Reviews

This almost anti-feminist play is one of the Australian plays listed on the HSC Drama Syllabus, so it can be expected that it will attract some local year 12 students – as it did on opening night. The five about-seventeen-year-olds in front of us were the most enthusiastic of a very appreciative audience. The production obviously met their expectations of the play and the characters – and I’m sure director Jess Davis was thrilled by their immediate responses and their post-play comments.

The longevity of this play (first performed in 1999) is more than likely due to the situation it dramatises.  It depicts a kind of middle-class suburban nightmare: a homeless person, irrational, shit-smeared and endlessly importunate – plus bulky vehicle – camped in a nice, well-meaning person’s front garden and that person – that is, us – is somehow powerless to do anything about it. 

10 Things I Hate About Taming of the Shrew is an hilarious examination of Shakespeare’s play, by a ridiculously qualified, angry Canadian feminist, whom you will absolutely adore. Essentially an hour of brilliant stand-up, this is an argument that it would be almost impossible to refute.

Step, by very funny step, LAMDA graduate Gillian English explains to us why this play should burn, as she shows us all of the things there are to hate about this play, including its misogyny, bad parenting and the stupidity of teen love.

There was a tempest of biblical proportions on the evening of the opening night. We drove past countless broken tree branches, flooded roads and downed electrical wiring to arrive at a soggy Riverside Theatre.

And so - when it rained on stage – the thought crossed my mind that it might not be a theatrical effect, but the real heavens opening. If only the storm outside was as gentle and refreshing.