On stage: Shakespeare’s sarcastic comment on love
The Herod Atticus Theater will welcome the post-Olympic period with Shakespeare: The Municipal Regional Theater of Kalamata, which celebrates its 20-year presence on Greece’s theatrical scene this year, will stage «The Taming of the Shrew» tonight and tomorrow. Shakespeare’s comedy traveled around the country before ending up in Athens, in what was «a difficult summer, where culture coexisted with sports,» as Yiannis Kakleas, the performance’s director and artistic director of the theater put it. Battle of the sexes The play, which cleverly describes the game of love and the endless battle of the sexes, is a sarcastic comment on relationships. Considered one of Shakespeare’s most commercial and popular works, its on-screen version, starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, was also highly successful. Many directors choose not to include the introduction, where a group of actors stage an improvised show in front of a drunk man, but Kakleas believes that this introduction is one of the play’s gifts. He thus placed it in today’s harsh reality and set the plot in Italian Padua of 1970. Talking about the play at a recent press conference, Kakleas said that Shakespeare turned the leading couple of Catarina and Petruchio into an «anti-Romeo» and an «anti-Juliet,» since they fight at the start and then yield to love. «This play combines all kinds of love, from love at first sight to romance and unorthodox love.» The set, a metal construction where actors are sometimes suspended, is one of the production’s highlights, along with the Italian songs of the era that are played. The leading parts are performed by Vana Pefani and Tassos Yiannopoulos and the cast also includes Stathis Voutos, Yiota Militsi, Costas Flokatoulas, Socrates Alafouzos, Costas Zacharakis, Vangelis Hadzinikolaou, Stelios Geranis and others. The translation is by Errikos Belies, the sets by Apostolos Vettas and the choreography by Constantinos Michos. The performance starts at 9 p.m.
