The Taming of the Shrew
1976: Kirk Browning
This film (now available in the Broadway Theatre Archive series) is a recording of a stage production by the American Conservatory Theatre of San Francisco, with Marc Singer as Petruchio and Fredi Olster as Kate, filmed before a live audience. It is cast unabashedly in the mold of the Italian Renaissance Commedia dell’ Arte: it’s slapstick throughout, with non-stop sight gags, general silliness, and a fair amount of bawdy humor.
Declamation is exaggerated and rapid-fire; the actors prance around the stage with peculiar leaps and comic pauses; major actions and any number of sayings are punctuated with percussion ratchets, bicycle horns, and rim-shots. The interaction of Petruchio and Kate is extraordinarily athletic, with an almost circus-like interplay of clowning and physical humor, and their impeccable timing maximizes the farcical component of the play.
That such a treatment doesn’t allow the players to explore the complexities of character that emerge in the quieter background stretches of Shakespeare’s script should come as no surprise to anyone. Even if it were possible, the script has been pared back rather harshly, too, partly to make time for all that other stage business, and partly, one imagines, to avoid importing a serious note, when the production as a whole is committed to pure farce. Accordingly I hesitate to recommend this to anyone really seeking a definitive (or even semi-orthodox) version of The Taming of the Shrew, but it does have its own genuine pleasures, and it actually may say something about the comic context from which Shakespeare was drawing his work. Parents or teachers concerned with such things should be forewarned that it contains some rather crude language and gestures.
Baptista: William Paterson
Bianca: Sandra Shotwell
Biondello: Daniel Kern
Camellio: Charles Hyman
Emilio: Michael Keys Hall
Gremio: Raye Birk
Grumio : Ron Boussom
Haberdasher: Bobby F. Ellerbee
Hortensio : James Winkler
Katherina: Fredi Olster
Lucentio : Stephen Schnetzer
Mariamo: Harry Hamlin
Nathaniel: Al White
Pedant: Earl Boen
Petruchio: Marc Singer
Sugarsop: Barbara Dirickson
Tailor: Daniel Zippi
Tranio: Rick Hamilton
Vincentio: Laird Williamson
Widow: Deborah May
Clown: Althea Watson
Clown: David Kudler
Clown: Eric Nelson
Clown: Frank Abe
Clown: Jean Trounstine
Clown: John Salat
Clown: Joy Juvelis
Clown: Kathy Wong
Clown: Lynn Butler
Clown: Marc Hayashi
Clown: Melodie Butler
Clown: Nancy Erskine
Clown: Peter Davies
Clown: Rodney Kageyama
Clown: Susan Westerman
Clown: Suzanne Fry
Clown: Suzie Smith
Clown: Tomas Arana
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