Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.What to do about The Taming of the Shrew? Even if Shakespeare\u2019s intent was, as some maintain, to expose the ugliness of misogyny, this 1590s comedy still lands heavily, with its depiction, however comic, of domestic abuse and coercive control.Two new openings in London take starkly different approaches. While the Globe offers a highly stylised staging of the original play, at the Barbican we find Bartlett Sher\u2019s sparkling and subtly tweaked production of another response: the giddy 1948 musical Kiss Me, Kate, led here by Adrian Dunbar (of the BBC\u2019s Line of Duty fame) and terrific Broadway star Stephanie J Block.Sam and Bella Spewack\u2019s Kiss Me, Kate takes metatheatre both capriciously and seriously. Inspired by the real-life story of squabbling husband and wife actors Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne, it\u2019s a show-within-a-show, set at the Baltimore try-outs for a chaotic, cheesy production of The Taming of the Shrew that reunites producer-director and leading actor Fred Graham (Dunbar) and his ex-wife Lilli Vanessi (Block), with explosive results. Powered by a fast-moving farcical plot and some of Cole Porter\u2019s most sumptuous numbers, including the sultry \u201cToo Darn Hot\u201d, the exquisite \u201cSo in Love\u201d and the delightfully silly \u201cBrush Up Your Shakespeare\u201d, it\u2019s well nigh irresistible.\u00a0It\u2019s also one of many classic Broadway musicals that are, in essence, love letters to theatre. But in this case, the love affair \u2014 like those of all the characters \u2014 is complex. At its heart sits the stubborn problem of Shakespeare\u2019s contentious drama. And even though the musical\u2019s intricate interweaving of backstage and onstage relationships complicates and sends up the original, it still does so through a 1940s lens, not least in its depiction of actress Lois Lane.\u00a0Sher, who is no stranger to tricky revivals, handles this not through wholesale change, but through small, telling shifts and a crisp, ironic take on storyline and characters. There\u2019s no attempt to transpose or update the setting, but the cast introduces a mischievous sense of conspiracy with the audience as we all roll with a comic plot that involves walkouts, mistaken identity and, most incongruously, two stagestruck gangsters parlaying their way into the show.\u00a0Machismo falls flat on its face at every turn. Dunbar\u2019s Fred struggles to maintain order backstage and, onstage as Petruchio, can\u2019t even get his whip to work; Bianca\u2019s suitors caper about in ridiculous Elizabethan costumes trilling \u201cDick\u201d as they do so; and Georgina Onuorah\u2019s wonderful, shrewdly intelligent Lois turns \u201cAlways True to You in My Fashion\u201d, with its troubling #MeToo-like lyrics, into a defiant statement about surviving in a sexist world.Most significantly, there\u2019s a tweak to the notorious ending of Shrew, in which Kate submits totally to Petruchio. Here what happens between the two leading actors is in direct contrast to that humiliation, with Dunbar\u2019s Fred stepping in to take Lilli\u2019s lines before she has to speak them.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0At the core of this production is Block, who finds a wealth of hurt, fury and love in Lilli. She burns up the stage with her raging solo \u201cI Hate Men\u201d, but is haunting in Porter\u2019s beautiful, melancholic lament of regret \u201cSo in Love\u201d. Opposite her, Dunbar has a decent singing voice rather than a great one, but he brings wry charisma and lovely comic timing to the part.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Charlie Stemp and Jack Butterworth dazzle as Bill Calhoun and Paul respectively, with Butterworth leading the ensemble in a smouldering rendition of \u201cToo Darn Hot\u201d. Hammed Animashaun and Nigel Lindsay bring down the house with their dry, sardonic delivery of \u201cBrush Up Your Shakespeare\u201d.\u00a0It all whizzes along, Michael Yeargan\u2019s evocative revolving set whisking us from backstage to front, so helping to maximise the confusion between on-and offstage emotions. Does it solve all the problems? No. But it\u2019s a shrewd, ironic take and a great deal of fun.\u2605\u2605\u2605\u2605\u2606To September 14, barbican.org.uk<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.What to do about The Taming of the Shrew? Even if Shakespeare\u2019s intent was, as some maintain, to expose the ugliness of misogyny, this 1590s comedy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-131598","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-culture"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131598","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131598"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131598\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":131599,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131598\/revisions\/131599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}