MONMOUTH – The Theater at Monmouth has kicked off its summer season with a Shakespearean favorite, “The Taming of the Shrew,” a script that could easily be called, “How Do You Solve a Problem Like Kate?”

The story is a timeless one of a man, Petruchio (Timothy Davis-Reed), trying to make conquest of the unapproachable, unladylike and potentially explosive Katherina (Sally Wood). In the hierarchy of her family, Katherina must be wed first, which would allow her sister, Bianca (Kristala Pouncy), to wed her suitor, Lucentio (Henry Bazemore), with the endorsement of her father, Baptista Minola (Frank Omar).

Petruchio sets out not only to wed Katherina, but to make an obedient lady out of her, no matter what it takes.

Theme’s a challenge

The show clearly presents a challenge to contemporary directors and modern-day audiences. It’s not easy to sell a story that glorifies the breaking of a woman’s spirit through physical and emotional abuse, even though she’s quite the contemptuous shrew. Director David Greenham has taken an interesting approach to the challenge by setting the story in the American frontier West, rather than the villages of Italy.

The result is a show that plays a bit more contemporary – and acceptable to modern tastes. It is much like the male/female showdown that plays in the musical “Annie Get Your Gun.”

And the show wouldn’t be Shakespeare without a series of oddball characters, bawdy comments and mistaken identities that pervade the entire experience.

There’s a lot to like in this production. First, it is all done in playful fun and that drives the action of Petruchio trying to make his conquest. Sometimes we root for him. Sometimes we root for the shrew. In the end, everyone wins.

Quite vile enough

Wood and Davis-Reed have just the right chemistry to make the plot believable. Davis-Reed has impeccable timing and a mastery of the Shakespearean verse while Wood, a Theater at Monmouth veteran, is appropriately vile in the nicest sense of the word. They seem to be enjoying their characters and that plays well to the audience.

Greenham gets the best of a supporting cast, with the wide-eyed lovers, Pouncy and Bazemore, who continually gaze into each other’s eyes, as well as some fine comic characters in Nick Gallegos as Hortensio, Michael Anthony as Grumio and Richard Price as Tranio. (It is also good to see local actor Frank Omar on the Monmouth stage.)

The set is among the simplest, with a basic platform to elevate certain scenes and plenty of wood-grained theater flats to suggest a watering hole in the Old West. There are some fun interludes with music that could be found only in a classic Saturday matinee Western flick.

Shakespeare lovers and newcomers to the Bard should enjoy this lighthearted spectacle that wonderfully brings the 400-year-old script to life at Cumston Hall in Monmouth.

“The Taming of the Shrew” runs in repertory in July and August. For ticket information, people may call 933-9999 or visit www.theateratmonmouth.org.

Dan Marois is an actor, writer, and producer and owner of Main Street Entertainment and Mystery for Hire. He can be reached at [email protected].