The Taming of the Shrew (1980)

Baptista will not allow his saccharine younger daughter Bianca to marry until someone can rid him of his obstreperous older daughter Katherine. The swaggering Petruchio (John Cleese), eager to wive it wealthily in Padua, agrees to do just this. He proceeds to break her. First, he cools her scalding wit by putting his tongue in her tale; nearly jilts her on her wedding night and then shows up at the church in antic garb; forbids her food, sleep and the beautiful clothes he himself had tailored for her, all on the pretense of providing for her; and lastly, commands that she call the sun the moon, the moon the sun, an elderly gentlemen a fresh virgin and then refute her own assertions, all according to his whim.That's the main plot, and simple enough. The other plot is a headache. Bianca has three suitors: the gray-bearded Gremio, the youngish Hortensio and the young and handsome Lucentio. Don't ask why, but Lucentio disguises himself as a tutor named Cambio. Hortensio disguises himself as a tutor named Litio. Tranio, Lucentio's servant, disguises himself as Lucentio, at Lucentio's request. A traveling pedant disguises himself as Vincentio, Lucentio's father, also at Luciento's request. Later, the real Vincentio shows up. This proves to be more enjoyable in performance than on the page, but it's still confusing.This production is a typical one of the BBC series, "The Complete Dramatic Works of William Shakespeare." Great actors. Poor production values. Bad staging for the cameras. (Note how often we feel we should be seeing one actor's reaction to something when he's off camera or turned away. Note how an entrance of Kate, muddy and disheveled, is botched: the camera takes little note of it until it's too late to make an impression.) Did I mention great actors? They make all the difference in most of these productions. Derek Jacobi is a splendid Richard II. Bob Hoskins is my favorite Iago. George Costigan is a fascinating Bastard Faulconbridge.So what about John Cleese as Petruchio? Cleese, one of the great comic actors, fails at this role. He seems to nibble around the edge of the part, rather than directly attack it. His Petruchio has no real confidence underlying his swagger. He's neurotic; and his antic disposition seems less put-upon than real. In an early scene where he matches wits with Kate, he plays it like a schoolboy, acting cocky and making weird noises to cover up how nervous he is.The rest of the cast is fine. Sarah Badel plays Kate in an exaggerated manner without making her seem like a cartoon. She handles the last scene especially well, making it clear she's been tamed, not broken. I liked how John Franklyn-Robbins has his Baptista explode into exultant laughter at odd times. Jonathan Cecil is an amusingly prissy Hortensio. The reliable Anthony Pedley plays Tranio. Simon Chandler is acceptable as Lucentio, despite his unintelligible recitation in the opening scene. I also liked that blubbering elderly servant, whoever he is.I'd rather watch this again than the well-produced, well-acted but exhaustingly frantic and slapsticky version with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. But this is still not all that good.

If you want a slapstick, obvious "Shrew," don't waste time, go directly to Zeffirelli's overstuffed, overdecorated jamboree of shtick. OTOH, this production is actually about people, who they are and why they act that way. The cast here may be less star-studded than the other version, but is uniformly funny and very much worth watching.Director Jonathan Miller brings his background as a neurologist into play here to make sure that the characters are not mere eccentric puppets, but are psychologically well-grounded. Sarah Badel gets the palm as Katherina. She doesn't just play the anger and violence of sibling rivalry, she also shows the pain and bewilderment of living in a world where everybody loves her sister more. John Cleese starts off uncertainly, underplaying the verse and slow to abandon Basil Fawlty's tics as he establishes the character of Petruchio, but later he grows in the part and is quite warm and human by the end. In fact, the whole play closes with much greater love and humanity than usual.The rest of the cast is never bad, and occasionally quite brilliant. Anthony Pedley's Tranio is beautifully done, as is John Franklyn Robbins' Baptista, and Frank Thornton's Gremio leaves "Are You Being Served?" completely behind. Jonathan Cecil knows that he has a funny face and tries a little hard, but his Hortensio never breaks context with the rest of the play. Sharp-eyed viewers will recognize Angus Lennie (Mole in "The Great Escape"), Joan Hickson (Miss Marple) and John Bird ("Barnaby Spoot and the Exploding Whoopee Cushion").The beautiful but spare decor is BBC Old Masters. There are some bewildering moments when a Vermeer room is invaded by riotous brawling, but that's probably a good thing. Occasionally a gag misfires, for as Groucho says, "All the jokes can't be good." But the overall impression is very positive. Altogether recommendable.

Unlike Taylor, Burton, and Zefferelli, who run roughshod over Shakespere's script and chew the scenery like buffoons; Jonathon Miller's intelligent direction and John Cleese's droll performance illuminate the true depth of the play. Cleese is ever mindful of the brilliance of Katherine's intellect and seduces rather than browbeats her to be his love. While at the same time being seduced by her mind and deeply loving heart. Not a farce as it is most often produced, but a true battle of wits, where both combatants win.

The first review of this production is right on. It's hard to believe that a cast member from "Beyond the Fringe" (Miller) and one of the great Python men (Cleese) could put together such a slow, unrewarding, uninteresting performance.