STAGE REVIEW: The Taming of the Shrew - Birmingham Royal Ballet at the Hippodrome, Birmingham.

WE need to understand right from the start that a word as relatively mild as ‘shrew’ gets nowhere near.

Vixen, she-wolf, hellcat, coiled cobra spitting venom… all these are more apt descriptions as far as the inimitable Elisha Willis is concerned and still you could say they would be wide of the mark.

But how can this be… is this really the same elfin featured dancer who gave us the fragile-as-cut-glass Cinderella, the very same person who won our hearts in Giselle, and then went on the break them all as Juliet?

Previous portrayals of the lead role in William Shakespeare’s epic tale of male abuse of women – yes, face up to what it is, all you right-on Bard buffs – are not a patch on what La Willis served up as the queen of minxes Katherina this week at Birmingham Hippodrome.

Elisha Willis joined the company in 2003 and meteorically rose through the ranks, being promoted to Principal the next year.

But sadly, she is currently performing her final roles, and will be leaving to start a new career in costume design at the end of the current season. But my-oh-my, she’s certainly going out with a bang, for on this opening night the demure dancer from Down Under delivered her art with such fervour at times it seems as if her very life depended on it.

And here’s another thing - that snarl of hers feels really personal, it seems you’re also in the firing line as well as everyone on stage. Every sneer made me brace myself from an ensuing blast that swept through the auditorium like the shock wave from a nuclear explosion.

For when those lips curl like mating vipers to form the grimmest of grimaces, you thank your lucky stars you’re not one of the hopeless suitors who must steer their way through this tornado of toxicity.

John Cranko’s sparkling and at times comic choreography was made for Elisha Willis and the tempo – or perhaps that should read ‘tempest’ – is briskly maintained by Kurt-Heinz Stolze’s music, which strangely enough has the feel of a 1950s cowboy film.

All this demands the best possible partner and Iain Mackay as the scheming Petruchio is tailor-made for the part, for as the action hots up and the pas des deux reach ever-atmospheric heights, the chemistry between them is plain to see.

Now, I prefer her as the shrew, but as Petruchio wears her down with starvation, sleep-deprivation and various mental cruelties, a predictably more subdued creature emerges.

This is presumably the Tudor equivalent of “treat ‘em mean, keep ‘em keen” but the new meek and mild former shrew just leaves this reviewer longing for a lost golden age of pouting, tantrums and lutes being smashed over would-be lovers’ heads.

Elsewhere, there were some superlative slapstick from Rory Mackay as the buffoon of a roué Gremio whose voice consisted of a series of idiotic Tom Fool schoolboy squeaks, Chi Cao as Hortensio, a sort of musketeer with elaborate moustaches, and a particularly dashing Brandon Lawrence sweeping all before him as Lucentio.

Lawrence is very much one to watch, by the way. At the moment, he’s a First Artist, and I cannot believe that rapid promotion won’t soon follow judging from his stunning duet with Jenna Roberts, whose delicate portrayal of Bianca helps to smooth out the rougher edges of her more tempestuous sister.

This was a magnificent ballet, one of several to mark the 400th anniversary of the Warwickshire poet’s death. But for me, this was ultimately the parting shot of a truly great dancer, and one that will echo down the Hippodrome stage for many a long year to come.

The Taming of the Shrew moves to the Bristol Hippodrome for a four-day run on Wednesday, June 29.

John Phillpott