An utterly bewitching Katherine with a clear, matchless vocal delivery, turns the tables on both Shakespeare and her would-be wooer. This is not the first time Petruchio has himself looked like the Shrew in urgent need of taming but Rachael Stirling is such a sweet and reasonable Kate that it makes Oliver Chris an oafish lout, kicking and caterwauling when he might be better employed kissing and cuddling this gorgeous creature.
Nick Hutchison's mission statement for his staging is to discover what passions lie beneath the characters' facades. For this Kate the moving motive is her jealous rivalry with Bianca, their father's favourite. And when these two are alone together we see how the older sister earned her reputation as Kate the Cursed, noisily squabbling as she drags Siobhan Hewlett by her blonde ponytail down a flight of steps.
The production reinstates the Christopher Sly framing story as Chris makes his first entrance from the auditorium, throwing ice cream tubs at a protesting usherette. And it underscores the play-within-a-play effect, presenting it as a Wilton's music hall evening, backed by a newly-painted front cloth celebrating the theatre's Victorian heyday. Although the action is set on three levels, plus a rear balcony, the blocking is mostly static, the emphasis instead on costume, attitude and the spoken word.
Among an excellent cast, Adrian Schiller plays droll servant Grumio while the three oldsters are outstanding, led by Philip Voss as a doting Baptista and the white-bearded Ciaran McIntyre and Leon Tanner as, respectively, Lucentio's false and true father.
