THE TAMING OF THE SHREW
Circle Players proudly presents our second production in our 53rd season
THE TAMING OF THE SHREW
the original romantic comedy
by William Shakespeare of Stratford-on-Avon
Directed by Rob Pherson of Somerset
Produced by Carole McGee of Westfield
Poor Kate (Patti Murtha of South River) is too outspoken to attract a man. Poor Bianca (Jennifer Wewers-Sharp of Glen Gardner) can't get married until after her shrewish sister Kate finds a husband. Poor Baptista (Catherine Rowe of Somerset) has to provide for two daughters, and she apparently needs a husband of her own. Neighbor Gremio (Jon Heron of New Brunswick) is worthy, but a bit long in the tooth for his desired object, Bianca. Hortensio (Al Contursi of Middlesex) also wants Bianca, even though he's being stalked by a wealthy widow (Carla Phoenix of North Plainfield). Lucentio (Greg DePetro of East Brunswick) was sent to town to attend university, accompanied by his servants Tranio (David Neal of Fanwood) and Biondella (Ana Kalet of Franklin Park). Now Lucentio, too, has fallen under Bianca's spell.
Then the answer to everyone's prayer arrives in the person of loose cannon Petruchio (Paul Salvatoriello of South Orange). He's willing to brave a hundred shrews for a fat dowry, and his trusty servant Grumio (Scott Shappell of Parsippany) will go along with whatever scheme he hatches to achieve his object. Soon the air is thick with plots and masquerades, including one that involves a Pedant (Martin Brilliant of Holmdell) impersonating Lucentio's father Vincentio. Then the real Vincentio (Joseph Porter of Piscataway) arrives on the scene, plots unravel and knots get tied, but who tames who in the end?
Circle Players is located at 416 Victoria Avenue, Piscataway, NJ 08854. Show dates are November 4 to November 20, 2005, Friday and Saturday evenings at 8:00 p.m. and November 13 and 20, Sunday matinees at 3:00 p.m. Tickets are $15.00 on Fridays and Saturdays, $12.00 on Sundays, $1 off any performances for Seniors and Students. Sorry, no credit cards accepted. For reservations and information call 732-968-7555.
posted by Catherine Rowe @ 2:21 PM
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REVIEW FROM THE HOME NEWS TRIBUNE:
Circle Players cast and crew have brushed up their Shakespeare
Home News Tribune Online 11/9/05
By BILL ZAPCIC
STAFF WRITER
bzapcic@thnt.com
So, exactly who gets tamed at The Circle Players?
Shakespeare's "The Taming of the Shrew," a rowdy, bawdy comedy best known as the essential battle of the sexes, takes a subtle but definite feminist turn in this production.
Director Rob Pherson and his solid cast and crew have carried "Shrew" to the 1890s, the flashpoint of the women's rights movement. A key male character is now a woman, and a cigar-chomper at that. Some bitingly satirical lines of dialogue are now delivered as truth, and vice versa. And an undercurrent is now a plot element.
The story remains the same: Young heir and student Lucentio (Greg DePetro) travels to Padua with his manservant, Tranio (David Neal), in search of worldly knowledge. They spy the wooing of the breathtaking Bianca (Jennifer Wewers-Sharp) by Gremio (Jon Heron) and Hortensio (Al Contursi); all learn together from mother Baptista (Catherine Rowe) that Bianca is off-limits until older sister Katharina (Patti Murtha) is wed.
Kate the bold. Kate the strong-willed. Kate the head-cracker. Kate the shrew.
The would-be suitors, now three in all, need a hero, someone to marry Kate so they can swim in Bianca's pulchritude. In gallops Petruchio (Paul Salvatoriello), a swain with a lust for life, a lust for money, a lust that rivals a Harley biker's. He sees Kate as his ticket to the good life, her faults notwithstanding.
Played strictly as written, "Shrew" tells the tale of a wild woman whose will is broken like that of a stallion by a wrangler. In the script, a wife is chattel; Petruchio's attempts at killing her with kindness would today trigger a Geneva Convention investigation.
