Propeller's Henry V

In 2007 I spent a whirlwind month traveling with Chapman University on their annual London Theatre Tour.  During that time I saw at least one theatre production a day, sometimes two.  At the time I was not an avid blogger, but I did keep a written journal of my experiences as I saturated myself in the theatrical world of London.

I remember one play in particular: The Taming of the Shrew at the Old Vic. The production, presented by an all male ensemble, shed new light on the play for me. While maintaining the inherent comedic humor of the play, I found the transformation of Kate from a shrew to an obedient woman tragic and devastating. I thought, "this is how it should be played," and have compared every production I have seen to this one ever since. Little did I know that I would return to see this theatre company again in action.

Last night I was privileged to see Propeller's production of Henry V at the Belgrade Theatre in Coventry. This production is edgy, fresh, and energetic. Unlike the Taming I saw a few years ago, the women roles served merely as comic relief, but perhaps that is unsurprising considering the way in which Shakespeare crafted this play around the lives of soldiers.

Duguld Bruce-Lockhart plays a convincing, yet unsympathetic king. I found his vocal quality and energy thrilling. However, I had difficulty connecting to his character.  The best thing about Propeller seems to be the ensemble as a whole, rather than individual performances. Each ensemble member pulls his own weight through song, dance, feats of strength, and community. In true "band-of-brothers" fashion, the chorus became the ultimate story-tellers.

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A Bawdy Taming

The Taming of the Shrew directed by Lucy Bailey at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon is a loud, grotesque and unromantic view of one of Shakespeare’s greatest plays. However, under the circumstances, the productions odd choices seemed to create a magic, yet undignified world, in which the characters seemed more striking than ever.

The stage, or rather a giant bed, covered with an enormous sheet, produces a playful and sensual environment. The actors hide beneath the sheets, chaise each other under the cover, partake in pillow fights and roll around in unexpected ways. David Caves and Lisa Dillon triumph as Petruchio and Kate. Their chemistry brightens the darkness of their savageness.

In the end, although Kate becomes love stuck with her Petruchio, she is truly tamed – still claiming possession of her wild spirit. Her final speech produces touching emotions rather than the startling comic gestures often misinterpreted by many productions.

Taming of the Shrew in Performance

In our weekly seminar, we were joined by esteemed director Lucy Bailey, who is set to direct January's production of The Taming of the Shrew at the Royal Shakespeare Company. In order to aid her research of the play, several fellows of the institute lectured on various points concerning the neighboring texts, domestic duties of the 16th century and sources related to the play.

First, Michael Dobson explained the "neighboring texts" of the time - most notably The Taming of A Shrew, The Woman's Prize or The Tamer Tamed (1611), Sauny the Scott or the Taming of the Shrew (1667), A Cure for a Scold (1735), and Catherine and Petruchio (1754).

Next the lovely Tara Hamling spoke a bit about domestic duties of the time and the implication of furniture in the home. What I found most interesting is the concept of a person's bed being symbolic of wealth and representative of a person's life cycle. You are born in bed. You sleep and fornicate in your bed. Ultimately you die in your bed. This is a concept that will be explored the the upcoming RSC production which will include a literal or figurative bed as part of the stage design.

Martin Wiggins finished up the findings with an extensive list of sources Shakespeare likely used to compose The Taming of the Shrew - All of which are a little outside my knowledge base and have prompted me to conduct a massage Google Search on the subject.

This particular topic of the week has sparked my interest and I may investigate how to incorporate such dramaturgy products into my dissertation work.