Navy
Pier as seen from the
window of the Chicago Shakespeare Theater
window of the Chicago Shakespeare Theater
Chicago Shakespeare Theater
Lucentio (Erik
Hellman, left) and Hortensio (Sean Fortunato, right)—both
disguised as tutors—compete for the love of Bianca (Katherine Cunningham, center) in Chicago Shakespeare Theater’s The Taming of the Shrew
Photo by Liz Laurendisguised as tutors—compete for the love of Bianca (Katherine Cunningham, center) in Chicago Shakespeare Theater’s The Taming of the Shrew
Chicago Shakespeare Theater’s "The Taming of the Shrew"
directed by Josie Rourke now through June 6, 2010
review by Ed Vincent
"The Taming of the Shrew" by William
Shakespeare, was written sometime between 1590 and 1594 according to
the experts and was subsequently published in 1623. This is a
comedy and was always intended to be so. Those maniacally focused
only on women's rights could take offense to this
humor of a bygone era, humor
oft based on irony. The
quantity of men in today's world who transform their attitudes upon the
arrival of their wives is phenomenal and perhaps the basis of desire
for more power in their own relationships or least one on stage.
This version of "The Taming of the Shrew" uses or finds a new twist to the theme of a play within a play motif and with a modernity and jest of its own ilk. Some of the modernity is the revealed love in the current day of two central women in the performance, the director of the show and one of the stars, Katharina. Their sapphotic between scene events may raise a brow or two upon the faces of both Lesbos (Λέσβος) and Heteros. This play has come to life in many forms both on stage and in film.
This version of "The Taming of the Shrew" uses or finds a new twist to the theme of a play within a play motif and with a modernity and jest of its own ilk. Some of the modernity is the revealed love in the current day of two central women in the performance, the director of the show and one of the stars, Katharina. Their sapphotic between scene events may raise a brow or two upon the faces of both Lesbos (Λέσβος) and Heteros. This play has come to life in many forms both on stage and in film.
Angela (Bianca
Amato) has words with her Director (Mary Beth Fisher)
about playing the role of Katharina in one of the new Induction scenes written by Neil LaBute for Chicago Shakespeare Theater’s The Taming of the Shrew.
Photo by Liz Lauren
about playing the role of Katharina in one of the new Induction scenes written by Neil LaBute for Chicago Shakespeare Theater’s The Taming of the Shrew.
Photo by Liz Lauren
The film from 1967 featuring the
talents of
Elizabeth Taylor and Sir Richard Burton (directed
by Franco Zeffirelli) are
perhaps the best known of all productions, and yet they, too, made
their changes in the story. This production at Chicago Shakespeare Theater is unique, bold, innovative and fun.
The acting is all top drawer and I easily found myself totally
forgetting the play within a play view once the grand dialogue filled
with wonderful oration flooded the theater.
The theatrics, staging and sets are done superbly. The costumes from today's garb back to 16th century are fun and present themselves nicely to give contrast to the two plots within.
The theatrics, staging and sets are done superbly. The costumes from today's garb back to 16th century are fun and present themselves nicely to give contrast to the two plots within.
Katharina
(Bianca Amato) shows Petruchio (Ian Bedford)
why she is referred to as “Kate the Curst”
why she is referred to as “Kate the Curst”
Photo
by Liz Lauren
Katharina played by the gifted Bianca
Amato, duels wits, words and some muscles with her suitor, Petruchio, played by the equally gifted Ian
Bedford. Petruchio's wild, some say misogynistic side bares its head when he comes to the wedding
dressed in a bridal gown ala Dennis Rodman, and with some parts
missing....
I will be master
of what is mine own.
She is my goods, my chattels, she is my house,
My household stuff, my field, my barn,
My horse, my ox, my ass, my any thing.
(ll.231-234) says Petruchio
She is my goods, my chattels, she is my house,
My household stuff, my field, my barn,
My horse, my ox, my ass, my any thing.
