Gender swaps and the taming of the Bard

The Taming Of The Shrew (Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford)

Verdict: From patriarchy to matriarchy

★★★✩✩ HOW to deal with Shakespeare’s embarrassing misogyny? For the virtuous modern theatregoer, The Taming Of The Shrew is a particularly awkward example.

It is, after all, the ‘comedy’ about a feisty young woman being beaten and humiliated by her loutish husband Petruchio.

If the play were written today, it would see Shakespeare roasted on Twitter and run out of town.

Director Justin Audibert’s solution is to ditch the play’s big bad patriarchy and swap the sexes over, to create a good hearty matriarchy.

Claire Price, therefore, storms in as a flame-haired ‘Petruchia’ Energetic: Price and Arkley to subdue the recalcitrant Katherine (Joseph Arkley) in order to get her paws on a very considerable dowry.

Subplots abound, including a host of suitors vying to win the hand of Katherine’s simpering brother (James Cooney).

Purists may be alarmed at interference with Shakespeare’s hallowed verse, but is it worth the effort? It’s disorientating at first; but I can’t say it made me see the play differently.

Once I got my bearings, the plot quickly reverted to the tasteless blood sport it always is. But at least it’s good for equality quotas — the number of women in the cast is more than tripled.

Katherine is confirmed as the most interesting role — something audiences knew already — and we identify more with her suffering than we do with her husband’s bullying.

And although Price’s Petruchia does seem fond of Katherine, there is no cloak of charm to make her any more palatable.

Arkley, by contrast, brings dignity to Kate, who also has Shakespeare’s best lines.

In any event, there is good slapstick fun throughout Audibert’s well-drilled and otherwise conventional production.