Twenty-first century sexual and gender politics are not always kind to directors of Shakespeare’s problem plays. Conall Morrison gets around this by including the oft-cut prologue of The Taming of the Shrew in the RSC’s current production at the Novello Theatre. The prologue is set in a present day pole-dancing bar and allows Morrison to frame the rest of the action as a misogynistic fantasy in the mind of a dissolute drunk who finds himself playing Petruchio in a play within a play. It is a lot less confusing than it sounds.
The dramatic distance afforded by this device allows Morrison a free hand with the violence, sex and violent sex, although nothing happens on stage that Shakespeare did not write. The abject humiliation and submission of Michelle Gomez’s Katherina at the hands of Stephen Boxer’s Petruchio throughout the second half – and particularly in the final scene – make pretty uncomfortable viewing but that is what the play’s about.
Fortunately The Taming of the Shrew is also a comedy with all the usual ingredients: mistaken identity, cross dressing, disappointed suitors and servants impersonating masters. The comic plot takes place in a stylised Padua on Francis O’Connor’s clever, versatile set and is presented in a wonderful pastiche of commedia dell’ arte” particularly suited to Sean Kerns’ perfect timing as a bombastic Hortensio. A blistering pace is set from the outset and, whilst it’s not surprising when the energy level drops a little after the interval, the piece is always funny where it needs to be. No mean feat over 3 hours and 10 minutes.
