Australian TV Plays: The Taming of the Shrew (22 Aug 1962)

The annual ABC Shakespeare. Not part of a double header.

Premise

You all know it, right?

Cast

Ron Haddrick as Petruchio
Brigid Lenihan as Katherina
Malcolm Billings as Lucentio
Richard Meikle as Tranio
Jon Ewing as Biondello
Donald Philps as Baptista
Noel Brophy as Gremio
Don Pascoe as Hortensio
Judi Farr as Bianca
John Armstrong as Grumio
Moya O'Sullivan as widow
Charles Tasman as pedant
Moray Powell as Vincentio
James Elliott as Curtis
Andrew Bickford, John Burls, David Copping, Murray Foy, Peter Stewart, Jogita Billings, Murray Bergin, Cherrie Butlin, Dennis Carroll, Judith Champ, Carolyn Keely, Peter Morris, Scott Tyler

Original production

One of Shakespeare's best remembered plays. "Problematic" as the kids say. But also a lot of fun.

Other adaptations

The BBC did it on radio in 1925, 1927, 1932, 1941,

The BBC did it on television in 1939, 1952 and 1956.

It was adapted for ABC radio in September 1962. There were earlier radio versions in 1941, 1942, 1953 (by the touring Stratford Upon Avon company with Keith Michell in a lead role), and 1959 (again with Michell - the 1953 production?).

Katherine Hepburn starred in it when touring Australia in 1955.

Production

The play was done live at Gore Hill but it included some filmed sequences shot in Centennial Park.

Director Alan Burke did the adaptation. He called the play "brilliantly theatrical. It plays like an express train and takes everyone with it." (This was in the TV Times see below).

Burke said in adapting the play for television "I did a lot of work on the play - and fond that sub plots and prologue take up almost two thirds of the running time. We have trimmmed it back to about one third of the total length and the play now goes like a dream with the principals were strong and clear."

It was Alan Burke's 14th play (he had also done 8 operas and musicals) and second Shakespeare adaptation on TV (after Merchant of Venice). (The other plays: A Fourth for Bridge (1957), A Rose Without a Thorn (1958), His Excellency (1958), The Skin of Our Teeth (1959), Misery Me (1959), Wuthering Heights (1959), The Slaughter of St Teresa's Day (1960), Farewell, Farewell, Eugene (1960), Venus Observed (1960), The Emperor Jones (1960), A Little South of Heaven (1961), The Merchant of Venice (1961), A Night Out (1961).)

Geoffrey Wedlock did the sets. The costumes and decor were from the mid 17th century.

Technical supervision - John Garton. Production (and script I think) - Alan Burke.

It went for 90 minutes.

Burke later discussed the play in an interview with Graham Shirley for the NFSA. Graham raised the Stanlislavski technique. Burke said:

I would never interfere and say ‘don’t use it’ but I would say ‘the direction we’re going seems to me this’, you bring to bear whatever influences or qualities you like to get that marriage between what’s on the page and what you’re going to communicate. They can go away and do improvisations until they drop dead, I don’t work with improvisations. I’ve never been good at it. But if they find that the way through the maze, delighted, please go away and come back and give me the performance I’m looking for and I will not question how you got there. Some people do it absolutely spontaneously you know, they’ll just turn on something.

I did a Taming of the Shrew once on tele with Ron Haddrick as Petruchio and Bridget Lenihan as Katerina . Bridget is a lovely lady but rocky and a bit insecure and had trouble with the lines early on. Ronnie came to fruition like on the third day and gave an unbroken, beautiful set of reversals and then the performance. Bridget only really reached performance a couple of days before. Now each of them worked a totally different way and though I didn’t direct either of them to change that way because each gave me in the end the results that the performance needed and if he reached it through some spontaneous thing and if she reached it through torment and tearing yourself apart and I’m saying ‘what is that about’. Whatever it was, they each came up with the most beautiful performance. I don’t claim any credit for their performances...

Nothing very notable about it, it was cut to 90 minutes which I found a little bit brief but never mind. Interesting to compare the working styles of Ron and Brigid, I may even have spoken of this before. Ron being the consummate professional, marvellous man, learned his part early and rose to within 5 degrees of the pitch of the performance within a week of rehearsal. Brigid on the other hand battling, fighting herself and not sure about what she was doing, she was inclined to be like that and learning a bit rickety and came to fruition very late in the rehearsal. Certainly came to fruition and gave the most stunning performance but you waited for it and it came late. Ron started early and you knew for the last couple of weeks what you were going to get. They married beautifully on the performance which is of course all that really matters. Interesting. Had a nice cast.

We did a little OB sequence where he brings her to his home and we got the oldest horse in the business and she rode that and then eventually we got Ron to fling her into a pond in Centennial Park which was great fun. And then she appeared in the studio in the same dress, wet. And we got quite a gallery as you can imagine in Centennial Park so we put the railings up and the public grew and we were delighted. And we had one rehearsal of it because we did want her to know how deep the water was. I might add, this was mid winter. So she put on something that was not the costume and Ronny rehearsed it and flung her and she got into the lake, got very wet and came out. She then went away to get dressed, dried off so she could make the entrance and the dear gallery, God love them, one said ‘when is she going in again’ and so we said ‘just be patient, she’ll be going in again’ and that was that. That was alright.

Reception

The Bulletin praised the acting - Frank Roberts gave it a good-ish review. Not an Australian script of course.

The Sydney Morning Herald called it "a cheerfully handsome achievement." The critic said it was "pleasing" to find Lenihan "making her famous acknowledgement of male superiority without the ironic twitching of the lips".

TV Times thought it had "some splendid moments".