Title: Taming Of The Shrew
Description: RSC
Description: RSC
IMO - April 20, 2008 06:15 PM (GMT)
The Taming of the Shrew directed by Conall Morrison
The flamboyant Petruchio wins the unruly Kate's hand in marriage. Will his unconventional methods succeed in curing her temper and scolding tongue? Shakespeare explores the sexual politics of marriage in one of his earliest and most controversial comedies.
Michelle Gomez joins the RSC for the first time to play Kate. She is perhaps best known for her role in the Channel 4 comedy Green Wing, while her most recent stage appearance was in the acclaimed West End production of Boeing Boeing at The Comedy Theatre. Stephen Boxer returns to the company to play Petruchio, having last appeared with the RSC in the 1999 production of Bartholomew Fair. His other RSC credits include the role of Angelo in Michael Boyd's 1998 production of Measure for Measure, whilst his many television credits include his current role as Dr Joe Fenton in BBC1's Doctors.
The Taming of the Shrew is directed by Conall Morrison, whose production of Macbeth played in the Swan Theatre in 2007. Conall is an Associate Artist of the Abbey Theatre, Dublin where his productions include The Bacchae of Baghdad, Hamlet and his own adaptation of Patrick Kavanagh's Tarry Flynn. He also recently directed La Traviata for the ENO at the Coliseum in London.
The Taming of the Shrew plays in repertoire at The Courtyard Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon from 24 April - 25 September 2008 before transferring to Newcastle.
The flamboyant Petruchio wins the unruly Kate's hand in marriage. Will his unconventional methods succeed in curing her temper and scolding tongue? Shakespeare explores the sexual politics of marriage in one of his earliest and most controversial comedies.
Michelle Gomez joins the RSC for the first time to play Kate. She is perhaps best known for her role in the Channel 4 comedy Green Wing, while her most recent stage appearance was in the acclaimed West End production of Boeing Boeing at The Comedy Theatre. Stephen Boxer returns to the company to play Petruchio, having last appeared with the RSC in the 1999 production of Bartholomew Fair. His other RSC credits include the role of Angelo in Michael Boyd's 1998 production of Measure for Measure, whilst his many television credits include his current role as Dr Joe Fenton in BBC1's Doctors.
The Taming of the Shrew is directed by Conall Morrison, whose production of Macbeth played in the Swan Theatre in 2007. Conall is an Associate Artist of the Abbey Theatre, Dublin where his productions include The Bacchae of Baghdad, Hamlet and his own adaptation of Patrick Kavanagh's Tarry Flynn. He also recently directed La Traviata for the ENO at the Coliseum in London.
The Taming of the Shrew plays in repertoire at The Courtyard Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon from 24 April - 25 September 2008 before transferring to Newcastle.
xpingux - April 26, 2008 09:46 PM (GMT)
Curtain call for a shrew operator - Michelle Gomez interview
http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/sos-r...hrew.3998850.jp
http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/sos-r...hrew.3998850.jp
guyoline - April 27, 2008 01:03 AM (GMT)
ooh just realised it's going to be in newcastle once I'm in Newcastle w00t soo going to have to see it then
thanks for in interview emma
thanks for in interview emma
Little_Simba - April 28, 2008 06:32 PM (GMT)
Oooooh, interesting! I'd like to go and see The Taming of the Shrew. Pity it seems only to be in Statford-upon-Avon and Newcastle. :cry :cry I bet she'll be brilliant in it!
Chapman - April 29, 2008 09:29 AM (GMT)
wicked, its in newcastle when your their ros? does that mean its there when im there? that will be good, we shall have to go
i read this at the weekend:
Times interview with michelle, in all its glory!
i read this at the weekend:
Times interview with michelle, in all its glory!
