The 2003 ‘Regime Change’ season at Shakespeare’s Globe saw the theatre belatedly extend its original practices experiments – which had included a number of productions with all-male casts – to a single-sex, women-led company, performing Richard III and The Taming of the Shrew in repertory. Phyllida Lloyd joined the project late in the day after Barry Kyle left the production, and the result (as seen on the archive video at Shakespeare’s Globe) is a joyful, comic, and playfully satirical take on the play that celebrates the bodies and improvisatory skill of the company’s women.VOLATILE Womens Denver Western BootFay Waters Women's Velvet Fur Snow Boots Winter Warm Casual Comfort High Top Platform Elastic Ankle Booties.AmoonyFashion Women's Pointed Closed Toe Zipper Imitated Suede Solid Spikes Stilettos BootsLadies Slippers Winter Pu Leather Home Indoor Non-Slip Thermal Woman Slippers 2018 New,9,3839.
For Lloyd’s company, men are a species unto themselves. Even rival suitors Hortensio (Yolanda Vazquez) and Gremio (Penelope Dimind) slap one another’s backs and share mutually reinforcing shouts and grunts. Petruchio, when he emerges in the imposing six-foot form of Janet McTeer, WeiPoot Women's Round Closed Toe Solid Mid Top High Heels BootsBeautiful - Fashion Women's Open Toe High Stacked Heel Sandals Buckle Ankle Strap Comfortable Platform Chunky Block Heel Sandalsis the most alpha of the males, embodying a slightly swaggering but entirely self-possessed confidence that brooks no argument.
This commedia-inflected production plays the Shrew fairly straight, for laughs, and without the induction that might give it an ironic frame. Instead, any critique and irony comes from within the performances themselves, as the company allow the play to be a comedy but allow that comedy to push to uncomfortable places. Kathryn Hunter’s Katherina is a spoiled woman-child, stamping her feet and shouting wordlessly when she doesn’t get her way,AmoonyFashion Women's High-Heels Round Closed Toe Frosted High-Top BootsHANBINGPO 2019 Summer Women shoes Woman Genuine Leather Platform Open Toe Mother Wedges Casual Sandals and in the early scenes Petruchio brilliantly turns this against her when informing the other men that they have agreed she will do this – when she stamps, the men clap and cheer her; when she shouts, they turn it into a huzzah, depriving her of her best weapons. Her abuse of her sister Bianca (Laura Rogers) is thorough and quite violent, but this comes from justifiable resentment at the clear favouritism of her father Baptista (Anna Healy). Katherina has undeniable problems, but watching her passed over by her father and gaslit by her wooer is still hard to watch.
During the second half, at Petruchio’s house, the strategies are very clear and centred around food. In a clever move, Lloyd brings onstage Petruchio’s spaniel Troilus, an actor in a dog costume, who takes an immediate dislike to Katherina; Katherina tries to flee from the dog, Size 35-42 New women sandals thin high heels open toe sexy party spring summer women shoes woman high-heel Beste Y0605388GJushee Womens Juintro 6 cm mid-Heel Knee-High Zipper Patent-Leather Bootsthen beats it with a broom, leaving it whimpering away to get the sympathy of the servants. Later, Katherina sneaks up to the dog while it and Grumio sleep to steal its boneKemeKiss Women Floral Embroidary shoes Stitletto Heels,Wuixkas Dog Puppy Footprints Womens Lightweight Mesh Sneakers Comfortable Running shoesWuixkas Camo Camouflage Yellow Art Womens Lightweight Mesh Sneakers Funny Walking shoes her hunger absolutely desperate by this point. Later, as a reward, Petruchio gives Katherina some food, but then embraces her and coddles her while Hortensio finishes it off. And increasingly it becomes obvious that Petruchio is treating Katherina exactly like his dog, right down to the whistles and shouts of ‘Here’. Phil Betty Women Flats shoes Square Toe Breathable Solid color Comfort Dress Flats shoes
The comedy of the production is sincere, then, but leads to uncomfortable positions. Hunter’s virtuoso physical skills allow her to be tumbled upside down when she fights against Petruchio, and to be carried around the stage in all kinds of undignified postures;Wuixkas Adorable Pink Dog Footprints Womens Lightweight Mesh Sneakers Popular Running shoesWuixkas Cute Green Rabbit Diamond Womens Canvas Upper Sneakers Lace up Cute Fashion Loafer Canvas shoes yet the audience’s laughter seems to doubly imply both recognition of her skill and enjoyment of her subjugation. The applause of the audience in the archive video after Katherina comes to Petruchio at his command seems sincere, as it the audience are approving the taming. It’s a microcosm of a production in which men are consistently awful throughout, but always mutually congratulatory.
The standout sequence, though, is Katherina’s final speech. At Petruchio’s command,Drew Toby Women Pumps Pointed Toe Shallow Mouth Ankle Strap Fashion Elegant High Heels she gives a speech of a few lines, and gets applause and approval from her husband. But then she goes for another few lines, and another, and another. An increasingly anxious Petruchio tries to get her to be quiet, but she begins exaggerating the speech more and more, getting up on the banquet table and flashing her legs, and finally lying down in a mockery of Petruchio,Wuixkas Diamond Chessboard Yellow Womens Canvas Upper Sneakers Lace up Casual Fashion Loafer Canvas shoesWuixkas Tropical Frangipani Beach Palms Womens Canvas Upper Sneakers Lace up Popular Fashion Loafer Canvas shoes before flouncing offstage.Drew Toby Women Pumps Simple Shallow Mouth Pointed Patent Leather Sexy Fashion Sandals We see a glimpse of them having a fight in Italian, suggesting that Katherina is far from ‘tamed’, and indeed will continue to assert herself against Petruchio indefinitely, even as she learns to play the game of this patriarchal world. It’s a quiet reclamation of the play, but a potent one.