Birmingham Royal Ballet dazzled with the athletic prowess of its Principal Dancers during this highly stylised and sumptuously costumed performance of The Taming of the Shrew.
Choreographer John Cranko climaxes this piece with three pas-de-deux involving Principal Dancers Iain Mackay and Elisha Willis as ‘conquering’ lover Petruchio and the Shrew, Katherina. Mackay kept his swagger throughout a gruelling workout of dramatic lifts, slides and off-balance promenades, while Willis exhibited enormous control and poise throughout.
Chi Cao as Hortensio, Rory Mackay as the slightly arthritic Gremio and the outstanding Brandon Lawrence as Lucentio were often highly amusing as the three suitors to Bianca and all wonderful to watch. Lawrence, with the excellent Jenna Roberts as Bianca later performed the delightful fourth pas-de-deux of the piece with enormous sensitivity and expression. John Cranko’s choreography staged by Jane Bourne ensured there was great fluidity in the movement on stage, and the corps de ballet’s collective lie-down at the end of Act I was inspired. Iain Mackay’s astonishing rotation of the stage while performing repeated tours en l’air was a standout moment.
Glorious costumes from Susan Benson using a cinnamon, ginger, maroon and black palette looked fabulous, especially in Act II where there was greater contrast in the lighting. Sets were kept minimal to allow for freedom of movement, but a grand colonnaded façade with golden trees and a delightful scene in which a wooden horse transported the newlyweds along a country road were memorable. The Royal Ballet Sinfonia, a fifty-strong orchestra under the baton of conductor Philip Ellis performed German pianist, composer and arranger Kurt-Heinz Stolze’s music based on sonatas by Domenico Scarlatti with great precision and feel, though the score I felt lacked peaks of emotion.
Shrew is not a politically correct tale. In an utterly male-dominated world a woman with an independent mind and spirit is not tolerated easily. While would-be lovers line up to woo Katherina’s younger, more compliant sister Bianca, they can only get the green light from her dad to make their moves if he manages to marry-off his older more ‘troublesome’ daughter first. Enter Petruchio, stripped of his belongings by two prostitutes in a tavern, he is persuaded by the three scheming suitors that should he marry Katherina, win her dowry, and be restored to wealth. Her father Baptista, delighted to be shot of her, is only too happy to agree to the marriage, leaving Petruchio then to effectively torture his daughter into submission and into being a doting and obedient wife. His methods include starving her, depriving her of sleep and removing any heat from a freezing household. That the piece ends with Katherina admonishing other wives to treat their husbands better reads as one abused turning abuser. Much of this was an uncomfortable watch for my female companion, which makes me think that with this gorgeous pageant of talent on display we could do with new works to represent our own times, albeit still riven with inequality. ★★★☆☆ Simon Bishop 30th June 2016
