Necessary Cat’s shrewish double bill
The Taming of the Shrew: ★★☆☆☆ Material-shy
The Tamer Tamed or The Woman’s Prize: ★★★★☆ A Treat
Braw Venues @ Hill Street (Venue 40): Mon 17 – Sun 30 Aug 2026
Review by Bri Boehm
This year’s double bill from Necessary Cat resurrects a 400-year-old conversation between two early modern comedies: Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew with The Tamer Tamed or the Woman’s Prize by Shakespeare’s contemporary and successor, John Fletcher.
Shakespeare’s infamous comedy, which follows Petruchio as he ‘tames’ the ‘shrewish’ woman Kate through marriage, while Kate’s sister, Bianca, is fought over by a number of suitors, is difficult to stage in modern times. And according to John Fletcher’s The Tamer Tamed or the Woman’s Prize, it was perhaps a difficult play to stage even in early modern England.
A scene from Necessary Cat’s The Taming of the Shrew. Pic: Angela Harkness Robertson.
John Fletcher was a contemporary of Shakespeare’s, and his successor as the playwright for the King’s Players. His comedy, set after the end of The Taming of the Shrew, features Petruchio, now marrying Maria, after Kate’s passing. Maria, sick of Petruchio’s horrendous behaviour, rallies the women into withholding sex from their husbands in an echo of Aristophanes’ Lysistrata.
Fletcher’s response to Shakespeare’s play would have been performed by the same troupe of players as The Taming of the Shrew, making these two works a perfect pairing for Necessary Cat to place in rep.
stark contrast
Angela Harkness Robertson’s direction pulls these two plays even tighter in conversation by placing the works in the context of the early 20th-century suffragette movement, highlighting the stark contrast of the power dynamics between the genders in each play.
The first staged, The Taming of the Shrew, is a solid amateur Shakespeare production. The range of experience on display provides a charming quaintness, as seasoned performers share the stage with fresher faces.
A scene from Necessary Cat’s The Taming of the Shrew. Pic: Angela Harkness Robertson
Alma Forsyth’s dramaturgy assures a production in which all the performers have a strong grasp on the Elizabethan language, an unfortunately uncommon feat. Although the words are performed trippingly on the tongue, however, the play’s themes stumble.
Innuendo and opportunities for physical comedy are left unutilised. It is hard to tell whether this is due to a shallow relationship to the text or whether the cast is unable to overcome the discomfort of the misogynistic narrative. Rosie Beech’s Kate is left feeling hesitant in her ferocity and many jokes between the B plot characters – Lucentio, Hortensio, and Tranio (Hal Hobson, Mark O’Connor, and James Scott), who take on disguises in order to help Lucentio marry Bianco – are notably underused.
epilogue
This Taming of the Shrew ends with an added epilogue by Dame Harriet Walter, confronting the audience regarding the thematic misogyny present in the play at hand. The monologue, from She Speaks! What Shakespeare’s Women Might Have Said (2024), offers an interesting framework, suggesting the audience’s enjoyment of the play is a form of complicity, though as the performance shies away from the comedy at Kate’s (and women’s) expense, especially in the physical comedy, the impact is lessened.
A scene from Necessary Cat’s The Tamer Tamed or the Woman’s Prize. Pic: Angela Harkness Robertson
Where the Shrew struggles, the Tamer Tamed shines. Fletcher’s script is full of humour and hilarity, a stark contrast to the uncomfortable punching down and un-utilised physical comedy of Shrew. The content clearly speaks to the cast’s talents, as each performer holds their comedic own.
The casting of this sequel highlights a sense of passing time rather than character parallels. Instead of playing Petruchio’s wife, Rosie Beech plays a brilliant scheming Livia. Rishi Bhardwaj, initially a slimy and impressively cringe-worthy Petruchio, becomes Petruchio’s own servant. Wendy Brindle and Frank Skelly, older cast members in comparison to the younger Shrew stars, step into the leading roles of Maria and Petruchio.
The choice to age up the characters not only emphasizes the time passing in the world of the play, but gestures towards the historical context of the works: The Woman’s Prize would have been performed by the same players, but perhaps different cast members, years later.
Minimal staging
The staging is minimal, featuring only one real set piece: a wall with a window to signify a house. This set struggles in The Taming of the Shrew, as it is used minimally and spends much of the play just crowding the stage. Its usage in The Tamer Tamed is far more integrated, though it still reads as quite cumbersome in the blackbox environment. Perhaps something more abstracted would have solved the issue of defining indoor/outdoor environments without the mass.
Necessary Cat’s double bill this year is sure to be a thrilling hit for fans of early modern drama, providing the rare opportunity to see a John Fletcher play done justice and perhaps learn a bit more about The Taming of the Shrew’s historical reception.
Running times: One hour and 30 minutes each (no interval).
Braw Venues @ Hill Street (Dunedin Theatre), 19 Hill St EH2 3JP (Venue 41).
Monday 17 – Sunday 30 August 2026.
The Taming of the Shrew: 6.30pm.
Tickets: Book here at EdFringe.com.
From venue: Book here.
The Tamer Tamed or the Woman’s Prize: 8.15pm.
Tickets and details: Book here at EdFringe.com.
From venue: Book here.
Necessary Cat Facebook: @necessarycat
Instagram: @necessarycatlimited
Linktree: @necessarycat2026.
A scene from Necessary Cat’s The Tamer Tamed or the Woman’s Prize. Pic: Angela Harkness Robertson.
ENDS
