★★★★☆This is the second shrew in the space of a month, and once again she’s a he. Justin Audibert’s gender-flipped RSC production of Shakespeare’s troubling comedy, like the writer Jo Clifford’s recent radical reworking at the Sherman, Cardiff, relocates the play in a matriarchy. Yet while Clifford takes gloriously defiant liberties with the text, the potent subversiveness of Audibert’s production is rather more subtle. There’s a joy, here, in the swagger of the language and curlicues of the plotting that is sweetened by the role reversals. Getting their hands on the best and biggest parts for once, the female performers savour every syllable, staking their claim to their stage space with a verve…

Source: The Times March 21, 2019 17:03 UTC