(ll.231-234) says Petruchio
The iconic Mike Nussbaum plays the role of
Gremio with a codpiece fit for a small pony or Satan himself, and does
so with stoic devotion to straight acting. The stage is also
graced with another Chicago icon of theater, Mr. Larry Yando, who has
brought smiles to miles of young faces in his portrayals of Scrooge at
the Goodman Theater. This cast is replete with talent and oratory
excellence, and the intimate setting of the theater is always a grand
adventure.
"Highly recommended"
Suburban Journals of Chicago Inc.
Chicago Shakespeare Theater’s
The Taming of the Shrew
Directed by Josie Rourke Features
Contemporary Induction Scenes by Neil LaBute
Now through June 6, 2010
Chicago—April 14, 2010—Chicago Shakespeare Theater (CST) on Navy Pier opens today Shakespeare’s popular comedy, The Taming of the Shrew staged by London’s Bush Theatre Artistic Director Josie Rourke, and incorporating new scenes written by one of America’s leading dramatists, Neil LaBute. Designing costumes and scenery for the contemporary and Renaissance settings of the production is British designer Lucy Osborne who, along with Rourke, returns to CST following their acclaimed production of Twelfth Night last season. Chicago Shakespeare Theater’s The Taming of the Shrew runs Now through June 6, 2010 in the Courtyard Theater. Tickets are $44–$75 and may be purchased by calling the CST Box Office at 312.595.5600 or by visiting the Theater’s website at www.chicagoshakes.com.
Fast moving, bawdy and full of wordplay, The Taming of the Shrew continues to be one of Shakespeare’s most popular—and controversial— comedies in which the fortune-seeking Petruchio arrives in Padua looking to marry into money. After hearing about the fiery Katharina, he sets his sights on taming her for her dowry. Meanwhile, her younger sister Bianca is wooed by a crowded field of colorful suitors and is eager for Katharina to be wed—since her own marriage depends on it.
Unique to this production is the addition of new framing scenes written by award-winning playwright Neil LaBute. The new frame replaces Shakespeare’s seldom-produced Christopher Sly Induction—a prologue in which a nobleman plays an elaborate practical joke on the town’s drunken tinker, introducing some of the play’s themes and setting up the story for a troupe of actors to perform The Taming of the Shrew. Director Josie Rourke invited LaBute, best known for his piercing, thought-provoking work, to re-imagine this framing device from a contemporary perspective. Taking a cue from Shakespeare’s Induction, LaBute’s scenes introduce a twenty-first century acting company to perform The Taming of the Shrew. As they rehearse the production, members of the cast respond to issues that Shakespeare's play evokes in their own lives.
Neil LaBute is an award-winning American writer and director for both the stage and film, recognized on both sides of the Atlantic for taking on challenging themes. LaBute recently directed a remake of Death at a Funeral which opens in movie theaters nationally on Friday, April 16. Some of LaBute’s critically acclaimed plays include: In the Company of Men, which he later adapted into a film that garnered the New York Critics’ Circle Award for Best First Feature and the Filmmakers’ Trophy at the Sundance Film Festival; The Shape of Things; The Distance from Here; Fat Pig; Some Girl(s) and reasons to be pretty. Mr. LaBute has premiered plays at New York’s Public Theater, MCC Theater and The Donmar Warehouse in London, among others. He is the author of several fictional pieces that have been published in The New Yorker and The New York Times, Harper’s Bazaar and Playboy. A collection of his short stories called Seconds of Pleasure was published by Grove/Atlantic in October 2004.
“One of the reasons I first thought of Neil for this project is his ability to take on big themes and go to the extremes of what it is people want in their lives,” says Director Josie Rourke. “He is very funny and he writes with great speed of thought. His writing has kind of a classical energy to it, and it sits very interestingly with Shakespeare in that sense because his plays move very, very quickly. He can establish in a few lines what most dramatists establish over a number of pages.”
