David Davies as Petruchio for The GB Theatre Company 2012 - directed by Jenny Stephens

When I was a lad I used to like watching the odd Shakespeare. It's true. I liked the moments when the characters would get carried away with the language and really 'declare' themselves. I saw that as a sign of real strength. I had four favourite Shakespeare films: Laurence Olivier's Henry V, Roman Polanski's Macbeth, Kenneth Branagh's Henry V and Zefferelli's The Taming of the Shrew with Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor. As I got older I liked more and more productions but I had to wait until my palate had matured before I could add Olivier's Hamlet or The BBC Hamlet with a superb performance by Derek Jacobi in a production that isn't in the filmic standard of all the other productions mentioned. Sometimes I liked a performance but not the film. I felt that way about Olivier's Richard III. I thought he was amazing but for some reason I never took to the film.

My first favourite was The Taming of the Shrew. Richard Burton's voice crackled  and cut through the screen and Elizabeth Taylor was wild, sexy and exciting. They were amazing together and through their intense energy they brought the language to life. It is still a great production. Sumptuous - great sets, costumes, music, cast. I decided then that it was a great 'fun' play. Of course I was younger then and didn't give much thought to the intense socio-political ramifications of the subjection of Kate. I remember looking in a book of production shots and seeing a Kate with shorn hair and an black eye standing at the back of the stage and being shocked.

I forgot about the play when I was at drama school, (NIDA) and concentrated more on roles that could really stretch the actor through the great speeches: Hamlet, Henry V, Richard II, Richard III. It was only when I was looking for audition material and considered doing the 'wooing' scene with the lovely Brisbane actress Kelly Butler that I pulled the old Shrew chestnut out of the cupboard. I wanted to offer swagger but our Institute Director John Clark had a look at our work and wanted to push us more into the Australian Farmer vs the Uptight City Girl interpretation. It didn't really work for me although Kelly was marvellous, (as usual). In the end I opted for a bit of Hamlet, 'O What a Rogue and Peasant Slave am I?' and was thrilled when word came back that not only had John Bell been in the audience but that he had enjoyed my speech and the fact that I represented the only Shakespearean piece in our 'Showcase'.

Fast forward to my tenure as Actor/Company Manager for GB Theatre. I started mentioning the play in discussion as early as 2010 after our hit first season of As You Like It and The Merry Wives of Windsor. In fact, fearing that the financials might bite I suggested that we scrap the two-play plan for 2011 and proceed with Shrew as a single venture. I later changed this to Romeo and Juliet when I was told that we had already promised several venues this play. However, when we were programming for 2012 I managed to push it forward and as Jill Roca remembered the Burton/Taylor film as being hugely entertaining and of course that resonates with a producer.

This is where I met the sting of this play. Everyone loves it. But really, no-one knows it. We all know the wooing scene and that Petruchio is a 'bit of a character' and that Kate is a 'hell-cat' and that 's really about it. I certainly didn't know the play very well when I was telling everyone how great it is. I knew the wooing scene. Which is one of Shakespeare's great male-female scenes. Rowdy, exciting, bawdy, romantic, funny and dangerous. Every night, by the time I'd finished that scene I'd won the audience over. My acting? Hardly. The writing!

So I had to start the process of truly discovering the play and by now I don't want to watch the Zefferelli film because I fear it will have too much of an influence on me. So I read and read it. And we come to rehearse. But it's not coming easily. Until I find the speech that unlocks the character for me: 'Why came I hither but to that intent/Think you a little din can daunt mine ears/Have I not in my time heard lions roar?/Have I not heard the seas puffed up with winds rage like an angry boar new chafed with sweat' etc. And I realised that he is a battler, a fighter, ones of life's warriors. A battler? A bruiser? A chancer?  A fighter? Opportunist?

I fell in love with Petruchio and was glad to have him on tour with me. The language suited me and his general demeanour sat with me. But I had to work at it. I remember the opening in Exeter was the first time I got through it comfortably. After two performances we left for Norway where he truly settled into me and I started to enjoy the timing and comedy. I enjoyed the image of myself as this man. The highlight - always - performing that speech followed by the wooing scene a few minutes later.

My profile picture for this blog and for my facebook  and hotmail is still the publicity shot that Becca Marianne organised around Kings Cross back in the days when I was convinced that all that was required was a bit of swagger! Can't wait to do it again!!
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