Sport For Jove is remounting its hugely successful production of Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew on the great Hollywood soundstage of the silent film era, in the York Theatre at the Seymour Centre from 19 May 2016.
Shakespeare’s love stories challenge us very deeply. They examine the things that bind communities together and the anxieties that pull them apart. In this case, in a misogynistic city obsessed with its own vain self-image and with maintaining a social economy founded on contracts and financial underpinnings to every human transaction, that anxiety is generated by a woman who dares to do the unthinkable – speak.
To speak out of turn. A woman who makes noise and raises the temperature of male anxiety at every social level – within the family, the community and even the audience. Shakespeare made a career out of writing such women – ‘shrews’ – women who transgress rules and make unwanted noise, speaking for themselves in a world where their words matter less than the judgement offered them because they are a woman speaking, and how hard society works to suppress or control that voice. As our own contemporary cultural and political landscape demonstrates, little has changed in this regard.
Shakespeare’s comedies are models of disharmony, with families in collapse, where trust, patience and finally, hope, are only reached through chaos and great personal compromise and pain. They are as troubling as they are funny, and as beautiful as they are disturbing.
The Taming of the Shrew captures that paradox perfectly, among the most challenging, confronting and exuberant plays ever written. By making us laugh at them, he shows us how much we have come to accept and ignore the brutal power structures that still define our society.
Sport for Jove’s world-class production won unanimous critical acclaim in its 2011/12 Summer Festival Season, where it was nominated for 5 Sydney Theatre Awards including Best Independent Production, Actor, Actress, Director and Design.
Director: Damien Ryan Featuring: Danielle King, James Lugton, Michael Cullen, Eloise Winestock, Christopher Stalley, Terry Karabelas, Christopher Tomkinson, Amy Usherwood, Lizzie Schebesta, Barry French, George Banders, George Kemp, Angela Bauer, Robert Alexander Assistant Director: Samantha Young Designer: Anna Gardiner Lighting Designer: Sian James-Holland Sound Designer: Tom Allum Stage Manager: Bronte Axam
The Taming of the Shrew
York Theatre – Seymour Centre, Corner City Road and Cleveland Street, Chippendale
Season: 19 – 28 May 2016
Bookings: (02) 9351 7940 or online at: www.seymourcentre.com
For more information, visit: www.sportforjove.com.au for details.
Image: The Taming of the Shrew – photo by Marnya Rothe