"This all-male Zimbabwean cast of six gave an impressive performance with minimal set and striking costumes. The 'ladies' were slender, like shaven, Afro-centric Barbie dolls wearing glamorous Vivienne Westwood style costumes, with the male characters in variations of African dress. Several roles were played by the highly versatile actors using effective life-size puppets with clear diction, delivery and humour in a superb abbreviated version of Shakespeare's battle of the sexes. With the same confidence that Petruccio laid his bet that his Shrew would come, I'd wager that this Shrew could be one of the most original you may see."
2). The Scotsman: James Mullighan, 24/08/02 * * * *
"Two out of two: company Over The Edge from Zimbabwe have already earned four Scotsman stars for Born African, a powerful allegory of contemporary Zimbabwean life. On alternate dates they do Shakespeare and with little fuss, this all male, racially diverse amd hugely talented company find great depths of comedy and pathos in The Taming of The Shrew.
It's cross-dressed, yes, but this Shrew is neither camp nor cheap. Think rather a flexible blend of fun and message making, riotously African when appropriate, somber receved pronunciation when not.
The heavy cuts give the actors space to breath and set up the big comic moments. The cuts leave only two women: the desired Bianca, and the 'curst' shrewish Kate. The girls' costumes are but two examples of the production's design innovations: think Kate in Grace Jones's hand-me-downs, Bianca in a kimono of which Vivienne Westwood would be proud. This Shrew has four patriach roles, which the company gives to ingenious masks and robes on sticks. These "puppets" are shared around the actors, often hilariously requiring actors to act with himself.
Quite totemically African, the masks start the allegory ball rolling: are these heads of houses parodies of contemporary Zimbabwean officialdom, all pompous, money-grubbing corruptability? Perhaps the put upon Kate is generations of Africans - white, black or in between - who have learned to tug a forlock and say "yes,lord" without letting irony twinkle their eye.
You could get carried away with this, and Over The Edge don't. Rather they are just using one of Shakespeares more politically uncomfortable comedies to entertain. Secondarily, perhaps, in the crystal sharp focus on Kate's pain and ultimate dignity, they show us a way to live in trying times. All of us, not just Zimbabweans."
