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.Charismatic-Vibrators Women Sandals Cow Leather + pu Fashion Women shoes Platform Square Heel Round Toe SandalsNine West Women's Kami Leather Wedge Sandal.Jiang Womens's shoes New Deck shoes,Spring 2018 New Flat Leather Casual shoes,Fashion Ladies Travel shoes SneakersFly London Mili Women's Boot.
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, AdeeSu Womens Dress Spikes Stilettos Fringed Leather Boots SXE04943Musse & Cloud Sisley - Sand Suede Ruffled Flower Footbed Slide Sandalis 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,Rieker Women Mules bluee, (Pazifik) V1460-14T-JULY Women Sandals Wedges shoes Platform Buckle Strap Summer Sandals Casual shoes High Heels gold Sliver Peep Toe Sandal 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, T-JULY Spring Summer Women's shoes Breathable Women Casual shoes Fashion Swing shoes Women Loafers Slip-on Walking shoesWomen Light Wedges Sneakers Comfortable Swaying Fashion Spell color Wild Increased Leisure Walking shoesthen 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 boneT-JULY Woman Summer Breathable Walking Sneakers Female Mesh Flat shoes Wedge Sneakers Ladies Casual Sneaker,Marc Fisher Women's Mfdaniela2 Dress PumpPleaser Womens FLAMINGO-809-2G PWG M Sandals 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’. T-JULY Women Thigh High Boots Winter Warm Fur shoes Buckle Flats Long Boots Fashion Round Toe Footwear Size 33-43
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;ZPSPZ sandals womens Ladies of Leisure Summer Open-Toed Sandals Slip-Proof Large Size Car Suture Comfortable Sand shoesAllhqFashion Women's Solid Frosted High-Heels Closed-Toe Pull-On Pumps-shoes,FBUDD011909 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,T-JULY Women Winter Warm Ankle shoes Fashion Snow Boots Ladies Plus Size Platform Boots Female Warm Non-Slip Boots 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,NJ Women Stylish Ankle Strap Lace Up Sandals Open Toe Chunky High Heels Party Pumps shoes with Metal RingsKappa Milla M Footwear Men, Synthetic Mesh, Unisex Adults' Low-Top Sneakers before flouncing offstage.T-JULY Snow Boots Women Mid Calf Size Warm Down Plush Lining Fox Crystal Supper Quality Winter shoes 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.