The seventh day. The main stage.
“Private score” as “Taming of the Shrew” by Wybrzeze Theatre from Gdansk.
By Katarzyna Wysocka, transl.: Bożena Prątnicka-Olszewska

Polish version:XIII Festiwal Szekspirowski, Dzień 7: Konta osobiste, czyli „Poskromienie złośnicy” Teatru Wybrzeże

“Taming of the Shrew” by Shakespeare seems to be the text theatrical and film authors come back to quite willingly. What is attractive, that is a simple plot of the comedy based on the gender conflict as well as connecting families and their properties. A father of two daughters, Baptist, wants to arrange well their marriages. He decides that the first one from the two, Catherine and Bianka, will be the older one. Finally they get married and the sisters get fully transformed; the shrew’s tough character is broken, the kind one becomes a fussy wife.

Non-complicated story not always goes with the clear stage adaptation. The director, Szymon Kaczmarek divided the unity of the plan, that is why the actors played simultaneously on the side stage (Bianka’s room) and the main one (the house of Baptist from Padua). Due to constant Petruchio’s presence on the stage one could observe how fearful, helpless and weird he is. The squire, Vincentio, as well as Okpisz, were sitting among the audience for most of the performance. The costumes of the actors ranged from the style of the forties of the last century till the present time. The tape-recorder were the works of Lenin and Tranio’s throat like sounds made the rhythm. In fact these couple of ideas could have made a splendid performance. It turned out not to be the one.

Ucho Gdynia Gazeta Świętojańska

Report from “Taming of the Shrew”-part 1; dir. by Szymon Kaczmarek. . Jeśli masz kłopoty z „odpaleniem” filmu, wejdź tutaj

Szymon Kaczmarek about the play: Shakespeare is always the mystery and the clash with not the text, but rather the theatre behind it. “Taming of the Shrew” is a story about the theatre. In my play I would like to concentrate on the role of a father, a father who in our times is missing, absent in the family and the culture, stops being the archetype. God was given the name of a father, not the opposite. I have an impression that our life is a story for someone, to prove something, we play our role in front of somebody, who is often our father or parents. This story should be named, expressed and written to stop directing our artificial life that, whether we want it or not, becomes the theatre for one “spectator” – a father.

In the play of the Gdansk theatre, a father (Miroslaw Krawczyk) did not appear to be any significant character. Kind, good-natured, he did not understand the way his daughters were contolling him. Catherine did not listen to him acting in the way she wanted, Bianka pretending obedience was able to get anything she liked. Baptist was overwhelmed by Petruchio’s (Piotr Domalewski) height and boorishness, unable to have anything to say. He was obliging for the two promising wooers but expressed his self-interest for Tranio vel Lucencio. So what kind of father Catherine and Bianka had? While in the room the younger daughter first was having some fun with Lucencio vel Tranio, then was attacked by Hortensjo, her father was falling asleep in his armchair. The character, who in the director’s viewpoint was supposed to draw the audience’s attention and become some prism, disappeared on the stage and did not contribute to the play. Flat, manneristic, insipid role of Krawczyk. Light approach to the performance was also shown by Wanda Skorny as Bianka. Blank, becomes illegible.

Il.: Izabela Olszewska

The most significant effort was made by Piotr Domalewski. His Petruchio is intimidated, after his father’s death leaves for the world and tackles his own personality. Not masculine enough, awkward and unsociable is slowly releasing his fears encountering Catherine (even playing the piano-a piece of Jacek Kaczmarski and Przemysław Gintrowski’s song from the album “In Heaven”). Its ultimate expression is tearing the clothes off to oppose the routine. He has a plan how to tame a girl and he finally succeeds. Interesting role, even intriguing, raises sympathy.

What about Catherine? Dorota Androsz showed a girl who has little to say on the stage in a schoolish way. Limited to wearing a black woolen dress-bathrobe, where the colour can express the negation, did not fully present her character. To the director the title shrew is yielding his spouse radically. I do not understand the reason of so extreme approach. It breathes masculine chauvinism and contemporarily does not find understanding. It lacks consequence.

Foto:Bartosz T.Zalewski, www.festiwalszekspirowski.pl

Krystian Wieczorek as Lucencio vel Tranio was enyoing himself (not always taking into consideration the audience). He was treating studying and girls in a modern way. To him, life meant just pleasures, so with youthful insolence he approached to win Bianka. In a witty, a little eccentric and lustful way Wieczorek showed what “tricks” work in the case of girls and then how easily you can win them. In yellow socks and underwear, with a chewing gum in his mouth he seemed to celebrate his triumph.

In a number of moments the play did not keep the pace, then the considerable part of the stage did not explain the conception of a character. It seemed that the actors were looking at one another as if they were not fully convinced what was going to happen next. I had an impression that each actor was playing his role, not deeply considering the whole composition of the play. Team-work was limited to being in a certain place during the group scenes. Many times the actors did not speak clearly. Lacking was also the translation into English. Is Gdansk hospitality outdated? The play was dull, made me falling asleep.

Wybrzeze Theatre, The Taming of the Shrew, translation: Stanislaw Baranczak, directed by Szymon Kaczmarek, sets by Kaja Migdalek, costumes by Kaja Migdalek, the cast: Dorota Androsz, Piotr Domalewski, Michal Kowalski, Miroslaw Krawczyk, Jacek Labijak, Zbigniew Olszewski, Cezary Rybinski, Wanda Skorny, Florian Staniewski, Dariusz Szymaniak, Krystian Wieczorek. Premiere: 27th November, 2008, Malarnia stage; 7th August 2009, running time: 100 minutes, no break.