Chemistry, comedy combine in ‘Shrew’
Who’s taming who?
That is the question — and much of the fun — in the Utah Shakespeare Festival’s latest “Taming of the Shrew.”
Like so many Shakespeare-loving, card-carrying feminists before me, I have bristled — early and often — at “Shrew’s” apparently inherent misogyny. (One wonders what England’s Queen Elizabeth I, on the throne when Shakespeare wrote the play, thought of it.)
But the current festival production turns the tables in slyly romantic fashion, adding a welcome undercurrent of genuine, love-in-bloom emotion beneath the knockabout comedy.
Of course, it helps immensely that this “Shrew’s” battling bride and groom are real-life husband and wife: longtime festival favorites Brian Vaughn (the festival’s co-artistic director) and Melinda Pfundstein.
Together, they’ve played memorable couples in everything from “Into the Woods” to “Cyrano de Bergerac.” Add “Shrew’s” Petruchio and Kate to their joint honor roll.
Equal credit, of course, goes to director (and festival founder) Fred Adams, who returns to “Shrew” more than 50 years after directing it as the festival’s inaugural production in 1962.
Despite the play’s rollicking, broadly comedic elements (we’ll get to them in a bit), there’s a palpable sense throughout that we’re watching two possibly lost souls find their way to each other, even as they engage in the inevitable battle of the sexes.
In one corner: the fiery Katharine (Pfundstein, finding the quiet yearning beneath the brassy bluster), elder daughter of wealthy Baptista (the dependably droll Peter Sham).
“Kate the Cursed’s” notorious temper not only repels any suitors of her own but blocks the prospects of her sought-after younger sister Bianca (bratty Natasha Harris), who seems to be everything Kate’s not: winsome, dutiful and obedient. (And blonde.)
Enter boastful fortune-hunter Petruchio (Vaughn, in hilariously obnoxious form), who’s “come to wive it wealthily in Padua” and is only too delighted to take Kate off Baptista’s hands, provided the price is right.
While Petruchio’s busy trying to break Kate’s will, demonstrating how “to kill a wife with kindness,” Bianca’s multiple suitors launch multiple plots to win her — with more than a little help from multiple servants.
They’re played by a variety of the festival’s nimblest players, from suitors (David Pichette, Drew Shirley) to servants (Aaron Galligan-Stierle, Michael Doherty).
As diverting they may be — which is often — this “Shrew” indulges their slapstick shtick with the patience of proud parents oblivious to the fact that their beloved offspring’s antics, however cute, have worn out their welcome.
Especially when we’d rather get back to Petruchio and Kate.
Even during their most combative moments — or the times when Petruchio seems to be brainwashing Kate into accepting him as her lord and master — there’s a beguiling sense of glee watching these two strike sparks and discover that, much to their delight (and ours) they’re fated to be mated.
Not every “Shrew” deserves the happily-ever-after ending Shakespeare gives them. But, happily, this one does.
— CAROL CLING