This is where Circle Players' interpretation diverges. Petruchio announces his desire for a fine, strong woman, and when vying for her affections calls Kate his meek and gentle. Other characters who purport to know her scoff, but it seems Petruchio could well be the only person who understands Katharina.
A true love match.
Transforming the girls' parent into a woman opens the door for the notion of women as men's equals. How the plot plays out in Padua/Piscataway makes the perception permanent.
At first blush, Murtha does not seem to be advancing the character of Kate emotionally. She is shrill and firm-jawed, and looks more confused than afraid. By the end of the play, however, her ascension into her wifely role — as partner to Petruchio, not doormat — is clear.
Salvatoriello swaggers and sloshes like the bottle of Chianti he swills, yet his mad methods and his great physical comedy make him a delight to watch. His Petruchio in no way would settle for a frail, consumptive ingenue.
The Circle Players' small theater in the round puts the action inches away from the audience, and the emphasis shifts to "business"-laden acting rather than sets. The simple platforms and cubes and the delicious costumes more than suffice.
The acting and direction — nay, even the sheer guts to tackle the Bard — lift this production far above the humdrum.
From the Princeton Packet Online:
'The Taming of the Shrew'
By: Stuart Duncan, TimeOFF 11/09/2005
Circle Players presents this Shakespeare comedy, with a gender-bending twist. It was just a few years ago the Circle Players staged its first Shakespeare play, and worried lest the audience at its intimate Playhouse on Victoria Avenue in Piscataway might shun such classic material. To everyone's surprise and delight, Shakespearean comedies have been hugely successful and the latest in the series, The Taming of the Shrew, has just opened for a three-week run. It is a joy.
Director Rob Pherson set the story in the 1890s, played a gender-bender game with one of the principal characters and allowed his talented company considerable leeway to take liberties with Elizabethan mores — and in the process found both humor and understanding. The work was first printed in the first folio (in 1623), but apparently had been taken from an anonymous 1594 comedy first presented by the servants of the Earl of Pembroke.
The plot is simple: The "shrew" is Katharina, a maiden of such violent whims and tempers that it seems unlikely she will ever find a husband. Her father, Baptista, refuses to allow her lovable younger sister, Bianca, to marry one of her numerous suitors until Katharina is off his hands. Finally Petruchio appears, marries Katharina in short order and, by his own abrupt highhandedness, "tames" her to such good effect that he wins a bet with two other men on a test of their wives' obedience. According to the script, the entire play is enacted for the benefit of Christopher Sly, a drunken tinker.
But director Pherson has cut Sly and the entire prologue section from the evening and hence streamlined the production nicely. He also has turned "father" Baptista into a "mother" (albeit a cigar-smoking mom) and then turned the story over to a splendid cast. Paul Salvatoriello romps through the role of Petruchio, always seeming about to break into "I've Come To Wive It Wealthily in Padua." Patti Murtha has the voice and demeanor for a stunning Katharina and therefore matches him barb for barb. Jennifer Wewers-Sharp is a delicious Bianca, with Al Contursi, Jon Heron and Greg DePetro as her suitors. Catherine Rowe plays Baptista as if she chewed cigars after every meal. Director Pherson himself fills in a number of small cameo roles and hits paydirt as Nathaniel, stealing one scene.
The Victorian costuming — credit Piper Miley, Jeanne Woerner and Caron-Lee Sweeney — is outstanding. And the Playhouse's configuration (really theater in a rectangle) works particularly well with the classics, especially when the director and the cast know exactly what they are doing. There are lots of good Shakespeare comedies left.
The Taming of the Shrew continues at Circle Playhouse, 416 Victoria Ave., Piscataway, through Nov. 20. Performances: Fri.-Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 3 p.m. Tickets cost $12-$15, $11-$14 seniors/students. For information, call (732) 968-7555. On the Web: www.circleplayers.com
©PACKETONLINE News Classifieds Entertainment Business - Princeton and Central New Jersey 2005
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