Director Josie Rourke returns to CST following her critically acclaimed production of Twelfth Night last season. A celebrated director of both classical and contemporary theater, Rourke was appointed Artistic Director of the Bush Theatre in 2007. Her 38-year-old company focuses on the development and presentation of new plays, including works by David Eldridge, Catherine Johnson, Conor McPherson and Neil LaBute. As one of England’s foremost voices for not-for-profit theaters, she was named among The Guardian’s “People Who Are Making British Theatre Happen.” Rourke has held positions at the Donmar Warehouse, Sheffield Theatres and the Royal Court, and has directed a number of critically acclaimed productions, including David Mamet’s The Cryptogram at the Donmar Warehouse, and Believe What You Will and King John for the Royal Shakespeare Company. For the Bush Theatre, her credits include How to Curse by Ian McHugh, Tinderbox by Lucy Kirkwood and 2,000 Feet Away by Anthony Weigh.
The Taming of the Shrew welcomes back to CST some of Chicago’s most highly regarded comedic performers as well as some outstanding newcomers to Chicago Shakespeare’s stage. Making her CST debut in the role of Katharina is Bianca Amato, who holds a number of credits in leading theaters across the country, including The Guthrie Theater, Signature Theatre, BAM and the Public Theater. Also new to CST is Ian Bedford, whose regional credits include performances at Shakespeare Theatre Company, La Jolla Playhouse and the Mark Taper Forum, and who will be playing the role of Petruchio in Rourke’s production. CST veterans include Sean Fortunato as Hortensio; Mike Nussbaum as Gremio; Brian Sills as Tranio and Larry Yando as Baptista. Also returning to CST is Stephen Ouimette as Grumio, a twenty-year veteran of Stratford Shakespeare Festival, who played the role of Oliver in the hit Canadian television series Slings and Arrows. The cast of The Taming of the Shrew is rounded out by Katherine Cunningham as Bianca; William Dick as Stage Manager; Mary Beth Fisher as Director; Alex Goodrich as Biondello; Marc Grapey as Vincentio; Erik Hellman as Lucentio; Steven Pringle as Pedant; Matthew Sherbach as Curtis; Karen Janes Woditsch as Widow and ensemble members Tim Gittings and Terry Hamilton.
Scenic and Costume Designer Lucy Osborne returns to CST following her collaboration with Rourke on last season’s Twelfth Night. In the European tradition, Ms. Osborne is designing both scenery and costumes for this production, which will span LaBute’s contemporary scenes and the lush world of the Italian Renaissance in Shakespeare’s story of The Taming of the Shrew. Last season she received a Joseph Jefferson Award for creating the dreamlike world of Ilyria on CST’s Courtyard Stage. Ms. Osborne’s extensive theater credits include US productions of Artefacts (from The Bush Theatre) and Some Kind of Bliss (from Trafalgar Studios, London) both presented at the 2008 Brits Off Broadway Festival at Theater 59E59, New York and UK credits include 2000 Feet Away, tHe dYsFUnCKshOnalZ! (Bush Theatre); Shades (Royal Court); Timing (Kings Head, London); When Romeo Met Juliet (BBC); Macbeth (Edinburgh Lyceum/Nottingham Playhouse); Closer (Northampton Theatre Royal); Richard III (Cambridge Arts Theatre) and The Prayer Room (Edinburgh Festival/Birmingham Repertory Theatre).
The production team for The Taming of the Shrew also includes Lighting Designer Philip S. Rosenberg; Sound Designer Lindsay Jones; Wig and Makeup Designer Melissa Veal; Properties Master Chelsea Meyers and Fight Choreographer Matt Hawkins.
The Taming of the Shrew runs Now through June 6, 2010 in the Courtyard Theater. Tickets are $44–$75 and may be purchased by calling Chicago Shakespeare Theater’s Box Office at 312.595.5600 or by visiting the Theater’s website at www.chicagoshakes.com.
The Taming of the Shrew has received support from a competitive grant opportunity administered by the National Endowment for the Arts, using funds from the American Recovery Act of 2009.
Land O’Frost is a proud partner of Chicago Shakespeare Theater’s Subscription Series. Artistic productions in the Courtyard Theater are supported, in part, through a generous grant from the McCormick Foundation.
American Airlines is the official airline of Chicago Shakespeare Theater.
ComEd is the official lighting design sponsor of Chicago Shakespeare Theater.
