York Shakespeare Project are getting ready to stage Shakespeare’s controversial battle of the sexes The Taming of The Shrew – with a 70s twist!
It is the latest production in its 25 year mission to stage all of the Bard’s plays, and works of his contemporaries, in York.
York Shakespeare Project’s production of The Taming of the Shrew is being performed as part of the York International Shakespeare Festival at Theatre@41, Monkgate from Tuesday 23 to Saturday 27 April 2024.
This version of The Taming of the Shrew will be set in 1970. The sixties have shaken off the post World War 2 blues, and the world is opening up and promising peace, love and equality. The old order is dead – or is it?
York Shakespeare Project (YSP) are delighted to be welcoming back Maggie Smales as their director. This is the first time that Maggie Smales has directed for YSP since her acclaimed all female version of Henry V in 2015.
“This will actually be my third encounter with this play,” said Maggie. “I played in it as a youngster in Rotherham in South Yorkshire Theatre for Youth in the 60s, then as a Bretton Hall Drama student in 1970 and it was experiences of those days that gave me the inspiration for my ideas for this production.”
At the centre of the play are Kate and Petruchio, famously played in the 1967 film version by Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. For YSP, Kate is played by University of York student Chesca Downes, and opposite her as Petruchio is YSP regular Jim Paterson.
Tickets for The Taming of the Shrew start from £12 and are available via the Theatre@41 website.