punctuating the air at different periods of the show which is used to convey the mood.

The cast are outstanding. John Cummins offers great comedy relief as Biondello, and the rest of the players bound around with energetic abandonment through the well told story.

However, Thalissa Teixeira as Katharina is a particular stand out in her performance as the play progresses you see her whittled down into submission. While a lot of this decay comes from the dialog, it’s the expressions on the rest of the cast that makes it seem they know this is wrong but don’t do anything about it.
This adds to the moon/sun dialog as something so sinister, even Neil LaBute might balk at the uncomfortable place it puts you in.

Director Jude Christian really has shined a new light/life into this text. This is exactly the type of theatre production The Globe should be promoting.
****
Reviewed by Steve H
Globe Theatre London
4th October 2024