A Wild Time in Padua - Ha-Hah!


Reviewed 5/5/06

Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew is among the Bard’s most accessible comedies. His hints of the Commedia del Arte style of farce create a knockabout comedy that is as enjoyable as it is discomforting for modern audiences. There have been many revisionists who have attempted to reduce the markedly chauvinistic tone that pervades the entire script. Katherine Stewart, however, is a classicist, unconcerned about such modern trivialities as equal rights and spousal abuse and not worried about presenting Petruchio’s (Toby Ambrose) Stockholm syndrome handling of willful Kate (Stewart) as the Bard originally intended. For Stewart, the play’s the thing, but in stressing the Commedia, she turns this production into a Punch-and-Judy show where everyone is at the smart end of the slap stick (one is brilliantly used onstage). As a result, this Shrew is silly, over-the-top, presentational, and impossible to dislike.

Of course, having Stewart in the lead has its benefits. This classically trained actress proves to have a funny bone and knockabout timing. As she and Ambrose tumble for each other-literally-they propel forward a show with several strong supporting performances, and a few underwhelming ones, as is wont for this fledgling company. Ambrose matches her performance blow-for-blow in the best acting job I’ve yet seen from him. His Petruchio is a braggart, a blowhard, and a buffoon, but Ambrose also imbues him with a likeability and a basic wisdom that we can’t help but appreciate. He is plugged into the overall feel of the presentation.

Gary Helmbold is once again a pratfalling fool as Petruchio’s servant Grumio, and hilarious for the effort. Joseph Peterson and Joshua Scott Hunt are a great duo as Bianca’s suitor Lucentio and his servant Tranio. While John J. Caswell, Jr.’s foppish performance of Hortensio is similar to his character in DRT’s production of Androcles and the Lion, it’s still the right and enjoyable choice. Faith Willman’s willful and spoiled Bianca is a funny, two-faced effort.

As the first act wanes and the gales of laughter subside, the second act doesn’t quite return to the zaniness of the first. Is it the fatigue factor of too much funny for too long? Perhaps, but some of it seems to be the result of repetitious jokes. Whatever the problem, the uproarious humor of the first act does not carry though the entire show. That’s not to say it’s a dud, just that things settle down before Peteruchio kisses his Kate.

Some of the weaker performances come from actors who are not able to differentiate between presentational characters and flat characterizations. Garry Myers plays the elder suitor of Bianca, Gremio, with a few zingers, but lacks the pizzazz of the others in the cast. Faith Shoemaker is a sweet servant’s servant Biondello, but she’s prone to recitation of her lines. Stephanie Bishop’s supporting parts are little more than filler as she swallows her lines and offers them in a droning monotone.