Adlib Theatre brought a perfect period comedy to Northwood House with their genuinely hilarious rendition of “The Taming of the Shrew”.
As one of Shakespeare’s earliest written comedies, the cast not only had the challenge on finding as much humour from the usual tropes of switching identities, secret marriages and verbal banter that the plot details. They also had to deal with the issue of how to make the various problematic elements of the plot work in 2024.
The plot which switches between a hapless noblemen switching places with a servant to gain access to the woman he loves via teaching her music, all the while competing against two rival suitors. The catch being, he can only marry her once her shrewish bolshy sister Kate, is married first. And so he enlists the help of Petruchio, a wandering philanderer to woo and marry her…all the while this is happening as a play within a play watched by some old drunk man….with me so far?
The plot descends into a madcap calvalcade of Petruchio’s plans to woo Kate, which read now like a feminist’s nightmare. He forcibly marries her without her consent, humiliates her at her own wedding, starves her, forces her to not sleep, openly threatens violence against her several times throughout the play and, to cap it all off, gets her to do a speech in front of the whole cast saying how men are superior to her gender.
…and it’s a comedy….
Happily, director Maureen Sullivan ably managed to re-contextualize the play with a witty adaptation, giving Kate agency and making her a willing participant, a fellow conman to Petruchio. the superb cast carrying it off with aplomb. Petruchio and Kate were ably portrayed by Simon Lynch and Emily Scotcher, both drawing on their long working relationship in shows to portray two very calculating intelligent individuals that are looking to escape this group of fools, and while they are there, milk them for every penny they have. They both showed chemistry and a great grasp of the subtler comedy moments. Two great leads indeed.
The rest of the cast had great moments to shine as well. Scarcely a dropped line or low energy scene. Particularly the supporting roles: Patrick Barry played the put-upon servant Grumio with all the trademark charm you’d expect, his co swordsman Ed Nash had some wonderful comic moments as Lucentio’s stand-in father. It would be great to see these two given more to do in future performances.
Bryony Bishop is another who really deserves top billing. She really fleshed out a seemingly two-dimensional character in Bianca with a great undercurrent of spitefulness towards Kate. Phillip Barker had the audience laughing whether he was wearing a funny hat or sneaking Bianca behind a curtain.
Karl Whitmore played a dirty old man in Gremio about as good as you can hope to see. His performance was animated and nuanced in equal measure. Anita Davies bustled around and delivered Biondella with West Country accent and comedy a plenty. Lynne Gregory-Phillips ably conveyed that she was the one in the middle really trying to get these madcap lot to co-operate! John Abraham’s Hortensio had one of the best worst Italian accents I’d heard and was very funny. Andrew Jenner and Libby Pike played characters of every shade of camp and colourful and Brian Curtis had quiet gravitas as the real Vincentio.
I think however my biggest plaudits must go to the younger members of the cast. Millie Attrill has some great asides, Rafe Hodge Thomas as Tranio was witty, and more then held his own against some of the more established members of the company, and Ellen Careless got the funniest moment of the night when she clouted Petruchio with a wine goblet….good going that!
All in all, this company is spoilt for talent of all ages, I for one can’t wait to see what they come up with next. When this lot are on stage, the play really is the thing!
Reviewed by Olly Fry
IWtheatre 