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.MinxNY Women's Solid color Fuzzy Boot Slippers with Phone PocketAIUSD Dress, Rome Women Open Toe Ankle Flat Sandals Buckle Zip T-Type Summer Cool Thong shoes.Lindarry Ankle Strap Sandals for Women Stiletto High Heeled Rome Gladiators Style Sides Cut Back Zipper Fashion (color Nude, Size 6.5 M US)Water shoes Beach Sandals Upstream Aqua shoes Man Quick Dry River Sea Slippers Socks Tenis.
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, Wershiny Women's Evening Clutch Bags Evening Handbags for Formal Party Bridal Wedding Super Shiny Powder Hardware Leaf Lock Fashion Dress Cheongsam BagJawass Brown Tropical Sunflowers Cute Bees Women's Canvas shoes Casual Slip-On Sneaker Low Topis 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,Peony red 35-42 Size New Slippers Cut Out Summer Beach Sandals Fashion Women Slides Outdoor Slippers Indoor Slip ons flip FlopsIS Gusssy Handmade New Summer Hole Loafers Women Flat Leather Moccasin shoes 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, Pointed Toe Shallow Fretwork Sexy Office Ladies Women shoes gold High HeelsWoman shoes Sexy Stilettos High Heels 12cm 10cm 8cm Pointed Toe Women Pumpsthen 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 boneJOYBI Women's Cross-Strap Platforms Sandals Strappy Open Toe Back Zipper Casual Walking Gladiator shoes Flats,GUJMin Flat shoes Women's shoes Sandals Casual Dress shoes Dance shoes Mother shoesJOYBI Women's Penny Lafers Pointed Toe Non-Slip Thick Rubber Sole Simple Style Lightweight Moccasins Soft Comfort Walking Office Casual Flats Sneakers 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’. JQfashion Women's High-Heeled shoes Roman Sandals Fish-Mouth High-Barrel Rough-Heeled Sandals
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;JaHGDU Fashion Women Sandals Summer Boom shoes Wedges Weave Middle Heel Sandals Casual shoes High Top Lace up Fashion shoes for WomensWYMBS Women's shoes Winter Keep Warm Non-Slip Short Tube Belt Buckle Snow Boots,Green1,37 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,Spring Mid Heel Mules Slippers Ladies Pointed Toe Strange Style Crystal Outside Sandals 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,WTKRSM Women's Wedges Platform Sandals Strap Open Toe Fashion SandalsYongkang Dejianhong Building 2019 Summer Women Stiletto Sexy Transparent High Heels shoes Lace-Up Beach Sandals,White,7,CN before flouncing offstage.JQfashion Ladies Sandals Flat Soles Roman shoes Diamond Nailed Beads Beach shoes Slippers 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.