By Tanya Batson-Savage, Staff Reporter 
Deslyn Williams (Katherina) and Damion Sogren (Petruchio) in one of the famed battles between the couple, during the rehearsals for 'Taming of The Shrew'. - Contributed
Shakespeare may be turning in his grave in response to the Brian Heap directed version of 'The Taming of the Shrew'. Actually, The Bard may well be quite comfortable with Heap's take of 'wild Kate', but I am not.
'The Taming of The Shrew' is the 2003 major production of the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts. The show finishes its two-week run at The Denis Scott Studio Theatre on the campus this weekend.
There were good points to the production, including the mobile set created by Michael Lorde. The set, a few homes on wheels, was easily spun and twisted to create different spaces, a task that would otherwise have been extremely taxing on the audience because of the frequent scene changes.
Additionally, though none of the performers were brilliant on opening night, some were competent. Damion Sogren (Petruchio), Omaro Mazlyn (Hortensio) and Carl Samuels (Grumio) gave easy, unaffected performances.
Samuels and Sogren were stronger, but all three needed additional work in expression and attaining true dialogue. Sogren has the best expression of the lot, but he is yet able to control his body and allow his mannerisms to complement his actions.
Samuels and Mazlyn to have quite a bit of comic talent and use it to good advantage in the production. Their performances were aided by Heap's approach to language in Shakespeare. He is quite willing to play fast and loose with pronunciation, often allowing for easier understanding and sometimes a more Jamaican take to the humour.
Additionally, Heap cannot be faulted for the general conceptualisation of the play, which he allows to move easily.
On the weaker side, the performance generally lacked energy. The players were far too often simply quoting from the script rather than having conversations. However, that is not my grouse with the production.
The costumes were clearly taken from the closet of a very bad dresser. To top off the lack of fashion, as well as the shortcoming that the clothes were not clear markers of who was whom (which was necessary for the production), several of them also needed patching - and it was clearly not intentional. That, too, is not my grouse.
My grouse is the depiction of Katherina Minola, played by Deslyn Williams. The creature created in this production was a travesty and not quite due to the actress' performance, which was adequate.
UNMANAGEABLE BEAST
The conceptualisation of the character reduced her to little more than a grunting, unmanageable beast. I am willing to admit to a degree of prejudice in my response to Kate, as she is one of my favourite heroines from Shakespeare.
Kate took a different route from Roslind ('As You Like It') or Portia ('Merchant of Venice'), who both handled their fate in love. Additionally, both women had far better temperaments than Kate, so they easily had better choices.
Kate is a horrible person. On top of her defiance and wish to dominate (which are perfectly acceptable), she is mean-spirited. She tortures her sister simply because she is nice - but then, Bianca is the kind of woman who could do with some torture. So my problem is not with Petruchio's treatment of her; she was kind of asking for it.
However, this production does far more damage to Kate than Petruchio was ever able to. It robbed her of her voice. The audience is first introduced to Katerina not merely chasing Bianca, but grunting like a mad thing while she doing so. Indeed, she grunts at least as much as she speaks in the play.
Additionally, when she is allowed to speak, her words are delivered in a manner which renders her complaints as petty. There is politics to shrewishness and all this is ignored.
Despite Kate's obvious flaws - and there are many - she does have a legitimate complaint. As a woman, she has very little say in what happens to her. Evidently her father is able to marry her off to whomever he chooses and, in this case, he does so to a man she detests. Petruchio then does to her exactly what she feared about marriage. He starves her, keeps her locked up and publicly humiliates her.
What is interesting is that it is possible for all this to be played as a comedy and Kate still be allowed to be a person.
To be fair, none of the characters were properly developed with the performances. However, the one who needs the greatest defence is the shrew, because her character was certainly butchered.
