Untamed, This ‘Shrew’ Delights

“The Taming of the Shrew,” now on the Festival Stage at the Globe Theatres, is a raucous, stylish, funny froth of gender combat that shoots off sexual sparks like a summer lightning storm.

Move over, Liz and Dick. Elizabeth Heflin as the razor-tongued Katherine and Jeffrey Nordling as the “mad-brained rudesby” Petruchio are perfectly matched as the high-octane couple whose wooing, wedding and bedding is the heart of “Shrew.”

She rages, he ups the ante, and no mercy is asked or given in this battle of the sexes.

The dinner-table scene--she’s hungry, he’s domineering--is the equivalent of two middleweight contenders going toe to toe for 15 rounds.

Nordling’s Petruchio is boorish, unapologetically macho and thoroughly charismatic. Heflin’s shrew is dangerous and magnetic. In all, it’s a war between worthy combatants, part soap opera, part pro wrestling.

Director John Rando, fresh from winning a Tony for Broadway’s “Urinetown,” has given us a Padua full of poseurs, fops, pedants, witty servants, befuddled seniors and the hormone-beset young. He has even added a few touches of his own. Among them: horses that do interesting things.

Rando sees no need to nudge Katherine into being some aboriginal Murphy Brown. Katherine’s speech of submission--”Such duty as the subject owes the prince / Even such a woman oweth to her husband”--is done without a wink or an elbow in the ribs.

Rando’s style seems simple: Play the text and let the p.c. chips fall where they may. It is, after all, a 400-year-old comedy, not a platform document for a national political party.

Though Petruchio versus Katherine is the main event, the undercard of “Shrew” is equally superb.

Dakin Matthews as Katherine’s loving but terrified father, Baptista Minola, reflects the fury that Katherine has wrought, and the seeming impossibility of getting her married so that a younger sister is free to accept a suitor. His flinching, cringing body language whenever Katherine begins to rail speaks as loudly as a dozen soliloquies.

Laura Heisler as Bianca, Katherine’s younger sister, holds her own with her overpowering sibling, with a dash of sneakiness to her soul and a pouty manner that manipulates any male within harm’s way.

Arnie Burton is a gem as the sly servant Grumio. Ditto for Rainn Wilson as the equally conniving Tranio. Jeffrey Brick as Biondello reels off possibly the most memorable speech of the evening, and Globe veteran Jonathan McMurtry snaps life into Bianca’s foolish suitor Gremio.

With right-on costumes by Lewis Brown and some kicky sound effects by Chris Walker, this “Shrew” is untamed and a thorough delight.

*

“The Taming of the Shrew,” by William Shakespeare, plays at the Festival Stage at the Old Globe Theatres complex at Balboa Park. Tuesday-Sunday, 8 p.m. Ends Aug. 4. $25-$50. (619) 239-2255.

Remy Auberjonois...Lucentio

Jack Banning...Curtis/Tailor

Jeffrey Brick...Biondello

Arnie Burton...Grumio

Elizabeth Heflin...Katherine

Laura Heisler...Bianca

Keith Jochim...Vincentio

Dakin Matthews...Baptista

Jonathan McMurtry...Gremio

Jeffrey Nordling...Petruchio

John Seidman...Pedant.

Rainn Wilson...Tranio

By William Shakespeare. Directed by John Rando. Costumes by Lewis Brown. Sound by Chris Walker. Dramaturge Dakin Matthews. Scenic designer Ralph Funicello. Lighting by York Kennedy. Stage manager D. Adams. Fight director Steve Rankin.