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The Taming of the Shrew
17 February, 2009 @ 8:00 am - 21 February, 2009 @ 5:00 pm
From 17 – 21 February 2009 we put on a highly successful outdoor Summer Shakespeare production of The Taming of the Shrew as part of 2009 FringeNZ with an all-female cast. This was the Troupe’s 13th annual Shakespeare production.
John Marwick, who had then directed 10 of these productions, was intrigued by the challenge of putting on a contemporary version of a comedy that, on the face of it, is about a man who ‘tames’ an unruly wife by starving her and depriving her of sleep. He had originally toyed with the idea of gender-reversal as a way of bringing a new perspective: perhaps if Kate was played by a man while Petruchio was played by a woman the audience response would change. In the event, the available cast better suited an all-female production – a complete reversal of the original Elizabethan all-male casting.
The play was set in a more or less contemporary and largely New Zealand world and didn’t take itself too seriously.
| Cast In order of speaking | |
| Lucentio, of Pisa, son to Vincentio | Suzanne Levy |
| Tranio, Lucentio´s servant | Pip Weston |
| Baptista Minola, a rich gentleman of Padua | Sandra Gillespie |
| Gremio, of Padua | Florence McFarlane |
| Katherina, Baptista´s elder daughter | Rowan Macrae |
| Hortensio, of Padua | Kat Angus |
| Bianca, Baptista´s younger daughter | Elspeth Harris |
| Biondello, servant to Lucentio | Tamsin Bertaud-Gandar |
| Petruchio, of Verona | Liz Sugrue |
| Grumio, Petruchio´s servant | Sarah-Rose Burke |
| A Maid | Sue Jones |
| Curtis, servant in Petruchio´s house | Sue Jones |
| Nathaniel, servant in Petruchio´s house | Pip Weston |
| Philip, servant in Petruchio´s house | Tamsin Bertaud-Gandar |
| Joseph, servant in Petruchio´s house | Sandra Gillespie |
| Nicholas, servant in Petruchio´s house | Suzanne Levy |
| Merchant | Carol Thompson |
| Haberdasher | Florence McFarlane |
| Tailor | Elspeth Harris |
| Vincentio, a rich gentleman of Pisa | Sue Jones |
| Widow | Carol Thompson |
| Production | |
| Director | John Marwick |
| Producer | Julia Stuart |
| Stage Manager | Theo Nettleton |
| Costumes | Carol Thompson |
| Properties | Julia Stuart |
| Sound | Ray Dickinson |
| Lighting | Chris Jones |
| Signage | Steve Wilson |
| Rehearsal assistant | Sue Lennox |
| Front of House | Patricia and Ed Hickey |
| Photography | Ken George Photography Ltd |
What the Critics Said
Reviewed by John Smythe
In his review on Theatreview John described the production as “Footrot Flats meets Outrageous Fortune”. In place of Shakespeare’s play-within-a-play induction, in this production the actors, dressed in tights and T-shirts, danced on to the stage to girl-band music and proceeded to don their costumes and their characters on stage. The whole cast remained in view throughout the play commenting on the action and adding live sound effects.
As well as very strong performances from Liz Sugrue as Petruchio and Rowan Macrae as Kate, the production brought out a lot of the humour in the Bianca sub-plot (played by Elspeth Harris).
The show enjoyed good weather (only one night was moved into the school hall because of rain) and the large houses were very appreciative.