When the Globe tackles one of Shakespeare’s problematic plays it chucks tons of conceptual stuff at it and sees what sticks. In this offensive comedy set in Renaissance Padua, where Petruchio marries Katharina for her fortune against her will then ruthlessly breaks her spirit, we’re first confronted with a vast, sprawling albino teddy, with a gaping torso aperture – half-vagina, half-caesarian - through which the players enter. By the end, the bear is the least of our worries.
Jude Christian’s production has an interesting idea at its heart. But it’s obscured by cartoonish costumes, absurd design conceits, fatuously jolly anachronisms and random musical interludes that drown out the actors. As Katharina, Thalissa Teixeira maintains some dignity, but it’s hard-won.
