Kiss Me, Kate (КАТМК)
In the beginning, there was the word or, rather, the play. William Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew became the foundation for Cole Porter’s dazzling musical Kiss Me, Kate.
The story unfolds in Padua, in the square near Baptista’s house. His daughter Bianca is surrounded by suitors Hortensio, Gremio, and Lucentio. Among them appears Petruchio, a determined man with a clear goal: to marry well in Padua. Baptista’s elder daughter, Katherine, is strong-willed, sharp-tongued, and absolutely unwilling to wed. Bianca, on the contrary, dreams of love and marriage. How these stories resolve in Shakespeare’s original is well known yet Kiss Me, Kate offers something more than a retelling of the classic comedy.
At its heart lies another story both theatrical and deeply human about former spouses, the prima donna Lilli Vanessi and actor Fred Graham. Performing Shakespeare’s play within the play, they embody the roles of Katherine and Petruchio and the boundaries between their stage characters and their real selves begin to blur.
Just like her fiery heroine, Lilli, in a moment of jealousy, almost sabotages the performance and declares she’s leaving the theatre. But love for both Fred and the stage ultimately prevails, and she returns. In this tangled world of art and emotion, who tames whom? Is it Fred Graham, the onstage Petruchio, taming Lilli Vanessi or the other way around? Their battle of wills is fierce and tender at once, and it’s up to the audience to decide who is the true tamer and who the tamed.
Production features
The performance is conceived as «a theatre within a theatre». Not the grand Broadway stage, but a lively theatre in Baltimore, where Shakespeare’s famous comedy is being performed and behind the scenes, and sometimes right on stage, passions rise that are anything but Shakespearean.
Here, men and women of the modern world face their struggles, solve problems, and fight their own «battles» in love and life alike. The passions of centuries past intertwine with those of today, proving once again that some human questions are eternal and still resist simple answers.
Costumes of two centuries, manners of two eras collide on stage. Quick changes, witty monologues and duets, swift scene transformations all make this production vivid and dynamic. The director’s inventive vision brings a fresh sparkle to the classic, turning the performance into something truly original.
The musical features the theatre’s leading vocalists, along with its chorus and ballet company.
