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THE COLLEGE NEWS

Friday, November 10, 1967





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There is not quite enough of anything in
the Bryn Mawr-Haverford production of
THE TAMING OF THE SHREW. Basically
this is.apparent in the lack of a discernible
interpretation of the material; there is no
overall tone of realism of irony. There is
some good slapstick, and the Induction is
included, suggesting that this might be a
completely farcical interpretation, but Bi-
anca and Hortensio are not exploited as
farcical characters any more than Kath-
erine and Petruchio are as realistic ones.
Each actor seems to be giving his own
personal version of his part, making the
play in all uneasily fuzzy.

A better title for this particular pro-
duction might be THE TAMER OF THE
SHREW. There is no taming of Kay Ford’s
Katherine: she remains stridently vexa-
tious to Petruchio until just before the
final banquet, when they inexplicably get
chummy. Meanwhile, Chris Kopff’s Pe-
truchio holds forth with. self-assured
Swagger. He and Miss Ford manage quite
a good first act dialogue, but subsequently
he is allowed to overpower her. The only
annoying thing about his performance is
that he never moves his eyes down from the
rafters, making him appear stone blind and
acting by rote,

The best performances of the evening are
those of Peter Scott as Grumio and Heywood
Sloane as Biondello. Unlike most of their
peers they seem to know the meaning of
their lines, and their iambic pentameter
cannot be counted with a metronome.
Alexis Swan is good as Gremio, except for
a cloying habit of tossing his head to get

the hair out of his eyes. Jessica Harris
stepped in as a believably obstinate widow,
and lent a welcome vocal clarity. The Hos-
tess and Sly in the Induction were totally
unintelligible, and the rest of the cast
tended to sacrifice clarity to emotion.
Bruce Lincoln, also in the Induction, made
up in facial mobility for speaking ina very
difficult falsetto. Catherine Hopkins was
either not obnoxious enough or not en-
dearing enough as Bianca, and James
Emmons as Lucentio simply did his best
with a lifeless character.

The set was effectively used, if almost
too stark, and skillful lighting helped it a
lot. Make-up was good on everyone except
Petruchio, who for some reason had on
more rouge than the rest of the cast com-
bined. The incidental music wasdelightful.
The costumes were bright and interesting,
though again neither satisfactorily primary
nor secondary in shade. Petruchio’s
stunning banquet outfit almost made up for
Hortensio’s music master disguise, which
was a surgeon’s cap and gown, and Vin-
centio’s hat, which was patterned on anice

bag. There was some really beautiful trim ,

used, but fraying of the costumes caused the
actors to move in clouds of colored thread.

The feeling in this play is thatthe actors
know how it comes out, and recite each line
with an eye to that. This makes fora half-
hearted sort of performance. They have
generally good timing, though, and have a
great deal of fun with the slapstick, which
fortunately communicates itself to the
audience.

Mary Laura Gibbs
Photos by Grethe Holby



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“The Taming of The Shrew”



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