Where: The Globe
Why: Standing in a crowd for 3 and a half hours? Count me
in!
What I know about the Shrew comes
mainly from the modern BBC version starring Moaning Myrtle and the beautiful
bear-man that is Rufus Swell, and from seeing Kiss Me Kate at uni. Oh and also
the generation-defining 10 things I hate about you, obviously. So I had a
pretty firm grasp on the old story, but was looking forward to seeing a
traditional version. And if we’re basing tradition solely on the size of a
ruff, I was pretty well in there.
We planted ourselves at the end of the ramp, which meant
a great view (no tall heads in front of us) and an enjoyable trampling by
members of the cast who were continuously bounding through the groundlings and
hopping onto the stage, which was brilliant (at one stage, Kat and Petruchs
were just standing next to us watching the play). I love going to the Globe,
they’re so chilled and creative. The olde band were giving us a song before it
began, and there was a little skit involving Simon Paisley Day (who went on to
play Petruchio) dressed as a beer-swilling lout stumbling through the audience being
chased by harassed staff members and eventually passing out on the stage (my
mate who had seen it before didn’t give this away so muggins here thought it
was actually happening... Captain Gullible at your service).
This performance boasted a very
strong cast, which was underpinned by the brilliant Samantha Spiro and Simon
Paisley Day, whose chemistry and, shall we say, vigorous performances propelled
the whole show at break-neck speed. I only knew Spiro from Simon Amstell’s
uncomfortable (but quite funny) real-lifey comedy Grandma’s House, where she
sports a tremendous lady ’tache. She played what came across as a rage-filled,
frustrated, trapped, perverse and basically stompy Katherine, which I thought
worked well with the fact of the production being played straight rather than
ironically. Paisley Day seemed to relish every single second of what is, let’s
face it, a pretty great role for a boy, and he was completely shameless and
unphased in every scene (his red thong caused the woman next to me to
completely collapse in hysterics at regular intervals). The two of them had
some just brilliant physical comedy and fight scenes, involving plentiful
writhing and struggling, and their whole relationship was totally
captivating.
The sisterly relationship with
Bianca was also very realistically played, with the younger sibling outwardly
meek and daddy’s girl-ing all over the place, winding Katherine up behind her
father’s back, and she was expertly played by Sarah MacRae. I also loved Pearce
Quigley’s performance as the downtrodden Grumio – his kicking the bucket joke
had everyone in stitches no matter how many times he did it (it went on for a
while). As soon as I saw him I was chuffed, as I loved him in the BBC’s Cutting
It as the hangdog Eugene.
I can’t say much else other than
that I enjoyed every minute of the play, even Katherine’s super-awkward broken
woman speech at the end, when my back was starting to bend from so much standing.
There was much chuckling and men poking their female companions during the most
outrageously misogynistic bits, and although it’s not a plot that sits
spectacularly well with modern sensibilities, there was a sense of the audience
being able to take it for what it was and laugh at themselves and at the little
bits which ring true with the gender stereotypes we still hang on to.
Woo for Shrew.
Brixpig x
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