Actors’ Gang’s ‘Katie the Curst’ is family-friendly outdoor Shakespeare
Punk rock. Families sprawling on blankets. Shakespeare. It’s just another day in the park for the Actors’ Gang. The Culver City-based theater troupe is performing “Katie the Curst,” a family-friendly adaptation of Shakespeare’s “The Taming of the Shrew,” through August at Media Park.
Director Lisa Wolpe’s lively interpretation gives Shakespeare’s Padua a 1970s-inspired rock ‘n’ roll makeover and keeps the excitement high with energetic performances, colorful costumes, slapstick comedy and acrobatics, and even the occasional live rock song.
The titular Kate (Donna Jo Thorndale), the sharp-tongued, unmarriageable shrew from the original play, now fronts a punk band, strutting about in a patent-leather bodice and sporting a shock of neon blue-green hair. Her fierce wit and imperiousness terrify any would-be suitors, to the dismay of her demure sister, Bianca (Molly O’Neill), who is forbidden to wed until Kate does first.
Kate soon meets her match in the swaggering suitor Petruchio (Jean-Louis Darville), newly arrived from Paris in aviator sunglasses and a peaked-lapel suit and on the hunt for a wealthy wife — no matter how domineering her nature. Though he boasts, “I am rough and woo not like a babe,” Petruchio has his work cut out for him, even with the support of his guitar-playing, mohawked pal Hortensio (Pedro Shanahan).
Despite the punk styling, “Katie the Curst” is daringly faithful to the source material. Wolpe, who is also the artistic director of the Los Angeles Women’s Shakespeare Company, condensed the play into a brisk hourlong show but maintained the original language, save the occasional rock song (such as a cover of Joan Jett’s “Bad Reputation”) or anachronistic gag (like updating a feast with In-N-Out Burger).
Counting on children of all ages to follow along in Elizabethan English is a gamble, Wolpe admitted, but one that seemed to pay off at the premiere last Saturday morning. Even as some of the wordplay went over their heads, kids in the audience squealed with laughter at Kate and Petruchio’s verbal sparring, and they applauded with delight as the pop-locking dandy Lucentio (Nick Huff) courted Bianca.
The production’s outdoor staging is well-suited to young audiences, allowing casual seating on blankets in the grass and providing plenty of unique opportunities for mise-en-scene. Petruchio makes his entrance on a two-seater bicycle; his servant, Grumio (R.J. Jones), occasionally ventures into the audience; and Lucentio’s right-hand man, Tranio (Adam Jefferis), is prone to tumbling.
“There’s something really great about the fresh air and the grass and the ability for my neighbors’ kids to have their feet on my picnic blanket and be sharing grapes with a stranger,” Wolpe said. “I like bringing the community together in this way.”
The performances, which take place Saturdays and Sundays at 11 a.m., are free, and audience members are encouraged to arrive early and hang out afterward. The pre- and post-show festivities feature a carnival atmosphere with punk-rock flourishes: A popcorn vendor sports a colorful wig and go-go boots, and the usual face painting is supplanted by temporary tattoos and makeshift mohawks.
On Sunday, the Actors’ Gang will host an open house after the show to introduce community members to the group’s onstage and off-stage work. The event will include tours of the adjacent Ivy Substation, which houses the Gang’s theater and serves as its headquarters.
Elizabeth Doran, managing director of the Actors’ Gang, said that engaging the community, creating shared experiences and making sophisticated theater fun and accessible are what the company’s Family Summer Theater Program is all about.
“By providing free theater to the community,” she said, “we are opening this door for hundreds of kids and their families to engage in this art form, now and in the future, to help tackle societal issues — and have fun in the process.”
oliver.gettell@latimes.com
Where: Media Park, 9070 Venice Blvd., Culver City
When: 11 a.m. Sat. and Sun., through Aug. 29
Cost: Admission is free. Blankets or lawn chairs recommended.
Contact: (310) 838-4264; https://www.theactorsgang.com
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