It was a little like Stockholm Syndrome ;) We had Petruchio totally in control -- but Baptista as a woman, so Petruchio's manipulation of females was quite constant, the whole way through. The scene began with Katerina slamming around, and Petruchio quite calm, quite sweet, almost laughing intermingled with really lovely, poetic declarations -- and then she goes to hit him, and Chris, the actor in the first walk-through, grabbed her arm mid-slap and the next line was so, so cold and so so in control -- absolutely deathly 'no, you will play this game with me on MY terms' -- and then flipped back to sweetness. At one point, he actually threw her down on the chaise-settee we had on stage, and pinned her physically -- it looked like a rape, and it preeetty much came close to giving that uncomfortable, prickling feeling movies do to the whole scene. You saw Kate FIGHT, and the audience went from laughing at Petruchio's initial professions of love and Kate's total '...wtf' reaction to them, to laughing uneasily, to silence. It was quite the mood shift.
And then you saw Petruchio totally rain terror -- in the scene where he rejects all the food, etc, the actor again, improvised -- he was six foot four, so when he was sat at the table, being proferred food, he stood up in a rush and threw the table over -- Kate screamed, the servants recoiled. And then you saw Kate begin to learn to appease him.
It ...wasn't much of a comedy? You had the juxtaposition of couples -- Bianca in control of her partner, Petruchio in charge of his, and that speech on womanhood, flickering between Kate being 'reformed' and being quite clearly a victim. I would've played with it more, but I only had four weeks to put it on. :/
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
ninetydegrees
no subject
on 2010-08-04 07:07 pm (UTC)And then you saw Petruchio totally rain terror -- in the scene where he rejects all the food, etc, the actor again, improvised -- he was six foot four, so when he was sat at the table, being proferred food, he stood up in a rush and threw the table over -- Kate screamed, the servants recoiled. And then you saw Kate begin to learn to appease him.
It ...wasn't much of a comedy? You had the juxtaposition of couples -- Bianca in control of her partner, Petruchio in charge of his, and that speech on womanhood, flickering between Kate being 'reformed' and being quite clearly a victim. I would've played with it more, but I only had four weeks to put it on. :/