| QUOTE |
| Enter Michelle Gomez, in a sweeping, calf-length light-brown overcoat. A new acquaintance is entitled to be wary of the proffered hand. Is she suddenly going to crouch in a karate position and scream oriental expletives? Is she about to burst into torch song? Or perform an efficient Heimlich manoeuvre? Strip and cartwheel? For a woman who turned the little nutshell of her office in Channel 4’s Green Wing into a private experimental circus space, the possibilities are legion. This is an actress who could do anything. Whether that includes what she is going to attempt next, we are about to find out. She spools back to a memory of standing in Greig’s kitchen and urging her to accept the challenge. “We were going, ‘Wow, what do you think?’” she says. “For all the reasons I’m doing this, I said to Tamsin at the time, ‘It’s one of those career boxes that you have to tick.’” Not that Gomez had any suspicion she would ever be invited to tick it herself. Gomez is one of those creatures of exotic plumage who seems incapable of opening her mouth or moving a muscle without the intention of getting a laugh. She has the straight face for it, blue reptilian eyes and angular cheekbones. Her extraordinary physical performance, in Green Wing, as Sue White, the NHS’s least appropriate personnel manager, was all elbows and eyebrows, abetted by a superfine ear for breezy irony. As things stand, she’s predicting that her Kate will scarcely raise a titter, but then she thought the same about Gretchen in Boeing Boeing. Gomez has been getting laughs all her life. She grew up in Glasgow. My mother would tell me to stop pissing about, but would sort of encourage it as well. Everybody said, ‘Oh, you’re such a bloody actress.’” Sue White’s repertoire of surreal mannerisms was duly greeted by her family as “the laziest performance I’ve ever given. It’s like me on Christmas Day, doing all my party pieces one after the other”. There was never any doubt that she would end up showing off professionally, but it has taken an age for her quirky talents to be recognised. She applied twice to the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama - “And they were having none of it. Then I went in one year and I said, ‘Will you just let me in on the teachers’ course, then?’” After graduating, she set up a drama-teaching company that toured schools with the aim of stamping out bullying. “What used to amaze me was the turnaround by the end of the day. I’d explain the workshop at the start and say, ‘Does anybody have a question?’ I’ll never forget this one boy who put his hand up and said, ‘Can I f*** you, miss?’ I said, ‘Yes, of course you can.’ I mean, he was 12. ‘If you’ll only just wait for me outside the staff room, we can get on to that later.’ I left him there for a bit, then came out and said, ‘Okay, do you really want to do that?’ I challenged him and, when he came back in, he was fantastic. I imagine I probably will head back into teaching in the not too distant future.” Green Wing, which, for all its teams of writers and three-month rehearsal period, gave Gomez free rein to improvise. “I was in my office with a camera, and I think most of the time [the cameraman] wasn’t there. He’d just leave it set up, and I’d fanny about for hours.” They were all there, though, when her office was mocked up in Birmingham zoo for the scene in which she sang Circle of Life to a lion cub. “Because a lion cub can’t be touched until it’s over a certain age, we got this massive ... child, like a nine-year-old. All these huge men just crapped themselves and jumped up onto chairs. It was when the trainer said, ‘I don’t have any control over it, just to let you know’ - that really reassured us. I lost an eye. I’ve got a wooden leg now. I’ve soldiered on. I’ll be all right.” “That’s why I took the job. When I looked at that speech, I just thought, ‘This is utter bollocks, because I’m never, as a modern actress, talking to a modern audience, going to be able to make them believe I mean any of this.’ That was the real hook for me. I had no idea how to do it. And I still don’t.” |
guyoline - April 29, 2008 01:17 PM (GMT)
well i assume so as it's in london until september so then I should hopefully be in Newcastle by then and I guess that's when the play will move there too
Little_Simba - April 29, 2008 04:57 PM (GMT)
Oh, she completely rules!!
IMO - April 29, 2008 09:46 PM (GMT)
| QUOTE |
| Because a lion cub can’t be touched until it’s over a certain age, we got this massive ... child, like a nine-year-old. All these huge men just crapped themselves and jumped up onto chairs. It was when the trainer said, ‘I don’t have any control over it, just to let you know’ - that really reassured us. I lost an eye. I’ve got a wooden leg now. I’ve soldiered on. I’ll be all right.” |
I love this bit :lol:
Chapman - April 30, 2008 03:23 PM (GMT)
i did cut some of that interview out, the whole thing is even better!
Little_Simba - April 30, 2008 04:38 PM (GMT)
| QUOTE |
| When Greig’s Beatrice went on to win the Olivier award last year, the RSC evidently determined that a hospital comedy with only the faintest toehold in reality is the go-to source for actresses equipped to play Shakespeare’s difficult women. |
Haha! You'd certainly never be likely to easily link Green Wing with Shakespeare! Mind you, it sounds like the part of Kate is a little wilder than you might expect the average Shakespearean part to be. Before I went to see Boeing Boeing I was expecting to see a v. different Michelle from the one I knew via GW but her part was almost as manic as Sue so I was delighted! Seems she is naturally the sort of performer to bring the house down in anything she does. :notworthy :notworthy :notworthy
xjessx - May 2, 2008 11:01 AM (GMT)
Oh i so want to see this, i think i'll drag someone along after my birthday!
Bet Gomez is brill in it.!
Bet Gomez is brill in it.!
oiyoupingpongman - May 4, 2008 09:31 PM (GMT)
Haha! I love Michelle, cheeky girl.
Sadly, read a bad review of The Shrew in The Times the other day, they said they got the tone of the show all wrong, and the ending didn't make as much sense as it should or something. But they did say Michelle was given a raw-deal script wise as she is very talented. Well we all knew that!
Sadly, read a bad review of The Shrew in The Times the other day, they said they got the tone of the show all wrong, and the ending didn't make as much sense as it should or something. But they did say Michelle was given a raw-deal script wise as she is very talented. Well we all knew that!
IMO - May 9, 2008 08:36 PM (GMT)
My mum's going to see this at Stratford! Although she's got mixed feelings about it as the reviews have been so bad :unsure: