Saw this version in Stratford in 2003. We saw it with our kids about 1979.
Here is a review of the 2003 version.
There's no point in beating around the sagebrush. "The Taming of the Shrew" that opened Stratford's 51st season is one of the worst productions of the play in the festival's history. The Wild West setting is not the problem; rather it's how the setting is misused. Add to that sloppy direction and poor acting, and the show becomes one actively to avoid.
How do you like to see a review like that after spending $200 plus a B & B for the evening.
Taming is always difficult to pull off because it is so anti-feminist. I don't know why it is performed so often, in fact. Like the anti-semitism in MERCHANT, perhaps it is better left alone.
5 comments:
That's happened to us too - reading a terrible review after we'd bought the tickets - though perhaps not after spending that much.
I don't think we've ever seen SHREW. I know there was a Shakespeare in the Park version with Meryl Streep and Raul Julia. We did see a fun revival of KISS ME KATE outdoors in Regents Park in London at the Open Air theater in 1997.
Jeff M.
Yikes, not very good review. I don't think I'd pay 200 dollars to see it though.
I've never seen a stage production of SHREW, but I have seen Burton and Taylor go at one another in the movie adaptation. Well worth watching.
Re: The Anti-Semitism in Merchant of Venice.
I might have said the same but you should read Margaret Atwood's brilliant interpretation of Merchant in PAYBACK: DEBT AND THE SHADOW SIDE OF WEALTH. Wow.
She is truly brilliant. I will look for it.
Patti - Honestly, if I really want to see a play (or a concert for the matter of that) and go to the expense and effort to get tickets I try to concentrate on what the experience was like for me, rather than what some reviewer thinks.
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