Theater review: A really good 'Shrew' at Shakespeare festival Theater review: A really good 'Shrew' at Shakespeare festival (June 18, 2003)

By Bryan Wiggin

Good directors attract good actors, and Bruce W. De Les Dernier, artistic director of the Burgess Shakespeare Festival, has gathered a string of pearls for his production of "The Taming of the Shrew." Moreover, he has melded them into a production that is boisterous, vigorous, and colorful -- full of life and full of laughs.

This is the story of Baptista (the majestic Allan Loebs), a wealthy gentleman of Padua, and his two daughters. The younger, Bianca, is fair and gentle, and is courted by Hortensio and Gremio (John Owen and Jim Asea). But before Bianca can be given in marriage, a husband must be found for her elder sister, Kate.

Kate, of course, is the shrew, and she intimidates everyone. But then Petruchio arrives from Verona. He has come "to wive and thrive" in Padua, and when Baptista promises a lavish dowry, Petruchio vows he'll conquer Kate, saying "I am rough, and woo not like a babe."

Meanwhile, the young Paduan Lucentio has been instantly smitten at the sight of Bianca, and dons the robes of a scholar in order to become her private tutor.

The first half of this production ends with the marriage of Petruchio and a considerably chastened Kate, but she undergoes yet more taming in the second half, finally agreeing that the sun is the moon or the moon is the sun, according to her master's choosing. And when, in the final scene, she prescribes the duties of a proper wife as consisting largely in obedience to her husband, it seals Petruchio's love for her.

There's much more, of course, because there always is in Shakespeare, and director Dernier keeps the tempo and the action lively. He fills the wide stage with action, and his actors earn their applause.

Todd Wright is just right as Petruchio -- lusty, handsome, hearty, and manly enough to conquer any Kate. As this Kate, the willowy Rebecca Stroth-Pickens is spirited and fiery, making her final submission all the more affecting. Kimberly Dawn Wood is an appealing Bianca.

There are excellent performances from Morgan Cox and Gregg Aronica as the servants of Petruchio, as well as from Tim Nielson and Josh Parees as those of Lucentio. With their energy and exuberance, all four of them -- especially Morgan Cox -- make an invaluable contribution to the laughter of the show. Amr Mourad, inveigled into pretending to be Lucentio's father, also brings laughs with his inability to remember names, including his own.

As Lucentio, John Atwood is young, handsome, and ardent. And when he gazes rapturously into the distance declaiming his love for Bianca, his sensitive features register just the right touch of comic excess.

Pati Bristow has designed a handsome mix of costumes, setting the play (I think) in the period of Regency England.

Almost every seat was filled at the performance I attended, though a few spectators were frozen out at intermission. Yes, it's cold out there, but one way the audience helped keep warm was by beating their hands together in frequent offerings of applause. For this is a "Shrew" worth dressing warmly to see, and it will be your loss if you miss it.

INFORMATION

"The Taming of the Shrew," by William Shakespeare, is being presented by the Burgess Shakespeare Festival at MidPeninsula High School in Menlo Park on June 20 and 29. Admission is free; donations are requested; snacks and blankets are offered. For information, call 322-3261 or go to menloplayersguild.com.