This past Friday, a moderately sized crowd at the new Carl J. Shapiro Theater attended the year's first production from "Hold Thy Peace," an adaptation of William Shakespeare's "The Taming of the Shrew." "Hold Thy Peace" took this tale of marital convenience and domestic obedience out of Italy and set it in the 19th century American West. Placing Shakespearean dramas in locations other than Renaissance Europe has been a popular trend in theater and film over the past ten years, making this change nothing revolutionary. Considering the often raucous or hurried scenes of "Taming," director Amy Schneider's '04 choice of location worked quite nicely.Showing the versatility of Shakespeare, the costumes and set were very well designed for the period. Actors donned cowboy hats and revolvers. The scenery, while relatively simple, provided a believable backdrop, as most of the action took place inside of a saloon. This is a story of several men vying for the nearly unattainable love of one woman, so the western images of booze, cards and guns all fit nicely in the place of the traditional scenery.

Alexandra Perloe '06 appeared as Bianca, the woman after whom all the men lust. But, she cannot be romanced until her older sister Katherina (Rebecca Collura '05) is married off. Perloe displayed good flirtatious interaction with the male characters. Bianca is not an incredibly vibrant character, but Perloe performed this soft-spoken role with enough subtlety to make it work. The suitors, however, were not as effective. Zach Reff's '05 as Tranio and Andrew Simpson's '05 role as the ultimately victorious suitor Lucentio gave somewhat motivated, but unemotional, performances.

Max Louik '05 played the unsuccessful suitor Hortensio, and was one of the few actors who applied a Texan accent to his performance. Nearly all the rest of the cast used their normal speaking voices, so at times dialogues involving Louik sounded out of place. The other actor to play a suitor was Guy Frenkel '04 in the role of Gremio. Gremio is an older character, and when he realizes that it is impossible to marry Bianca, he gives up the chase. In the setting of the old West, Frenkel makes Gremio believably drunk for much of the play, providing a touch of humor.

Collura, in her role as Katherina, the "shrew" for whom the play is named, delivered her performance with a proper amount of wit and hostility towards the other characters. Katherina is completely opposed to the proposition of being married, and when Petruccio (Jeremy Scher '03), a man who seeks nothing more than to marry a woman with a large dowry, agrees to marry her, the play's most intriguing relationship begins. Performing a scene in which Petruccio attempts to wear down Katherina and reform her to his will, Collura and Scher showed very entertaining stage chemistry. Collura made frequent use of a whip to punish the other characters, which drew laughter from the audience. Scher provided actions ranging from violence to sarcasm in order to show Petruccio's eccentricity.

Rounding out the primary characters were Jacob Baron '06 as Bianca and Katherina's father, Baptista. He ultimately played little more than a man selling off his daughters, and while he had humorous moments, he was not a very large force in the performance. Two minor characters provided the greatest amount of humor during the evening. Avital Asuleen '06 portrayed a mute bartender whose physical actions often mocked the rest of the cast and Rebecca Kotlicky '06 played Petruccio's servant Grumia. The servant is the fool of this play, and Kotlicky showed an effective mixture of sarcasm and silliness in her appearance.

Although the set and costumes conveyed images of the 19th century West, the altered setting for "The Taming of the Shrew" ended up not playing as much of a role as the director possibly intended. It was an interesting twist, yet the acting still mattered most.

Despite the occasional flat voice, the cast did a commendable job of performing one of Shakespeare's better comedies. Collura delivered Katherina's famous speech on the role of the wife in an entertaining conclusion, and Perloe and Simpson gave Bianca and Lucentio a subtle yet obvious romance. Ultimately, this was a good performance that suffered from a small audience.