Those that know me know I’m a huge Shakespeare nerd alongside other things. So when I was invited by a friend to go see Shakespeare Theatre Company’s "Taming of the Shrew," of course I said yes. I knew the play, had read it previously and even performed a monologue from it on a couple occasions; so I didn’t look too much into what this particular show would entail. It turns out that it was much different than other productions of this show. The set, costumes, lighting and sound were all amazing, but a few things jumped out to me that made this such a special show.
It involved audience cast interaction. I’ve been to a lot of plays and I’ve been in a good number of plays, and I can honestly say that I have never seen an audience be taken onto the stage at intermission to eat cake and interact with the cast before. It was fun to see the little details that they added to the intermission along with seeing the set and costumes up close. It was also great to interact with the cast, and the members that I spoke with were all very nice people.
When I walked in, I was not expecting a musical. But nevertheless, a musical it was and a brilliant one at that. Through keeping Shakespeare’s words and adding Duncan Shiek's modern music, the musical brought out the characters' inner emotions more. The music also aided in connecting the audience with the action on stage as many people tend to have trouble with the early modern English Shakespeare uses.
This show was my first time seeing an all-male cast. My costume designer side was excited to see how they would pull it off costume-wise and it was executed amazingly. My actress-side wanted to see how the actors playing the three women of the show would do. You could almost forget the female roles were being played by guys…almost. The whole cast had obviously put a lot of work and thought into their characters and it was wonderful to watch them become them and tell the story.
The main characters were phenomenally portrayed and are amazing actors, but it’s not only them that make the play. The ensemble in this show is a vibrant and talented group that brought an energy of their own. They are talented and expressive, but not too expressive to distract from the main action. They added elements to the show that would have been lacking without them, both story wise and technically. Even if some of them aren’t necessarily trained in dance, they danced across the stage none the less and did so wonderfully. They also held a key role in audience control during intermission and were among the first and last faces you would see entering and leaving the theater. They took on a lot of responsibility off stage that many other ensembles don’t have.
This isn’t to discount any other aspects of the production. So much about this show looks at a different angle to ‘Taming of the Shrew’ than other shows have. All the elements flowed together seamlessly to create this interpretation of "The Taming of the Shrew." Everyone on and off the stage is truly what makes it a successful show and worth going to see.
