Taming of the Shrew

raised stage right to the level of the boxes.

There were many different size doors some were raised higher than

others but were manly placed centre stage and up stage it was sort of

a Rostrum but with doors. I think this was not only done to show the

different rooms or to give the impression of peoples homes but maybe

to also give the effect of different levels. The doors stayed on the

stage for most of the play.

There was a ladder which took the actors on to railings which made a

sort of raised platform this was used to enter and exit to a wing

upstairs like when Kate was in Petruchios house for the first time and

they climbed the ladder and used the platform as a sort of upstairs

where the bedroom was supposed to be. This was raised for most of the

performance and only lowered when the scene was in Petruchios' house.

Another way the actors entered and exited the stage was by a stage

rake that was up stage centre and turned into the left wing nearly

everyone used it and it was the main exit from the stage. There was

also a Trap door that was used during the play I think only once by

one of Petruchios servants when he was coming in to sort out the house

for the arrival of Petruchio and his new wife.

There were only a few scene changes throughout the play but most of

the time to change the scene the stage was just strikd. The biggest

scene change was when the scene changed from the street to

petruchios's house were the railings and the flying scenery of inside

a house was lowered and all the doors on the floor were taken off in a

blackout. The other main scene change was during the interval when the

scene changed to a park; the cyclorama changed from reflected water to

a summer day and a swing was lowered to centre stage.

Sound was also used to display the emotions in each scene. The type of

sound was mainly special effects for things like thunder and birds

tweeting in the park scene.

The orchestra also contributed to the sound before and during the

play, it was nothing too evident, which didn't really give much of an

impact which is a good thing.

During the play the stage was lit using foot lights and floodlights,

which made it quite bright. The only times when the scene was not

light was either when the effect of night was wanted or in Petrushios'

when him and Kate arrived for the first time to do this all that was

done was that the lights were dimmed lights where dim. Maybe this was

because the director wanted to show the difference between the light

house that Kate had grown up in and the dark house she was now forced

to live in.

There was a few times in which light effects were used, for example

when there was three blackouts one after the other to show the hours

gone past when Petruchio said that he controlled the time. The best

use of light effects was the storm outside Petruchios' house, which

was very effective, and also an amazing contrast compared to the scene

with Bianca in the park, which had a completely different mood that

was well conveyed by the lighting used in both scenes. The play

wouldn't have been as good if only the house lights were used.

The costumes in the play reflected the character and his or her

personality, for example Kate wore a wrecked and torn low quality

dress and Bianca wore a high quality gold gown. In plays such as `The

Prince and the Pauper' what people wear is very important in this play

an example of this is when Lucentio swaps cloths with his servant so

no one would know who he was.

I knew what sort of a role a person played. If it was either a rich

person or a poor person by what type of cloths they were wearing for

example if some one was wearing ripped cloths that were dark in colour

and dirty then you know that they are either poor or a servant like

Petruchios servant and if someone was wearing a shirt, hat, short

trousers, tights and clean shoes with maybe even a sword then straight

away you could tell that the person was wealthy and privileged like

Hortensio. The orchestra were even in costume and dressed in plain

grey robes.

I understood the play to a certain extent because I did an abbreviated

version of `Taming of the Shrew' with my drama class in school.

Compared to the one I saw in the theatre and the one I did at school

it was almost completely different. The school play would have been a

lot better if we had seen the play before the production, if we had

then maybe the class could have gotten a better understanding of the

characters and the main plot of the story, as I think the play we saw

could have done this.

Although the theatre production was a lot better, I thought that the

character development of Lucentio, Gremio, and Hortensio was a lot

more thought out in the one I did with the school and in the theatre

production they were a bit characterless and bland. The characters of

Kate and Petruchio were a lot better in the theatre they were exciting

and competent.

My favourite character in the play was Kate, I admire her because

it must have really hurt her throat screaming and yelling for most of

the play and also that Kate's character was the one that in my opinion

was more developed, the one that stood out from the other main

characters and the best acted. I also liked the way that her character

gradually changed through out the play and not many actors can carry

it out as well as she did. The change of Kates' character was obvious

during the play but the actors change wasn't. Generally I believed the

choice of cast was very well done

My favourite part of the play I thought was when Petruchio and

Kate met for the first time in the play and the actors showed really

well that it was love at first sight. It was my favourite part of the

play because it was filled with humour, Romance, attraction and

physical humour like when Kate is banging her foot against the door

shouting to her father to let her back in the house.

Although as a whole I thought the audience really enjoyed the

performance and I liked the way the director slipped in a few modern

jokes but in my opinion I believe that the director could have made

the play to suit different types of audience for teenagers and the

older type of audience. The director could have done this by maybe

shortening the play because I thought the pace of the play was

time-consuming and long-winded and some parts of the play were even

quite dull. He could have even either changed the language of the play

from Shakespearian to modern or changed the costume from old to modern

or even both to make the play more appealing to the younger audience.

Overall I enjoyed the performance thurally and it helped me to

understand drama to a higher extent.