Pete Meakin tackles the problematic ending of the Shrew full on, inviting an open-mouthed audience to view Kate’s capitulation to Petruchio in a very different light. It’s a daring interpretation and it works superbly. There she is after the wager, sunk in a lavish heap of crinoline and stuffing banknotes into her mouth, to the applause of the men and the horror of the women. This is a woman behaving very badly indeed.
It’s a gutsy and energetic production altogether, played out on Patrick Connellan’s magnificent railway station set, a marvel of Victorian brickwork suffused in Padua sunshine. Video projections show steam locomotives powering in to discharge passengers who then appear in the flesh, in a confident world driven by industry and run by men.
Sean O’Callaghan’s Petruchio is a brute, an adventurer with an Irish drawl and without charm, an abuser who behaves like an ogre in his basement kitchen but whose beating of a child is far from pantomime. Lizzie Winkler gets right into the skin of Kate. In shrew mode she lifts her skirts, moons in defiance and takes pot shots with a rifle. Stripped and shivering in corset and bloomers, she displays her vulnerability.
Meakin has assembled a fine cast, with notable performances from Richard Kent as the pale and peeved Hortensio, Peter Dunwell as the bluff and endearingly foolish Gremio, and Richard David-Caine as an effervescent Tranio who sounded unnervingly like Ed Milliband at times. This is Derby LIVE’s swansong and a very memorable one indeed.
Production information can change over the run of the show.
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