The Royal Shakespeare Company’s season at the Barbican continues with this gender-swapped version of Shakespeare sexist comedy. One critic called it “deftly provocative and exuberantly entertaining”, although a few of the critics who saw it up in Stratford were more a bit more lukewarm in their praise.
In this radical take on Shakespeare’s fierce and energetic comedy of gender, Baptista Minola is seeking to marry off her two sons, the sweet-tempered Bianco and the rebellious Katherine. Cue an explosive courtship and a keenly witty portrayal of hierarchy and control. Taking inspiration from the novel The Power by Naomi Alderman, Justin Audibert directs a revelatory The Taming of the Shrew, set in a matriarchal world, with sumptuous Elizabethan costumes.