The Taming of the Shrew
Directed by Josie Rourke Features
Contemporary Induction Scenes by Neil LaBute
Now through June 6, 2010
Chicago—April 14, 2010—Chicago Shakespeare Theater (CST) on Navy Pier opens today Shakespeare’s popular comedy, The Taming of the Shrew staged by London’s Bush Theatre Artistic Director Josie Rourke, and incorporating new scenes written by one of America’s leading dramatists, Neil LaBute. Designing costumes and scenery for the contemporary and Renaissance settings of the production is British designer Lucy Osborne who, along with Rourke, returns to CST following their acclaimed production of Twelfth Night last season. Chicago Shakespeare Theater’s The Taming of the Shrew runs Now through June 6, 2010 in the Courtyard Theater. Tickets are $44–$75 and may be purchased by calling the CST Box Office at 312.595.5600 or by visiting the Theater’s website at www.chicagoshakes.com.
Fast moving, bawdy and full of wordplay, The Taming of the Shrew continues to be one of Shakespeare’s most popular—and controversial— comedies in which the fortune-seeking Petruchio arrives in Padua looking to marry into money. After hearing about the fiery Katharina, he sets his sights on taming her for her dowry. Meanwhile, her younger sister Bianca is wooed by a crowded field of colorful suitors and is eager for Katharina to be wed—since her own marriage depends on it.
Unique to this production is the addition of new framing scenes written by award-winning playwright Neil LaBute. The new frame replaces Shakespeare’s seldom-produced Christopher Sly Induction—a prologue in which a nobleman plays an elaborate practical joke on the town’s drunken tinker, introducing some of the play’s themes and setting up the story for a troupe of actors to perform The Taming of the Shrew. Director Josie Rourke invited LaBute, best known for his piercing, thought-provoking work, to re-imagine this framing device from a contemporary perspective. Taking a cue from Shakespeare’s Induction, LaBute’s scenes introduce a twenty-first century acting company to perform The Taming of the Shrew. As they rehearse the production, members of the cast respond to issues that Shakespeare's play evokes in their own lives.
Neil LaBute is an award-winning American writer and director for both the stage and film, recognized on both sides of the Atlantic for taking on challenging themes. LaBute recently directed a remake of Death at a Funeral which opens in movie theaters nationally on Friday, April 16. Some of LaBute’s critically acclaimed plays include: In the Company of Men, which he later adapted into a film that garnered the New York Critics’ Circle Award for Best First Feature and the Filmmakers’ Trophy at the Sundance Film Festival; The Shape of Things; The Distance from Here; Fat Pig; Some Girl(s) and reasons to be pretty. Mr. LaBute has premiered plays at New York’s Public Theater, MCC Theater and The Donmar Warehouse in London, among others. He is the author of several fictional pieces that have been published in The New Yorker and The New York Times, Harper’s Bazaar and Playboy. A collection of his short stories called Seconds of Pleasure was published by Grove/Atlantic in October 2004.
“One of the reasons I first thought of Neil for this project is his ability to take on big themes and go to the extremes of what it is people want in their lives,” says Director Josie Rourke. “He is very funny and he writes with great speed of thought. His writing has kind of a classical energy to it, and it sits very interestingly with Shakespeare in that sense because his plays move very, very quickly. He can establish in a few lines what most dramatists establish over a number of pages.”
Director Josie Rourke returns to CST following her critically acclaimed production of Twelfth Night last season. A celebrated director of both classical and contemporary theater, Rourke was appointed Artistic Director of the Bush Theatre in 2007. Her 38-year-old company focuses on the development and presentation of new plays, including works by David Eldridge, Catherine Johnson, Conor McPherson and Neil LaBute. As one of England’s foremost voices for not-for-profit theaters, she was named among The Guardian’s “People Who Are Making British Theatre Happen.” Rourke has held positions at the Donmar Warehouse, Sheffield Theatres and the Royal Court, and has directed a number of critically acclaimed productions, including David Mamet’s The Cryptogram at the Donmar Warehouse, and Believe What You Will and King John for the Royal Shakespeare Company. For the Bush Theatre, her credits include How to Curse by Ian McHugh, Tinderbox by Lucy Kirkwood and 2,000 Feet Away by Anthony Weigh.
