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Center Stage with Pat Launer on KSDS JAZZ88

THEATER REVIEWS

“The Taming of the Shrew” and “The Madness of George III”

The Old Globe’s Summer Shakespeare Festival

AIRDATE: JULY 16, 2010

A thematic thread runs through the three plays in the Summer Shakespeare Festival at the Old Globe: emotions run amok – in two mad monarchs and one shrieking hellcat. In each case, self-awareness brings self-control.

The anchor of the season is “King Lear,” Shakespeare’s masterpiece of misguided parental myopia. Festival artistic director Adrian Noble has brilliantly sandwiched the tragedy between a drama and a comedy, imaginatively underscoring echoes of “Lear” in each.

In Allan Bennett’s 1991 play, “The Madness of George III,” there’s a wonderful moment when the 18^th century English ruler, half out of his wits, reads scenes from “King Lear” with his doctor, played by Robert Foxworth, the same actor who’s Lear on alternate nights at the Globe. A reflexive, self-referential stroke of genius.

The Festival gets its special effects money’s worth this summer: all three shows feature a wildly swirling, thunder-and-lightning snowstorm.

There are many reasons for you to see all three productions, each a marvel in its own right. For one thing, it’s exhilarating to watch the same actors flex their dramatic muscles in vastly different roles. And each is a play of enormous substance and relevance.

This forceful “Lear” is an object lesson in governance, parenting and being blinded by flattery and fawning. Both historical and metaphorical, “George III” presents a fictionalized version of one decade in the life of the British King who lost the colonies (that would be us!) -- and the two-party, split-family, back-room political power-wrangling that served as backdrop to his bouts of lunacy. The smart, sharp-witted play also serves as a figurative commentary on a sick body politic and a defective health care system.

Miles Anderson is spectacular as the sporadically debilitated, deranged monarch. Under Noble’s direction, the ensemble is outstanding, though there’s a bit too much ceremonial posing and door-closing.

There’s a tad of excess in “The Taming of the Shrew,” too. Director Ron Daniels overuses the dancing boys and shoots for over-the-top, wink-nudge, audience-interaction comedy throughout. But he gets the central relationship thrillingly right. It’s not about the total subjugation of a woman; it’s a coming together of intellectual equals. This Kate realizes early on that she’s met her match in Petruchio. She seems to see the payoff in going along on his bizarre journey of control, a battle of the wills and wits that, in this rendering, will surely culminate in marital harmony. Clearly, there’s a strong physical/mental/emotional attraction between the couple, superbly portrayed by Jonno Roberts and Emily Swallow. This is a partnership forged in passion and playfulness, a partnership of peers – dressed, by the way, in the most stunning of costumes.

So, what are you waiting for? A terrific trio of productions is there for the taking. Hie thee forthwith to the Festival Stage in Balboa Park.

“The Taming of the Shrew” and “The Madness of George III” run in repertory with “King Lear,” through late September, on the Old Globe’s outdoor Festival Stage in Balboa Park.