Showcase Theater Festival, 2006

Review by Katie

 

Last weekend I made the long trek to Courtenay on Vancouver Island to catch the Showcase Theatre festival, featuring Teryl Rothery as Lois/Bianca in Kiss Me, Kate, and as Kate (Katerina) herself in Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew. The productions shared cast and sets on the newly-renovated Sid Williams' Theatre stage, and showed on consecutive nights throughout the festival.

 

The Taming of the Shrew

Shrew was my first sample of the festival, viewed during the evening performance on August 12th. The small theatre was filled almost to capacity, and we were all in for quite a treat.

Rothery's fans from Stargate may recall that her entrance to a given scene was often preceded by the telltale thunk of Janet Fraiser's high heels. As Katerina, her entrance was preceded by a yowling screech, whereupon she whirled onto the stage to overturn half the set, curse the other characters, and even kick an old man's cane from his grip.

With voluminous red hair flying about her, the shrew had arrived.

As the story goes, Katerina's younger sister Bianca (Alex Wharram) is courted by a number of suitors who are thwarted by her father's decree that Bianca may not marry until Katerina is successfully wooed and wed. Enter Petruchio (Peter Hall), who has come to "wive it wealthily in Padua," and is easily encouraged by Bianca's suitors to pursue Katerina and her sizable dowry.

His wooing tactics immediately throw Kate off her guard, as he subtly breaks down her resistance with a twisted sort of flattery and kindness. Rothery's Kate, while taken aback, exhibits an unexpected attraction to this newcomer as he swaggers across the stage.

In another treat for long-time fans, regular convention goers might recognize a bit of the "wounded lamb" that Rothery adds to a pouting, hungry, mud-spattered Kate upon arrival to her new husband's home. In fact, her petulant portrayal is so charming, it's easy to ignore the rest of the scene... though perhaps this reviewer is a bit biased. ;)

As is typical in Shakespearean comedies, the servants provide comic relief and tend to steal their scenes. Neil Minor's heavily- padded Grumio withstands his master's abundant abuse in profoundly athletic displays as he leaps and crashes about the stage. Biondello (Johanna T. Khalema) offers exposition flavored with the audience's own confusion as the comedy of disguise and secret identities unfolds.

The rest of the cast plows through the complicated dialogue with considerable aplomb; excepting a very few stutters, the lines were crisp, clear, and quite amusing.

In the end, Kate is successfully won, and in her final, stirring speech, she berates her fellow wives for lack of obedience to their husbands. But this is not a Kate of submission or broken will; as she leaps into her husband's arms with a triumphant whoop, it is apparent that while the shrew has met her match, her husband is in for quite a ride.

 

Kiss Me, Kate

The next evening, I saw Cole Porter's Kiss Me, Kate.

And now you'll have to forgive me, for I am about to speak ill of the dead.

Janet Fraiser is no longer my favorite Teryl Rothery character.

Blasphemy? Perhaps. But only if you haven't seen her as Lois Lane.

The musical follows a cast performing The Taming of the Shrew, while peeking backstage to a complicated intrigue of love, vice, and mobsters. Rothery plays Lois who plays Bianca in this version of Shakespeare's play, and we learn early on that her character earned the role due to her considerable feminine wiles, and not for any actual competence in acting. The contrast between Lois, an inept Bianca, and Kate from the previous play is stunning; Rothery's portrayals are impressive for their apparent effortlessness.

While fans delving into Rothery's performance history may have noticed the occasional musical (or even appearances dancing alongside Tom Jones), her work in numbers like "Tom, Dick, or Harry," or "Too Darn Hot" is, to put it bluntly, mind-blowingly awesome. (Okay, so I might still be a bit biased.) The rest of the cast gamely steps up to her example, resulting in dance scenes of impressive scope and choreography.

In Kate, she plays opposite Neil Minor as Bill/Lucentio, and they share wonderful exchanges in "Why Can't You Behave," and "Always True to You (In My Fashion.)" Also of particular note is this play's version of Petruchio, as portrayed within the play by Fred (John Payne). Payne's extensive voice training is readily apparent in his smooth and eloquent singing.

Once again, minor characters steal the show, as Marty Douglas and Brian Down rouse the house with "Brush Up Your Shakespeare" and their multiple scripted encores.

By this performance, the cast was aware that fans had literally traveled thousands of miles to see the show, and it seemed as a result that they'd chosen to leave every ounce of their energy out on the stage. It was their fifth show in three days, featuring two wildly different scripts and for most of the actors, two or three different parts, but their effort utterly belied their exhaustion.

 

All in all, the festival was enormously entertaining, and the cast was profoundly gracious, even as tired as they all were by Sunday night. The theatre itself is quite intimate, and the set changes were coordinated and seamless -- especially in Kate, where the bits of walls shifting about the stage are fairly complicated. The costumes were lush and fun, particularly Katerina's wedding outfit, in plush crimson.

I had little idea what to expect of my whirlwind tour in British Columbia this time around, but my hopes for the production were vastly exceeded. If you haven't had the opportunity to see Teryl Rothery perform live, I hope you'll keep informed of her upcoming appearances so that you may experience the mind- blowing awesomeness for yourself.