Moan, Moan, Moan

We finally watched one of the Shakespeare Re-Told dramas last night. It was The Taming Of The Shrew which, probably in disagreement with previous pronouncements here, is my second-favourite Shakespeare play. Nothing in this drama did anything to change that view. I saw Josey Lawrence in the play at Stratford though I am sad to admit that I cannot remember who played Petruchio and cannot find any reference to it. Well last night’s version managed to keep the Shakespearean feel without compromising on the use of contemporary language. Not having watched the previous two new versions, I am not sure whether they peppered the text with lifted quotes from the original but Petruchio used them, always appropriately, which suggested that old Bill W. was in the next room giving a nod to the new production. One preview I read said that the whole thing fell apart in the middle and was only kept from complete farce by the performances of the two leads. I suppose I don’t know the text of the original enough but enough of the plot filtered into my brain all those years ago for me to realise that the general line was correct with all the major elements in place. I was also led to believe that there would be some compromise in the ending to cater for modern political correctness but I couldn’t see that. The introduction to my copy of the text says that Kate and Petruchio end up being equal partners in their marriage, and while Kate’s ‘accepting’ of her husbands superiority was tinged with irony, this was also the case in the RSC version I saw. And don’t forget that in the new version, Kate was a successful politician with her eyes on the top job. I was expecting some clever reference to the Sun and Moon at the end but if it was there I missed it.