The Taming of the Shrew: Clearly, Bear & Co is still seeking a theatrical style

Photo: Andrew Alexander

The evening begins with a long note in the programme by director Eleanor Crowder explaining her directorial choices. “He (Shakespeare) is running pure Commedia gags here, the staple of a company used to touring  market places and dodging rotten apples”.    That is not a good sign. First of all a European style frontal theatre is not a normally raucus commedia setting and no one could possibly reproduce that so why bring it up.? In any case, the show speaks for itself so if the director felt the need to explain, that means she feared we wouldn’t  get it.

 

And why would we not get it?  We have grown up on Shakespeare in Ottawa. Marti Maraden brought it regularly to the NAC.  We are used to all kinds of Shakespearean hi-jinks with our long-standing tradition of the Company of Fools that has been educating us with corporeal theatre, witty rewritings and fun and games in the park, some more successful than others. Plus, the story of the bad tempered Katherine and Petruchio’s  ‘attempts to “tame” her are second nature to theatre schools.   And, who could forget the hit songs from the musical?  Who could forget the kitschy Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor’s film version?   Contemporary feminists have been pondering  Kate’s status for years:  is she a victim of a macho Italian renaissance and/or British society, or does she win out in the end? Does Shakespeare feel sorry for her, does he dislike her immensely, or is this just a good old romp among men at the expense of women, a romp that allowed the bard to let loose his underlying sexual preferences that became regular appearances in his later theatre?  We know young men played women’s roles at that period so it’s not a big deal.  And anyway there are so many classical performances that have been given all male readings in recent times that we come to expect them at some point. Take for example British choreographer Matthew Bourne’s exquisite all male Swan Lake that has been an international hit. It is a serious all male reading of the ballet, with no campy hi-jinks.

However, is it not pretentious to think the company can go back to Shakespeare’s original intentions (do we really know what they were??)   When we know that time changes everything, that nothing remains the same. Does The Bear normally dodge rotten fruit and play in bawdy market places?  All a director can do, it seems, is construct an imaginary image of what he/she believes happened on stage in Shakespeare’s time, while realizing full well that the director’s gaze, especially when it is working within a proscenium arch, is essentially contemporary. Given these multiple perceptions, the result can be interesting.

In fact there were moments that worked very well, there were also moments of very sloppy directing where the actors didn’t seem to know where they were supposed to be standing or how they were supposed to be positioned. That is not popular theatre that is just weak staging!  There were some blatantly weak performers cast alongside very good actors. The whole play was rather a mish mash of things that just didn’t come together as a satisfying show.

There were scenes where the interaction was quite good, as the actors articulated their texts and gave one the sense they were completely at home with the language. Take for example, the encounter between Tim Oberholzer (Tranio disguised as his master Lucentio) and Jim Murchison (Gremio) who vies for the hand of Kate’s younger sister, the beautiful young Bianca (Chris Bedford).  Each man is trying to convince Bianca’s father (Baptista-Brie Barker) that he is the best choice as a son in law, and the verbal competition works beautifully.  The tone is right, the rhythm grows steadily and the sense of playful but serious competition creates a taught but amusing rivalry which even suggests certain pathos in relation to   poor old Gremio, trying his best to outdo the younger man. As Gremio, Jim Murchison is quite good, when he isn’t stumbling over his text, and it is also clear that Tim Oberholzer, who spends most of the play disguised as his master but who has other rapid appearances, brings much presence and fun to the show as a whole. Even if he speaks a bit too quickly at times, he still speaks the text as though it were his own language. He moves well, he puts us at ease, and he shows us he is very aware of his craft. Another good moment, when Scott Humphrey (the real Lucentio) and Chris Bedford (as the languid Bianca) meet upstage spread out on the floor, while other discussions are happening downstage.  The two of them carry out a bit of mime which involves slowly untying Bianca’s corset. It is  eye catching, beautifully done and fuses great bawdy Monty Python style fun with  rather sophisticated mime, using a piece of clothing with such enormous masculine delicacy that it became  one of the high points of  the show.

I also found the female performances truly intriguing because they were all doing something different! That was interesting to watch but again showed a lack of continuity that even if it did not worry Bear & Co., they did provoke easy audience laughter which is not always a good thing. That sort of attitude is what prevents a show from attaining a truly professional level, if that is their intention.  Were they really going back to the Elizabethan tradition of having young men play the women?  I didn’t think so. The actors were not fine delicate smooth faced kids who looked feminine. Jim Murchison’s enormous grey beard was the point of interest as he plays the widow!  He had us laughing at him not at his character. Is that what the director wanted?  I wonder.   Chris Bedford as the flirty feminine slightly campy younger sister glided her way across the stage in her flowing robes and a mischievous Monty Python (again) glint in his eye (beard showing and all) like a young man really enjoying the switch and even trying to capture a feminine body language. He actually created a figure that was sexually ambiguous!   Thus he had another approach to the role that worked rather well.

