Great Cast For A Discomforting Play

I don’t know how a theater company can put on “The Taming of the Shrew” nowadays. I will confess to my lack of a classical education — the production at the Center for Performing Arts at Rhinebeck was my first time seeing it. 

As far as I could tell, the plot concerns a sociopathic woman named Kate who chooses to marry Petruchio, a man she hates, to get out of her father’s house. He abuses her, gaslights her, starves her and deprives her of sleep until she is broken and submits to his will. 

By the way, it’s a comedy. And of course, it’s Shakespeare.

Generations of directors have struggled with the play, with all-female casts, all-male casts, setting it in a circus or a beauty pageant. Meryl Streep played Kate back in 1978, and insisted in a New York Times interview that she was perfectly comfortable with Kate’s transition to “selflessness” at the end. Tina Packer, of Shakespeare and Co., has produced it three times, despite calling it a “nightmare” of a play.

At Rhinebeck, Diana Di Grandi directs Marcus Gregio’s trimmed-down adaptation, playing it straight and aiming for maximum laughs by emphasizing the broad farce and rapier-sharp wordplay. While the production features an excellent cast and strong comedic staging, the play itself is discomforting.

Gregio plays Petruchio broadly, with panache and great stage presence. He grins wildly as he contemplates the riches that will come his way if he catches the willful Kate. Unfortunately he also shouts most of his lines, rendering them difficult to understand.

The best scene is when Kate (Alex Petrova) and Petruchio first meet. They are evenly matched—Kate gives as good as she gets, verbally and physically. Petrova and Gregio handle the ribald banter with verve. 

But when Petruchio marries Kate he uses his power to manipulate her, keeping her from food and sleep. Gregio’s glee is chilling as he tells her the sun is the moon and an old man is a lovely young maid, all part of his plot to undermine and control her. For a comedy, it’s not funny.

Petrova goes all in, terrorizing her sister Bianca, the beauty who cannot marry any of her suitors until her elder sister is married off. Why she’s so angry, and what she feels when she finally buckles to Petruchio, is unclear. In some productions Kate softens and falls in love. In Petrova’s portrayal, the change in her behavior is more opaque — it seems she is just broken. Or is she manipulating him back, by pretending she believes the sun really is the moon?

There is a tender moment at the end when Gregio stops shouting to show that his bluster was all an act, and a hint of chemistry, even love, sparks between the two. Credit to all for finding the sweetness between them after all that sour.

Lou Trapani is droll as Grumio, handling the language with ease and getting the lion’s share of the laughs. As Bianca, Jessie Truin is a lighthearted counterpart to her sister, and Tyler Parks is a low-key but romantic Lucentio, the young nobleman who disguises himself as a tutor to get close to her and beat out his rivals, Hortensio and Gremio. Charlie Barnett IV mugs like mad as Lucentio’s servant and wingman, Tranio.

The play is well-served by the elegant set by Richard Prouse and colorful period costumes by Heidi Johnson. 

“The Taming of the Shrew” runs at the Center For Performing Arts at Rhinebeck through April 30. For tickets, go to www.centerforperformingarts.org or call 845-876-3080.