THE TAMING OF THE SHREW by William Shakespeare, directed by Ted Witzel (Shakespeare in High Park/Canadian Stage). At the High Park Amphitheatre. Runs to August 31. Pwyc ($20 suggested). 416-368-3110. See listings. Rating: NNNN
For its first repertoire season, Dream In High Park wisely offers audiences a clear choice: a classic blood-and-guts Macbeth, or this fun modern romp through The Taming Of The Shrew. Updating the Bard is always a risky business, but director Ted Witzel impresses with a bold, brightly styled, filmic spin that’s relaxed about the script and shameless in the sexy fun it finds there.
Witzel’s quick, epic-inspired staging and Astrid Janson’s zany costumes create a cartoonish look that feels distinctly 90s – kinda like Clueless. But the directorial challenge with any Shrew is how to handle the play’s perceived misogyny: the plot follows Petruchio’s (Kevin MacDonald) aggressive courtship of uninterested heiress Kate (Sophie Goulet) and his attempts to bend her to his will.
In an intriguing move, Witzel dispenses with the original’s frame device (the “induction,” for all you Bard scholars), which apologists have long pointed to as evidence that Shakespeare didn’t mean the rampant sexism in the main portion to be taken seriously. Ditching the frame (and all its baggage), Witzel uses fresh directorial choices to turn the patriarchal story against itself, injecting critical jabs throughout via clever staging, sarcastic line deliveries, knowing glances and a number of intriguing and playful sex and gender swaps among the characters.
Beyond the big changes, small tweaks to lines – to insert recurring jokes about the ubiquity of Starbucks and smartphones – are smoothly incorporated and generate big laughs. As the couple at the centre of the action, Goulet and MacDonald create an enjoyable oddball chemistry at the performance I saw, spontaneous applause after their well-choreographed first back-and-forth encounter showed how well this was working.
A spot-on soundtrack of modern pop cuts anchors the action, using upbeat indie rock like Creature’s Pop Culture and Diamond Rings’ Runaway Love to build energy during scene changes (and put the Dream Site’s muscular sound system to good use), while Frank Ocean’s Super Rich Kids and Ani DiFranco’s Not A Pretty Girl resonate powerfully with the play’s themes of excess and sexism.
A welcome diversion from the gloom and doom of Macbeth, this delightfully mischievous Taming Of The Shrew holds nothing back and provides the perfect reason to Dream twice this summer in High Park.
