Type – Shakespeare, Gender Swapped, Matriarchal
If you liked – 10 Things I Hate About You, Barbie (2023), 50 Shades of Grey
Taming of the Shrew: A shrewd reimaging blunts the controversy of one of Shakespeare’s most contested plays in a thrillingly paced production
So as we all should know by now, William Shakespeare’s texts are old – like over 400 years old. The dude’s been around for a while, so it’s fair to say that not all his texts still hold up under a contemporary light. Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew is arguably his toughest piece to stage today due its controversial depictions of physical abuse. Imagine the famous Heather Ledger starring movie adaptation 10 Things I Hate About You, but you replaced Ledger’s Patrick Verona with Jamie Dornan’s Christian Grey. The implied sexual violence and physical coercion targeted at the central ‘shrew’, Katherine, is just too volcanic a path to ignore walking down.
I’ve seen some try to successfully tackle Shrew with all-female takes and others with dramatic shades thrown over the top to lean into the subject matter, but the real question of ‘Why’ is never fully felt or realised. This latest attempt however from Playwrought Projects may just be the closest I’ve seen to getting it right – nearly.
Flipping the story of Shrew
As director, Tasha O’Brien, states when staging her Shrew, the only way this play can be staged is “by shaping it as a matriarchal society, one where physical strength and violence aren’t necessarily the attributes that drive people’s choice”. So instead of a gender flipped version of Shrew, O’Brien gives us a gender-rotation, changing how we perceive the way that notions of courtship, manipulation, and romantic conquest operate when the systems of society are reversed.
It all takes place in Padua. The Lady Baptista (Karen Vickery) won’t allow her youngest son, the stunningly long-haired Bianca (Will Manton), be married until his shrew of an older brother Katherine (Mitchell Bourke) does. The suitors Gremio (Erin Bruce) and Horetensio (Megan Bennetts) seek to find Katherine a match as they eye down Bianca’s hand in marriage. The bachelor Lucentio (Audrey Blyde) meanwhile disguises herself as a tutor to woo Bianca in secret, whilst her servant Tranio (Megan Kennedy Elizabeth) poses in her place. Meanwhile, Petruchio (Natasha Vickery) arrives to find a husband and falls to Gremio and Hortensio’s challenge of “taming” Katherine – a near impossible task she’s told.
There’s the usual hullabaloo you find in a Shakespearean comedy: main plots, sub-plots, a heap of disguises, plenty of dick jokes, and a trio of marriages at its end. The creatives of Playwrought have assembled a stupendous ensemble to bring all of this to rib-tickling existence in an extraordinarily tight 70-minute thrill ride that doesn’t let up. You leave feeling a bit exhausted at its end.
Exploring the dedication to production elements
Credit has to go to Jess Zlotnick’s work as a dramaturg on Shrew for it all to make sense. The first ten to fifteen minutes of the piece require your undivided attention as the characters and premise are consolidated, but once that’s done it flies at a cracking pace. Together, Zlotnick and O’Brien have seemingly made sense of Shakespeare’s controversial piece as a means to answer that big overhanging ‘Why?’.
Petruchio’s semi-torture of Katherine is still brutal but without the physicality of it being on stage, seems to take away the bluntness of its edge. But it’s Kate’s final monologue that hits the mark as Petruchio plays one final challenge with the other three couples to see which of their husbands is the most loyal. Somehow in a matriarchal context Kate’s speech holds a call to arms to us as men to empower women and to hold them up in society – to find that true equal footing that will tear down the patriarchy and find some semblance of common ground in which both systems of power can exist as one. If only it didn’t include abuse to get to that point.
Nate Cook and Bourke’s set is static with pink-hued painted walls and four double doors that act as the passing of time and place – was this a nod to the Barbie of it all? Probably. The rich and refined costuming by Helen Wojtas and Bourke is superb and the theatrical highlight of the piece. The bodices are laced, the ruffs are ruffled, the hair is bejewelled, the leather is chapped, and the bums are well and truly padded – it’s gorgeously done.
The performances that tame the shrew
Vickery gives her Petruchio the suitable airs of isolation. She’s the type where no one could possibly understand her and so takes revelry in playing with those less powerful than herself. There was perhaps too much over enunciation happening however that the dialogue felt more stunted than those around her.
Bourke’s Katherine is, indeed, a shrew at the play’s opening; overtly childish, rambunctious and altogether dour. The submission he gives to Katherine helps the piece rest on its ending, with the final speech receiving a warm round of applause from its audience.
There are perhaps too many performances to all name individually, but each plays their role with the duty and integrity of a true ensemble. From Bennett’s hilarious Shakespearean version of ‘Wonderwall’, to Kennedy spot on clownlike comic timing as the servant Tranio, there’s plenty of standouts along the way to give the piece a constantly moving momentum.
Is Taming of the Shrew Worth Seeing in Sydney?
There’s an active consideration at play here when it comes to staging this controversial piece, and that is perhaps Taming of the Shrew’s winning ingredient. It asks us to look once again at the big ‘Why’ in Shakespeare’s work and provides us with a new way to look at his language in a reimagined contemporary context. It’s not without the icky physicality that makes it a contentious piece, but with clear dramaturgy, some sharp editing and investment from its creatives, there’s a deeper discussion at play here that gives this Shrew its worth.
Tickets and Practical Info for Taming of the Shrew in Sydney 🎟️
Venue: STC Wharf 2 Theatre
Season: 26 Sep – 15 Oct 2025
Tickets: https://www.sydneytheatre.com.au/whats-on/productions/2025/the-taming-of-the-shrew
By William Shakespeare
Presented by The Playwrought Project
Approx. duration 70 minutes (no interval). Subject to change.
Content Infrequent strong language, sexual content, partial nudity, stylised violence including weapons and implied sexual violence, theatrical blackouts and loud noises. Subject to change.
Age Guide Recommended for age 14+
CREATIVES
Writer – William Shakespeare
Director – Tasha O’Brien
Adapted By – Mitchell Bourke
Dramaturg – Jess Zlotnick
Set – Nate Cook
Costumes – Helen Wotjas + Mitchell Bourke
Producer – Mitchell Bourke
Production Manager – Deanne Freebody
Stage Manager – Bianca Dreis
CAST
Tranio – Megan Elizabeth Kennedy
Baptista – Karen Vickery
Gremio – Erin Bruce
Katherine – Mitchell Bourke
Hortensio – Megan Bennetts
Bianca – Will Manton
Biondello – Mike Howlett
Petruchio – Natasha Vickery
Grumio – Sarah Greenwood
Vincentio – Sonya Kerr