The most intriguing performance was Nicholas Amott. His was actually a male Kate dressed as a woman.  He used his natural male voice, only shifting at certain moments of heightened emotion.  Sometimes Kate (Nicholas Amott) roars like a lion, sometimes he talks softly, or purrs like a cat. He has an enigmatic smile on his face and as he is slowly subjugated by Petruchio he calms down and becomes a nice gentle male in female’s clothing.  I liked his performance a lot. He has a good voice, excellent presence, good control of his body and he appears to have given this “Kate” a lot of thought.

It is clear that these men were not in drag because the idea of drag is to heighten the signs of femininity which is exactly what they did not do!  . There were no overblown red lips, overly made up faces, interesting hairdos, exposed legs and figure forming clothes.  They were not heightened females. So what about the beards then?  Well obviously, the beards were there to remind us that they were in fact male actors. So they were not really imitating women, nor hiding the fact were they men.  They were just actors playing women’s roles. And that is not an easy thing to do.  It takes us back to Brecht’s conception of the mask which only covers half the face. The audience is supposed to see the actor under the mask to avoid the illusion that the masked character is representing reality in some way. The beards fill the same role here. We are supposed to be aware they are not trying to be women. They are just acting female roles…a difficult thing to do and retain some verisimilitude which actually works in the case of Amott. Chris Bedford on the other hand, uses his body to produce comic effects and since his spoken performance is much weaker than the Amott’s, he put the emphasis on his movement, which is what he does best.  That also worked well. I must say that the director had a lot on her plate as far as directing actors was concerned and it is not surprising that some of the attempts slid past her gaze.

What was mostly difficult to swallow was the quiet, thoughtful register in which Kate revealed herself because it was almost as though she was in a different play. The other actors were performing some form of heightened Shakespeare, leaning towards different degrees of humour.  Guy Buller as Hortensio  had some excellent moments and Kathryn Racine’s costumes were a great feat of imagination…The dancing and singing were not good at all, the music was fine but the singing voices were not pleasing, they sounded awkward and added  nothing to the performance.  Rachel Eugster’s direction of the period music was rather lovely so they might just keep it as background music, and thus do it more justice. .

Scott Florence was another case.  He has Shakespearean experience of all sorts. He also created a theatrical world all his own. He is a brilliant comic actor whose work is essentially physical while incorporating certain kinds of verbal play. The director let him loose on stage (at the end he appears dressed as the jester- which ruins the Petruchio image!). As everyone else was standing there wondering what to do, Florence arrives from the audience, bringing us into a “Company of Fools “comic mode.   It would have been fine if Margo MacDonald had been his partner. !! But next to him was a rather reserved young man in a woman’s corset who was not clowning but trying to capture something about Kate that was more in depth. They seemed to be working against each other…It was too bad because both actors were so strong!

In any case, Kate managed to make a point and I frankly felt much sympathy for her character which is perhaps what the director was aiming at in the first place.

Whatever it may be, this version of The Taming of the Shrew has moments of great fun, it also has real weaknesses but it seems clear that the company must decide what they are trying to be, and I hope it is not another Company of Fools because there is already one in Ottawa.  We want something new. What are they proposing then?   No doubt, if Bear & Co. keeps searching, it will soon find its own language.

The Taming of the Shrew continues at the Gladstone Theatre until May 5, 2013

Call 613-233-GLAD for tickets and information.

The Taming of the Shrew

By William Shakespeare

Directed by Eleanor Crowder

Music direction by Rachel Eugster

Lighting design:    Christine Hecker

Costume design: Kathryn Racine

In Memoriam of Greg Kramer, noted in theprogramme

A production of Bear & Co.

Cast:

Nicholas Amott                                                               Kate

Brie Barker                                                        Baptista, Curtis

Chris Bedford                                                   Bianca, Biondello, Grumio

Guy  Buller                                                        Hortensio, Pedant

Scott Florence                                                 Petruchio

Scott Humphrey                                             Lucentio, Tailor, Philp

Jim Murchison                                                 Gremio, Nathanial, Vincentio, Widow

Tim Oberholzer                                                               Tranio, Joseph