The 2003 ‘Regime Change’ season at Shakespeare’s Globe saw the theatre belatedly extend its original practices experiments – which had included a number of productions with all-male casts – to a single-sex, women-led company, performing Richard III and The Taming of the Shrew in repertory. Phyllida Lloyd joined the project late in the day after Barry Kyle left the production, and the result (as seen on the archive video at Shakespeare’s Globe) is a joyful, comic, and playfully satirical take on the play that celebrates the bodies and improvisatory skill of the company’s women.TOOSBUY Men & Women Breathable Running Sport Tennis shoes,Beach Aqua, Outdoor,Athletic,Rainy,Skiing,Walking,Slip on Water,Flat Casual shoes (7 D(M) US, Blackwhite@)Summer Sexy Womens Cross Strap High Heels Party Prom shoes Pointed Pumps Sandals.CHENGLing Wedding Evening Party shoes Comfortable Mid Heels Pumps with Ankle Strap shoesOriginal Mystery Women's Artificial PU Flat Slip On Backless Casual Walking Fashion Sneakers.
For Lloyd’s company, men are a species unto themselves. Even rival suitors Hortensio (Yolanda Vazquez) and Gremio (Penelope Dimind) slap one another’s backs and share mutually reinforcing shouts and grunts. Petruchio, when he emerges in the imposing six-foot form of Janet McTeer, CHENSF Womens Foldable Soft Pointed Toe Ballet Flats Bow Comfort Slip on FlatsDoraTasia Women's Fashion Cross Ankle Strap Open Toe Kitten Heels Samdals Summer Casual shoesis the most alpha of the males, embodying a slightly swaggering but entirely self-possessed confidence that brooks no argument.
This commedia-inflected production plays the Shrew fairly straight, for laughs, and without the induction that might give it an ironic frame. Instead, any critique and irony comes from within the performances themselves, as the company allow the play to be a comedy but allow that comedy to push to uncomfortable places. Kathryn Hunter’s Katherina is a spoiled woman-child, stamping her feet and shouting wordlessly when she doesn’t get her way,Woman Flats shoes Female Ballet shoes Loafers Pointed Toe Casual shoesWomen Rhinestone Flat shoes Bead Bohemia Lady Slippe Sandals Peep-Toe Outdoor shoes Slipper and in the early scenes Petruchio brilliantly turns this against her when informing the other men that they have agreed she will do this – when she stamps, the men clap and cheer her; when she shouts, they turn it into a huzzah, depriving her of her best weapons. Her abuse of her sister Bianca (Laura Rogers) is thorough and quite violent, but this comes from justifiable resentment at the clear favouritism of her father Baptista (Anna Healy). Katherina has undeniable problems, but watching her passed over by her father and gaslit by her wooer is still hard to watch.
During the second half, at Petruchio’s house, the strategies are very clear and centred around food. In a clever move, Lloyd brings onstage Petruchio’s spaniel Troilus, an actor in a dog costume, who takes an immediate dislike to Katherina; Katherina tries to flee from the dog, LUOBM Sneakers Breathable Wild Old shoes Fashion WomenSoulength Women's Kitten Heels Stilettos 5CM Point Toes Patent Leather Ladies Pumps Non Slip Rubber Sole Sexy Elegant Comfortable Single shoes 3.5-8UKthen beats it with a broom, leaving it whimpering away to get the sympathy of the servants. Later, Katherina sneaks up to the dog while it and Grumio sleep to steal its bonePeony red Woman Slippers Home Slippers Sexy High Heel shoes Women Sandals Casual Beach Sandals 2019 Summer Comfortable Flip Flops,IDIFU Women's Fashion Rivet Pointed Toe Ankle Boots with Stiletto HeelsC & C YD90 Women's Winter Warm Cally Faux Fur Slipper her hunger absolutely desperate by this point. Later, as a reward, Petruchio gives Katherina some food, but then embraces her and coddles her while Hortensio finishes it off. And increasingly it becomes obvious that Petruchio is treating Katherina exactly like his dog, right down to the whistles and shouts of ‘Here’. Women's Elegant Thick h-Heeled Open-Toe Strap Sandals for Party
The comedy of the production is sincere, then, but leads to uncomfortable positions. Hunter’s virtuoso physical skills allow her to be tumbled upside down when she fights against Petruchio, and to be carried around the stage in all kinds of undignified postures;NZZNB Ladies'Bag Fashion Elegant Large-Capacity Handbag Bag Classic Design Shoulder Crossbody Bag Solid color Simple Satchel Tote Purse Top-Handle HandbagsShine-shine High Heels Women Pointed Toe Metal Decoration Comfty Sandals Party shoes F052 yet the audience’s laughter seems to doubly imply both recognition of her skill and enjoyment of her subjugation. The applause of the audience in the archive video after Katherina comes to Petruchio at his command seems sincere, as it the audience are approving the taming. It’s a microcosm of a production in which men are consistently awful throughout, but always mutually congratulatory.
The standout sequence, though, is Katherina’s final speech. At Petruchio’s command,Women Peep Toe Stiletto High Heeled Strappy Sandals Pointed Toe Stiletto she gives a speech of a few lines, and gets applause and approval from her husband. But then she goes for another few lines, and another, and another. An increasingly anxious Petruchio tries to get her to be quiet, but she begins exaggerating the speech more and more, getting up on the banquet table and flashing her legs, and finally lying down in a mockery of Petruchio,Tiwcer Flower Bowtie Slipper Women Summer Casual Beach Waterproof Slides FlatGenuine Leather Women Flat Sandals Fashion Casual Solid Buckle Woman shoes Summer Footwear before flouncing offstage.Women Summer Open Toe Ladies Sandals Plus Size Platform Open Sandalia Feminina We see a glimpse of them having a fight in Italian, suggesting that Katherina is far from ‘tamed’, and indeed will continue to assert herself against Petruchio indefinitely, even as she learns to play the game of this patriarchal world. It’s a quiet reclamation of the play, but a potent one.