If Shakespeare had written no tragedies or histories of note, his comedies would still delight us 400 years later because of their timeless wordplay, exuberant sense of fun, and still-valid psychological underpinnings. And all of that comes through in any incarnation, be it professional or community theater.
Mixed Magic Theatre’s current production of The Taming of the Shrew bears this out (Veterans Amphitheatre in Pawtucket, August 11-20 7:30 pm). Despite the varying levels of acting skill among the company, there are moments when you notice the complexity of the language or recognize the sheer joy the playwright found in it or revel in a familiar passage and pick up something you think you’ve never heard before.
And for this particular play, I am always listening hard to understand the questions posed by its very title. Why is someone a “shrew”? What contributed to that personality? Why does she need to be tamed? And who will do the taming? Some of the answers are more forthcoming and/or satisfying than others.
The scene is set, as so many of Shakespeare’s comedies are, in fanciful, free-spirited Italy. It’s here that characters change identities on a regular basis, plot lovesick rendezvous based on those changes, and every Jack eventually finds his Jill (and vice versa). Add the element of marrying off an older undesirable sister (in this case, the “shrew”) before the multiple suitors of the younger sister can be sorted out and you have many of the elements of The Taming of the Shrew.
Mixed Magic’s production is envisioned as being set on a Caribbean island. And though some of the costumes, the musical interludes and the outdoor setting of the North Kingstown Town Beach — waves shushing just behind the stage set, seagulls mewing, the smell of a charcoal grill wafting by — enhance that idea, it didn’t quite work for me.
What did work was Jason Bowen’s portrayal of Petruchio. His performance is the glue that keeps everything together. His naturalness makes the Shakespearean lines flow as seamlessly as everyday conversation. His confidence in his character guides us to believe Petruchio’s own shrewdness, determination to win Kate, and genuine affection for her.
Ayana Nickerson as Kate/Katherine/the “shrew” sometimes rises to Bowen’s level of comfort, but she can’t quite convince us of the transition of being grumpily assertive in her early scenes, grudgingly submissive in the middle sequences, and genuinely supportive (in a passive-wife way) by the end. What makes her shrewish is her anger at not being her father’s favorite. That resentment is channeled into a clever though deadly wit, and Petruchio hopes to steer her passion even further into a wifely devotion.
What makes that work at all is the first scene between them, in which they spar verbally with each other. metaphor for metaphor, pun for pun. Petruchio admires and respects Kate, despite his biting tongue; otherwise he might not work so hard to curb her to his will. And Shakespeare wants us to see, at the end of the play, that Petruchio, in his “taming,” has made the most harmonious match of the three couples celebrating their recent marriages.
Pitts-Wiley employs gender-free casting in this production, as Marsha Stephan takes on both the role of the narrator and the tailor, and Jeannie Carson inhabits Grumio, Petruchio’s cheeky manservant. Carson plays this to the hilt, her comic presence taking full advantage of her swagger and sass.
