STAGE REVIEWS : Shakespeare as You Like It--or Not : ‘Shrew’: Grove’s Finale Is a Fun and Zesty Romp

The summer’s last show in the Garden Grove Amphitheatre is the third in the Grove Shakespeare Festival’s ambitious trio of politically difficult Shakespearean plays.

First came the beautifully done, prejudicially touchy “The Merchant of Venice” (which unexpectedly turned out to be former artistic director and founder Thomas F. Bradac’s eloquent swan song). Then came a driving “Measure for Measure” staged for all its all-around questionable morality by Jules Aaron. And now comes “The Taming of the Shrew,” again directed by Aaron, wherein shrewish Kate is wed and tamed by boorish Petruchio, for her money.

Well, that’s one way of looking at it, and heaven knows this play has been looked at in every way possible, guided and misguided. There are those who will hold to the death that it’s a rude and sexist comedy, but, for all its show of domestic docility in the final scene, “Shrew” is much shrewder than that. It is less about gender bashing than it is about human foibles and the power of attraction and psychology to transform all parties. Impure and far less simple than it seems, this is a modern love story.

Aaron has chosen to go for that apolitical vision of the play, turning it into a zesty romp with plenty of slapstick, predictable fun and unpredictable audience involvement. He leaves out the often-left-out induction or prologue, substituting instead the framework of a final dress rehearsal with an intrusive skateboarder (mum’s the word).

Carl Reggiardo turns in a spirited Petruchio, all flame and flash, a fellow who means to earn and return the love of his Kate, whom he marries for the wrong reason but with the right heart. As Kate, Robin Goodrin Nordli seems less comfortable inhabiting the untamed fury of the early scenes, but grows more confident and persuasive as Petruchio matches her, blow for blow, and systematically browbeats and bamboozles the savagery out of her.

Their stormy post-marital clashes work like the three-ring circus they’re meant to be, and the final implosion of Kate’s resistance is met head on by Petruchio’s meltdown: This tough-guy’s admiration of his new wife’s raw defiance and pluck. These are traits he respects, largely because he shares them. And when the woman’s attractive as well as fiery, other factors kick in. . . .

Having calibrated that into the subtext, Aaron is ready to give us the final banquet scene at Bianca’s and Lucentio’s wedding as a wise demonstration of contrasting emotions. The husbands’ devising of a display of marital fealty from their wives is a game at which they’re hoist by their own petard.

Hortensio (Bud Leslie) is rebuffed by the emancipated widow he has married (Michele Roberge) and the much-indulged, much-courted, newly married Bianca (Elizabeth Dement) is revealed as a pouty child who defies husband Lucentio (Eric Bryant Wells) with a marked potential for plenty of shrewishness of her own.

Her supposedly chastened sister, meanwhile, has truly fallen in love with the man she so reluctantly married. But smart Kate’s baldly elaborate statement of subservience is her highly charged, tongue-in-cheek admission of that love, meant to be understood as such only by Petruchio. In Aaron’s production, the sexual electricity of this avowal leaves no doubt. It’s clear in Nordli’s measured delivery and Reggiardo’s wide-eyed reception of it. So who is beating whom and at what game?

The entire staging reflects this free-spirited, savvy ebullience, and everyone on stage is playing it to the hilt, with few lapses into collegiate clowning. Notable are David Anthony Smith as Lucentio’s unshackled servant Tranio, having the time of his life impersonating his master; Scott Allen’s portly Gremio, a suitor to Bianca; a rowdy quartet of Petruchio’s servants (Sherman H. Wiggs Jr., Jonathan Klein, Paul Severance and Pamela Macintosh) and a contemporary charmer called on to, in a manner of speaking, rescue the production (Matthew Walker).

Enough said. Chuck Estes’ music, Lyndall L. Otto’s costumes and David C. Palmer’s lighting all contribute to the fun. Designer Don Llewellyn has cleverly managed to get three for the price of one this summer: three plays on the fundamental structure of one set. It’s a fiscally meritorious achievement that wins points for practicality. There’s not much to admire about the set itself, but it serves without distracting from the action.

* “The Taming of the Shrew,” Grove Shakespeare Festival Amphitheatre, 12582 Main St., Garden Grove. Wednesdays-Sundays, 8:30 p.m. Ends Sept. 21. $16-$23; (714) 636-7213. Running time: 2 hours, 20 minutes.

‘The Taming of the Shrew’

Eric Bryant Wells: Lucentio, suitor to Bianca

David Anthony Smith: Tranio, his personal servant

Donald Sage Mackay: Servant to Lucentio

Scott Allen: Gremio, suitor to Bianca

Bud Leslie: Hortensio, suitor to Bianca

Daniel Bryan Cartmell Baptista: Minola, rich citizen of Padua

R. Todd Parker: Baptista’s attendant

Robin Goodrin Nordli: Katherina, older daughter to Baptista

Elizabeth Dement: Bianca, younger daughter to Baptista

Carl Reggiardo: Petruchio, a gentleman of Verona

Ron Campbell: Grumio, Petruchio’s personal servant

Sherman H. Wiggs Jr.: Curtis, servant to Petruchio

Jonathan Klein: Nathaniel, servant to Petruchio

Paul Severance: Gregory, servant to Petruchio

Pamela Macintosh: Sugarsop, servant to Petruchio

Mark O’Bar: A Tailor

Marijen Gorska: A Haberdasher

Michele Roberge: A Widow

Roger Christofferson: A Pedant

Matthew Walker: The Kid/Vincentio, father of Lucentio

Shakespeare’s comedy directed by Jules Aaron. Sets Don Llewellyn. Lights David C. Palmer. Costumes Lyndall L. Otto. Sound John Fisher. Composer Chuck Estes. Makeup and hair Gary Christensen. Technical director Patrick Brambila. Stage manager Nevin Hedley.