Summer Shakes has had to move around a bit since it’s creation, and this year they are performing in the lovely Seatack Neighborhood Park in Virginia Beach. Don’t forget to bring along you own beach chair or blanket, and most of all, the bug spray. The mosquitoes, Tidewater’s official state bird, come in droves and tend to get rather friendly. The park itself is tucked away behind the Law Enforcement Training Academy (no Police Academy movie jokes, please). If it weren’t for the signs thoughtfully posted on the way in it would be difficult to locate, indeed.

The preshow speech mentioned a phenomenon that is apparently quite familiar to the recurring visitors to the park...jet noise. It seems that the pilots occasionally like to practice directly over the players heads, often right in the middle of a performance. However, the "wise ones" at Summer Shakes have invented a unique and amusing way of dealing with the situation. If the noise gets too loud, the lighting technician flips on these strips of red lights framing the set and the actors simply freeze until those darn flyboys get out of range. Fortunately (unfortunately?), Friday night’s performance did not include this display, although it can certainly be imagined that, during a comedy especially, the actors must have a difficult time maintaining their poker faces, as it were.

In general, Dean’s direction of this production was quite creative and entertaining, although it seemed the less experienced actors could have used a bit more clarification about what exactly he wanted. There were a lot of pratfalls and slapstick comedy, which sometimes came off well and sometimes… didn’t. Dean set the show in 1965 Italy. This 1960s sitcom concept for the show led a few the actors into an awkward, indicating style, rather than a more defined "cartoony" approach. There was quite a bit of artificial, forced laughter throughout the show. Laughing on stage and making it believable is difficult, and this group didn’t always succeed.

In contrast to what some might expect from an amateur Shakespeare production, the action and plot were exceedingly easy to follow. The actors obviously had a very specific understanding of what it was they were saying, and clearly conveyed that to the audience. There are professional Shakespeare specialists who don’t always succeed with that.

If the audience member is used to the Howard Keel version of Petrucio (his pompous lothario Fred Graham's turn in Kiss Me Kate, the movie musical version of Shrew), JOHN CAUTHEN might give them a bit of a surprise. Keel’s character is arrogant and overbearing in almost a brute force sort of way.

Cauthen’s character is, well, adorable.

KIERSTEN ARMSTRONG’s Katerina was strong, though a bit uninspired. While Armstrong’s portrayal was just fine, Kate needs more depth in order to make her transition to loving wifedom believable. DAVE HOBBS’s Baptista was also fine, but would have fit in better with a more serious production. His down-to-earth portrayal seemed bland in comparison to the antics taking place all around him.

ROSE HENDERSON-DIEHL must have had fun costuming for 1965, and did a good, basic job, but attention to detail was, sadly, lacking in some areas. A simple ironing job would have done wondered for both the state of Kate’s wedding dress, and to define a noticeable difference between the costumes of master versus servant. Two of the ensemble members were quite scantily clad in most of their scenes, officially earning them the nicknames

The Eye Candy Twins

All things considered, in spite of the nitpicking, in spite of the overly-endowed Eye Candy Twins, in spite of the floor mics, which were attached directly to the platforms, and therefore reverberated across the park each time an actor moved…in spite of all of that, Summer Shakes' Shrew is an incredibly enjoyable show. And is very accessible, even to younger audiences, and especially to anyone who might be new to Shakespeare and his wily ways. The show is about two hours long, with no intermission. There’s even a smoking section, if you walk away from the crowd. Summer Shakes subsists solely on grants and donations, though their suggested donation price is $10 for adults and $5 for students and seniors. Give generously, for this is a group that is well worth sustaining. Taming of the Shrew is in performance Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays through July 30th.

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