Hugo Weaving, Taming of the Shrew, face
 

n.  Hugo Weaving ~ The Taming of the Shrew

A Melbourne Theatre Company production
Petruchio~ swaggering, surly, charismatic outsider & tamer/husband
Cast: Pamela Rabe    Katherina, Hugo Weaving   Petruchio,  Peter Cummins   Baptista,    Alison Whyte    Bianca,  Paul English    Lucentio,    Jacek Koman   Tranio, Bob Hornery   Gremio,   Philip Holder   Hortensio,  Alex Menglet    Grumio,   John Murphy    Curtis
Dir:  Roger Hodgman      Set Design  Tony Tripp
Theatrical run: 22 June-27 July 1991, The Playhouse, Victorian Arts Centre

Hugo Weaving: The Taming of the Shrew Plot/Comments:
Simultaneously welcomed for its feisty battle-of-the-sexes comedy and loathed for its apparently blatant misogyny and crushing of an individual's spirit, Shrew has become a notorious 'problem play', which divides critics and audiences, with scholars of Shakespeare rushing to either defend or demean it.
Hugo Weaving, 1993

Lucentio wants to marry Bianca, a 'nice' girl, who is off limits until her ferocious sister Katherina ~ a far less in demand commodity ~ has been married off.      Luckily, Petruchio, a wild outsider whose "courtship is not gentle" is in the market for a rich wife and takes her, taming her of her unwomanly instincts and individual freedom, teaching her to love him as her husband and master. 
     They return to Katherina's family home, where Petruchio makes a bet that she is the most dutiful wife there: the play ends with Katherina making a speech encouraging women to be dutiful and obedient to their Lords and protectors, leading to Petruchio's command to "Kiss me, Kate". 

Classic Shrew Scene
The Taming of the Shrew Gallery
Next: Reckless Kelly
Back: Proof
Next Play: That Eye the Sky
Previous Play: Don's Party
Web Weaving
 
 
 

Typical Hugo Weaving Quotes:

  • "I come to wive it wealthily in Padua/if wealthily then happily in Padua"
  • Katherina: "Asses are made to bear, and so are you"     Petruchio: "Women are made to bear, and so are you"
  • To Katherina: "I swear I'll cuff you if you strike again"
  • "Will you, nill you, I will marry you"
  • "I am he born to tame you, Kate,/And bring you from a wild Kate to a Kate/Conformable as other household Kates"
  • "To me she's married, not unto my clothes/Could I repair what she will wear in me"
  • "I will be master of what is mine own./She is my goods, my chattels; she is my house,/My household-stuff, my field, my barn,/My horse, my ox, my ass, my anything"
  • "Look what I speak, or do, or think to do"
  • "Why, there's a wench! Come on and kiss me, Kate"

Comments

  • Pamela Rabe played opposite Weaving in his next MTC play, Much Ado About Nothing, and later worked with him in The Bite . Jacek Koman worked with him later on The Blind Giant is Dancing .  See The Usual Suspects for a huge list of regular Weaving co-workers.
  • Gale Edwards (director of T he White Devil and Arcadia) directed a much more ambitious, tragic Shrew for the RSC in 1996.


 

This is one of the most ambiguous Shakespeare plays ever written and no two productions seem to chose the same outlook on the characters or how they should deliver their lines. Is it misogynistic? Is it a criticism of master/servant relationships and class? Is Kate crushed or does Petruchio come to realise how his barbaric his behaviour is? Should that final speech be cut for a modern audience? Is the play merely a misjudged, lighthearted romp?
             Rarely performed these days, most modern productions choose to either tackle the play's  'problems' (the physical and mental taming, the play-within-a-play, the final tamed speech) head on, making it more the tragedy of a crushed spirit; or snipping out the more misogynistic aspects altogether to make it more about class than sexism.
Hugo Weaving, Taming of the Shrew, 50s stage prop
Roger Hodgman's production chose to take the comedy route, treating the play as a fun, flirtatious, love-hate romantic-comedy. The stage design echoed Shakespeare's Globe Theatre but dressed it with props (mostly sexist advertising material) and costuming from the 1950s (all whiter-than-white, Doris Day-on-acid Americana). This enabled a kitch, fun take on the sexism issue, while also bringing an element of cultural imperialism, with no hint of Australia bar the actors' voices (with the accent apparently being more apparent in Hugo Weaving's coarse outsider, Petruchio).
Hugo Weaving, Taming of the Shrew, programme

Hugo Weaving content: 

From notes on the play and the kitsch pop-art programme, Hugo Weaving's Petruchio was all Brando, biker gear and wild past; fitting in with his roguish, proud, woman-baiting antiheroes ( Much Ado About Nothing, The Old Man Who Read Love Stories, The White Devil, After the Deluge).

            It is often said that Petruchio is one of the hardest Shakespeare parts to cast correctly and pull off if he is to maintain any amount of audience sympathy. Perhaps it is for this reason that recent high profile British productions by the RSC and NT have used Australian actors for their macho scoundrel Petruchios. With a strange mix of surliness, cruelty, and terminally roguish charisma, it was a perfect opportunity for Hugo Weaving's ability to portray conflicting characteristics (e.g. cruelty and vulnerability). 
         This duality and strong love/hate battle of the sexes aspect is similar to his other MTC production, 1993's Much Ado About Nothing : both concerned stubborn men, strong female sparring partners and plenty of sparky dialogue (with Pamela Rabe his costar in both).