Riverlinks and Bell Shakespeare present The Taming Of The Shrew
By William Shakespeare. Directed by Marion Potts. Starring: Beth Aubrey, Emily Rose Brennan, Jeanette Cronin, Vanessa Downing, Luisa Hastings Edge, Judi Farr, Sandy Gore, Anna Houston, Ksenja Logos, Lotte St Clair and Wendy Strethlow.
Australian audiences will be treated to a talented ensemble of actors in Marion Potts' not-so-classic, all-female take on Shakespeare's classic romantic comedy.
Beth Aubrey, Emily Brennan, Jeanette Cronin, Vanessa Downing, Judi Farr, Sandy Gore, Luisa Hastings Edge, Anna Houston, Ksenja Logos, Lotte St Clair and Wendy Strehlow join forces in a new gender-twisting production of The Taming Of The Shrew that sees women playing men, dressed as men in conflict with women playing women, dressed as women.
In tackling what is often labeled Shakespeare's most chauvinistic play, the politics of marriage are under the microscope in this comical look at the dubious sexual politics of Kate and Petruchio's Padua.
Is Petruchio nothing more than a vain, uncaring, greedy chauvinist who treats marriage as an act of domination and attempts to train his wife as he would a hawk?
Is Kate a spirited woman who is cowed into abject submission by the violence of a blatant bully? Does Kate start out as an independent and vital woman, only to become a Stepford wife?
"By this reckoning he is more shrew than she."
Contemporary audiences can determine if they will rescue Shakespeare and Petruchio from the charge of male chauvinism and accept that The Taming Of The Shrew is the tale of two eccentric rebels who must fight and challenge each other before they will admit to being deeply kindred spirits.
Jeanette Cronin, who received a Sydney Theatre Award Nomination for Best Supporting Actress for Holding The Man, is in the blue corner as the mercurial and witty Petruchio.
Lotte St Clair - Homebody/Kabul for B Sharp at Belvoir St Theatre, Sydney Theatre Company's Macbeth and All Saints - is in the red corner as the challenger, Kate, in this fast and fiery examination of the psychology of relationships.
Producers: Bell Shakespeare
Director: Marion Potts
Assistant Director: Shannon Murphy
Set and Costume design: Anna Tregloan
Lighting Designer: Paul Jackson
Sound Designer: Max Lyandvert
Fight Director: Scott Witt
