Theater Reviews : This ‘Shrew’ Is on Another Foot--and It Fits : Rather than taking the modern route, Vanguard director Terry Gunkel uses a straightforward approach to present Shakespeare’s comedy.

Some viewers often take Shakespeare’s “The Taming of the Shrew” to task for the play’s moral that to create a happy marriage, the wife must become totally subservient to her husband.

Some modern directors of “Shrew” try to soften the message and, through adjusting the many layers of intent in the comedy, try to show that heroine Kate is really in charge, the eventual winner in the battle of the sexes.

Terry Gunkel, artistic director of the small Vanguard Theatre--and director of this, the group’s first production in the larger Curtis Theatre--accomplishes the task with what is basically a totally straightforward and sincere staging.

Gunkel ignores the many possibilities other directors have found to give the play qualities they think are missing. Farce, commedia dell’arte, athletic derring-do and other styles designed to mask “Shrew’s” theme, do not enter into his interpretation, and what remains is the play Shakespeare intended.

Funny, yes. But there is also the Bard’s tongue-in-cheek attitude, which emerges when the text is delivered dead-on. He was poking fun at the contemporary institution of marriage, and pointing up its ludicrous aspects with a grin, as Ibsen did later with a frown.

Kimberley Barnhardt’s costumes, which set the action in Padua at the turn of the 19th Century, are charming and on the button for a period when style was fluctuating wildly from 18th-Century frivolity to the somber period that foreshadowed the Industrial Revolution. Marriage mores hadn’t changed that much since Shakespeare’s day.

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Gunkel’s concept also echoes the timeless struggle--reverberating even in today’s headlines--between marriage as a partnership and as a matter of ownership. His cast understands that too.

Gunkel and his actors for the most part treat Petruchio, his Kate and the rest as real people, devoid of caricature and theatrical sham.

Kilburn’s Petruchio stumbles and bumbles honestly, and his demands on Kate are executed with a sly wink. He wants to remove her shrewishness, not her independence. McDonald’s Kate is a good bit less shrewish than the usual Kate, more reasonable and eventually amenable, not through subservience, but through intelligence as Petruchio’s joke dawns on her. They are perfectly matched. Their Petruchio and Kate would have a healthy and honest marriage even today.

The supporting cast follows suit admirably.

Tony Masters’ marvelous, slightly opaque Lucentio also has a subtle sense of period style in a standout performance. His servant Tranio is given a rewarding confidence his master doesn’t have in Howard Johnston.

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As Bianca, Wendy Abas has a slight edge of shrewishness herself--she is Kate’s sister--which makes a richer portrait than the usual bland Bianca, and K. Robert Eaton is solid as the sisters’ father, Baptista.

Randy Rock and Michael Allen, as Lucentio’s rivals for the hand of Bianca, both admirably maintain the valid restraint of Gunkel’s staging, and Christopher Sullivan is a fascinatingly eccentric Grumio.

Some of the smaller roles do not come off as well, such as Bill Nelson’s Pedant, who spends a lot of time looking up at the back of the auditorium, for no apparent reason.

* “The Taming of the Shrew,” Curtis Theatre, Brea Civic Center, Brea. Thursdays through Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 2 p.m.; March 11 at 2 p.m. Ends March 12. $13-$15. (714) 990-7722. Running time: 2 hours, 40 minutes.

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Arlyn McDonald: Kate

R. Shaun Kilburn: Petruchio

Tony Masters: Lucentio

Wendy Abas: Bianca

Howard Johnston: Tranio

Christopher Sullivan: Grumio

Randy Rock: Gremio

Michael Allen: Hortensio

K. Robert Eaton: Baptista

Bill Nelson: The Pedant

A Vanguard Theatre Ensemble production of Shakespeare’s comedy, produced by Stuart Erikson. Directed by Terry Gunkel. Scenic design: Daniel Nyiri. Lighting design: John R. Vasquez. Costume design: Kimberley Barnhardt. Sound design: Howard Johnston. Fight choreography: Joey Ancona. Stage manager: Wade Williamson.