CBC/Stratford Festival Taming of the Shrew

For Christmas this year my beloved and long-suffering wife gave me several Shakespeare DVDs, and recently I managed to make time to watch the CBC Home Video of the Stratford Festival's production of The Taming of the Shrew.

This is a video recording for Canadian television of the Stratford (Canada) Festival production of Taming of the Shrew. I don't recognize any of the cast members (and I watched a lot of You Can't Do That on Television and Degrassi Junior High back in the 80s) but that's okay. Many of the best Shakespearean actors are not household names.

There's so much you can do on film. Professor Rockwell would probably frown on this production because it's not a “fully realized cinematic production” but rather a recording of a stage production. For the comedies at least —and I'm starting to think more and more for the tragedies and histories as well— film doesn't work well for Shakespeare. Stage works a lot better. And I'm not just saying that stage is better because Shakespeare wrote for the stage and it's a more authentic Renaissance experience to see Shakespeare on stage. That may be true, but it's not what I mean.

I mean that the performance communicate better when there's an actual audience present. The jokes land better. The serious moments have more impact. With a fully realized cinematic production there is no present audience to react to the actors and for the actors and to react to. For Shakespeare to work well, and I think this is especially true of the comedies, the audience is extremely valuable to the actors. It's one thing to know a line and know what it means and think you're communicating well, it's another thing to have the instant feedback from an audience telling you that you're communicating well.

It would be interesting to see a production that is rehearsed in front of a live audience and then filmed, and see if that live experience translates to film. Come to think of it the 1999 RSC Midsummer Night's Dream would fit that description, and it was disappointing. Maybe that wouldn't work. I would be glad to see another experiment.

The Stratford Festival is one of the big Shakespeare incubators of North America possibly the world. Their reputation is that they produce excellent Shakespeare and develop excellent experienced Shakespearean actors. I 've never actually seen any of their productions before this but I have to say the reputation seems to be well earned.

They have a great website that explains the history of the festival and how a world-class festival ended up in Canada (here's the link).

This production is from way back in 1988 but it doesn't seem dated to me at all—it doesn't even seem all that Canadian. There is a really bad set of cast pictures of the beginning but keep watching it doesn't last too long.

Colm Feore is the big name in this production. He makes a great Petruchio. He's not huge and muscular like Marc Singer, not as over-the-top exuberant as Richard Burton, or as just plain wrong for the role like John Cleese. If not for Marc Singer, Colm Feore would be my favorite Petruchio. Feore's a better actor, and I'm excited that I'll be seeing him in other Shakespeare films, but I think Singer's a better Petruchio. According to imdb.com Colm Feore has been in all sorts of movies and TV shows that I've never seen. He was also in Thor.

I'm not as crazy about Goldie Semple as Katherina. She's just a bit too much. In the earlier parts of the play she starts every line at a yell. A lot of the time it just doesn't work. It's not always motivated by the script, and it doesn't leave her anywhere to go but to back down or get even louder. Neither of those choices work well for Katherina. She wins me over an act five though and her performance becomes just spot on perfect. According to imdb.com Goldie died in 1999.

Scott Wentworth is also worth noting as Tranio, as is Geraint Wyn Davies as the best Hortensio I've ever seen.

This production gets laughs in places I haven't heard laughs before. The performance is founded on a clear understanding of the text, and many of those laughs come from the text plus stage business. It's a fantastic production of a great team. I hope to see more of the CBC Stratford DVDs soon—they're on my wishlist.

If you only have time to watch one Taming of the Shrew, this one is a good choice. I think this is the second best Taming of the Shrew that I've seen, not because of any fault in this production, but because the 1976 Marc Singer/Fredi Olster production is just so good.

So here's my Taming of the Shrew list:

1. Taming of the Shrew. Dir. William Ball and Kirk Browning. Perf. Fredi Olster, Marc Singer, and Stephen St. Paul. 1976. DVD. Kultur, 2002.(imdb.com)
2. Taming of the Shrew. Dir. Richard Monette. Perf. Colm Feore, Goldie Semple, and Henry Czerny. CBC, 1988. DVD, Morningstar, 2003. (imdb.com)
3. Taming of the Shrew. Dir. Franco Zefferelli. Perf. Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, and Cyril Cusack. 1967. DVD. Columbia, 1999. (imdb.com)
4. Taming of the Shrew. Dir. Jonathan Miller. Perf. Simon Chandler, Anthony Pedley, and John Cleese. 1980. DVD. Ambrose, 2000. (imdb.com)
5. Kiss Me Kate. Dir. George Sidney. Perf. Kathryn Grayson, Howard Keel, and Ann Miller. 1953. DVD. Warner, 2003. (imdb.com)
6. 10 Things I Hate About You. Dir. Gil Junger. Perf. Julia Stiles, Heath Ledger, and Joseph Gordon-Leavitt. 1999. DVD. Buena Vista, 2010. (imdb.com)

The Taming of the Shrew - McLintock!

Minerva listed this as a retelling of The Taming of the Shrew. I would say that elements of this movie were inspired by Taming, most prominently the female protagonist’s name and the spousal bickering. Other than that, the two have nothing at all in common.

I’ll start out by saying that I did not enjoy this movie. Yes, John Wayne is an American film legend. Yes, he worked well with Maureen O’Hara in two other movies. But McLintock!, for me, fell flat.

Basically, John Wayne is McLintock, a cattle baron who was instrumental in kicking the Comanche off the land, but who is now respected by just about everyone. McLintock is a frontier ubermensch in a world where a man’s worth is based on his ability to punch another man in the face. Education is valued only if book learning was balanced by boxing. Maureen O’Hara is his wife, Katherine, who left him two years ago when he came home from a business trip with lipstick on his collar. He either cannot or chooses not to satisfactorily explain this. Instead he spanks her until she stops asking questions about it.

Shakespeare thought misogyny was hilarious - the central theme of The Taming of the Shrew is that uppity women need to be put in their place - and in general we’re willing to cringe a bit and forgive him because it was 400 years ago and we can congratulate ourselves on having come a long way. Violence against women just isn’t funny anymore. 

Racism isn’t funny either. McLintock! hopes to make us laugh through its portrayal of Native Americans as dangerous alcoholic thieves. It doesn’t work. Neither does the sterotypical portrayal of the McLintock’s Asian cook.

The GoodTimes DVD is of very poor quality. It looks like it’s a copy of a copy of a burned-out VHS tape copied from a worn-out film copy. They really need to go back to the original master (if it’s available) to make a good DVD. It turns out it is also available on Amazon Prime. I watched a few minutes for comparison, and the video quality wasn't any better. You can also find it on YouTube. Given the poor quality of the transfer, I can't even compliment the cinematography.

In fact, I can’t really say anything positive about this movie. If you are looking for a disappointing experience that will kill about two hours, go ahead and watch McLintock!. Otherwise, watch something else. Anything else.