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They're young, eager and starting to get themselves noticed; the bilingual Anglo-French Theater Project, now in its second season, is making cross-Channel theater a specialty, performing in v.o. classic French theater in the UK and great works from the English stage in France. After a publicly acclaimed production of Shakespeare's "As You Like It" last year and recent apprearances at bookseller W. H. Smith, the company returns to the stage this month with "The Taming of the Shrew," in a production inspired by the Silver Screen. The troupe's success rests on a highly visual style that owes, in part, to some previous training under contemporary mime masters Jacques Lecoq and Marcel Marceau, but draws mainly from plain old enthusiasm and genuine esprit de corps. Song and dance are part of the formula too, as are contemporary updates. In this "Shrew" for example, set in the 1930s, the cast performs a choreographed rendition of "Chattanooga Choo-Choo," and Petruchio goes to the pics upon arriving in Padua, something Shakespeare certainly never dreamed. Founders Jessica Boyde and Christine Hooper created the Project while studying at Cambridge University, and there put on their first show, Molière's "Tartuffe." The company will return home this year with Marivaux's "La Double Inconstance" after stops in August at the Edinburgh Festival (with "Taming of the Shrew"), and, exceptionally this June, in Paris: their "Inconstance" has been chosen one of the six finalists (out of a field of 75 shows) to compete in the annual International Student Theater Festival hosted by the Théâtre des Amandiers in Nanterre. As "Shrew's" director, Hooper trains a camera lens on the antics of Kate and Petruchio, playing with images from romantic comedies, horror films and gangster flicks. Her choice to set the show in the 1930s to exploit a cinematic theme ignores the fact that Italy quaked under the fascist fist of Mussolini at the time, but no matter this is a fresh look at a great story from an exuberant team. "The Taming of the Shrew," Apr 6 to May 1, Tue-Sat, 9pm, Bouffon Théâtre, 26-28 rue de Meaux, 19e, Metro Colonel Fabien, 90F/50F, tel: 01.42.38.35.53. |
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