The Taming of the Shrew welcomes back to CST some of Chicago’s most highly regarded comedic performers as well as some outstanding newcomers to Chicago Shakespeare’s stage. Making her CST debut in the role of Katharina is Bianca Amato, who holds a number of credits in leading theaters across the country, including The Guthrie Theater, Signature Theatre, BAM and the Public Theater. Also new to CST is Ian Bedford, whose regional credits include performances at Shakespeare Theatre Company, La Jolla Playhouse and the Mark Taper Forum, and who will be playing the role of Petruchio in Rourke’s production. CST veterans include Sean Fortunato as Hortensio; Mike Nussbaum as Gremio; Brian Sills as Tranio and Larry Yando as Baptista. Also returning to CST is Stephen Ouimette as Grumio, a twenty-year veteran of Stratford Shakespeare Festival, who played the role of Oliver in the hit Canadian television series Slings and Arrows. The cast of The Taming of the Shrew is rounded out by Katherine Cunningham as Bianca; William Dick as Stage Manager; Mary Beth Fisher as Director; Alex Goodrich as Biondello; Marc Grapey as Vincentio; Erik Hellman as Lucentio; Steven Pringle as Pedant; Matthew Sherbach as Curtis; Karen Janes Woditsch as Widow and ensemble members Tim Gittings and Terry Hamilton.
Scenic and Costume Designer Lucy Osborne returns to CST following her collaboration with Rourke on last season’s Twelfth Night. In the European tradition, Ms. Osborne is designing both scenery and costumes for this production, which will span LaBute’s contemporary scenes and the lush world of the Italian Renaissance in Shakespeare’s story of The Taming of the Shrew. Last season she received a Joseph Jefferson Award for creating the dreamlike world of Ilyria on CST’s Courtyard Stage. Ms. Osborne’s extensive theater credits include US productions of Artefacts (from The Bush Theatre) and Some Kind of Bliss (from Trafalgar Studios, London) both presented at the 2008 Brits Off Broadway Festival at Theater 59E59, New York and UK credits include 2000 Feet Away, tHe dYsFUnCKshOnalZ! (Bush Theatre); Shades (Royal Court); Timing (Kings Head, London); When Romeo Met Juliet (BBC); Macbeth (Edinburgh Lyceum/Nottingham Playhouse); Closer (Northampton Theatre Royal); Richard III (Cambridge Arts Theatre) and The Prayer Room (Edinburgh Festival/Birmingham Repertory Theatre).
The production team for The Taming of the Shrew also includes Lighting Designer Philip S. Rosenberg; Sound Designer Lindsay Jones; Wig and Makeup Designer Melissa Veal; Properties Master Chelsea Meyers and Fight Choreographer Matt Hawkins.
The Taming of the Shrew runs Now through June 6, 2010 in the Courtyard Theater. Tickets are $44–$75 and may be purchased by calling Chicago Shakespeare Theater’s Box Office at 312.595.5600 or by visiting the Theater’s website at www.chicagoshakes.com.
The Taming of the Shrew has received support from a competitive grant opportunity administered by the National Endowment for the Arts, using funds from the American Recovery Act of 2009.
Land O’Frost is a proud partner of Chicago Shakespeare Theater’s Subscription Series. Artistic productions in the Courtyard Theater are supported, in part, through a generous grant from the McCormick Foundation.
American Airlines is the official airline of Chicago Shakespeare Theater.
ComEd is the official lighting design sponsor of Chicago Shakespeare Theater.
Chicago Shakespeare Theater Website
DIRECTIONS FROM OAK PARK
Coming from Oak Park by car, go to Lake Shore Drive andhead North from the 290 Expressway. When you approach
the river you want to be in the far right lane and exit as soon
as you get over the river. Navy Pier is straight ahead of you.
Drive to the Pier and go to the North side of the building for
parking. Do not go into the first entrance, the Theater is about
two or more entrances from your first turn. Bring your ticket
with you and have it stamped at intermission or before you leave
for a 40% reduction in parking. Three and a half hours comes
to about no more than $14.00.
© Suburban Journals of Chicago
published by Suburban Journals of Chicago Inc
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