A.J. Antoon’s Central Park production for the New York Shakespeare Festival outflanks the problem by setting the play in the American wild West of the late 1800s. Bardolators may barf, but this is a delightful idea. Like a John Ford movie gone loco, Shakespeare’s chaps wear chaps, twirl six-guns and belt redeye. The cast speaks in a Western twang, which gives the language a nice exotic spin and actually refreshes Shakespeare’s humor.
Morgan Freeman’s Petruchio is less a shrew tamer than a broncobuster, tossing a lasso over his headstrong, heel-kicking filly. Tracey Ullman’s Kate is an Elezabethan Annie Oakley, tormenting her sister Bianca (Helen Hunt) by tying her up and using her for target practice. The passel of sagebrush typeseven includes a Gabby Hayes clone (Mark Hammer) as the geriatric suitor, Gremio.
All this great fun, even if it rides roughshod over some of the play’s ironies. Freeman is such a powerhouse that at times he’s more menacing than farcical. Ullman is great at farce, but misses Kate’s disguised vulnerability. What they are is brilliant brawless in a “Shrew” that has a sweet brashness and stampeding energy.
