Review: Lauren Gunderson's THE TAMING From TWTP

It's all in the timing. No matter if you're delivering a joke, performing a new play or just putting something noteworthy out into the ether, the key to success is often just a matter of good timing. Case in point: the recently crowned Miss America 2016 came into the pageant as Miss Georgia - and in Lauren Gunderson's play, The Taming (now onstage at Nashville's Z. Alexander Looby Theatre in the "first east of the Rockies" production from Tennessee Women's Theater Project), we are treated to the "art imitates life" scene in which Miss Georgia becomes Miss America.

It's a serendipitous happening, most likely, but it lends a sense of new/now/next to Gunderson's politically charged comedy that opening night audiences enjoyed so much that I wonder if perhaps professional laughers were planted throughout the theater. Not that Gunderson's script is unfunny, mind you, it just isn't the gut-busting, rollicking and/or shocking play which that audience reaction might suggest.

Maybe I'm just a harder sell - or perhaps it's because I think HBO's Veep skewers contemporary politics and American culture far more effectively - but I only laughed out loud (LOL'd, for you social media-obsessed theater-goers) twice. Both of my favored lines were delivered by the deliciously vapid, yet amazingly well-read and altogether fictional Miss Georgia character (played gleefully by Brooke Gronemeyer, in a pitch-perfect performance that is worth the price of the ticket), in which she claimed to have changed her official platform from "Sunglasses for Babies" to updating the United States Constitution, and her statement that she might be a beautiful woman clad in formalwear, yet she refused "to be fucked with..." or words to that effect.

Gunderson's script, though entertaining and timely, is oftentimes heavy-handed and self-congratulatory in the way most intellectuals seem to be when they are in the company of persons they consider to be lesser than their equals. Gunderson effectively skewers current public opinion and the anti-intellectualism that pervades modern America, to be sure, and her treatment of the contemporary political climate seems sharply focused, but her play goes just a couple of scenes too far, thus undermining her message and the impact of that script.

Directed by TWTP founder Maryanna Clarke, The Taming takes its title and its character names from Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew (according to a press release from the company), but the similarity ends there, so far as I was able to discern. The play's setting is The Miss America Pageant, where the three women come together at a cocktail party held prior to the start of competition (and where, in reality, no contestant would ever be seen).

Patricia (read as Petruchio is played by an initially tentative and uncertain Colette Divine, who manages to find her footing as the plot progresses) is the chief of staff for a conservative red-state senator, spouting right-wing platitudes and condescending rejoinders to anyone within earshot.

Bianca is a stereotypical liberal blogger, whining incessantly about saving an endangered shrew and delivering blue-state invective via the iPhone that keeps her tethered to the world-at large 24/7. Cate Jo plays Bianca with a wild-eyed demeanor that's annoyingly superficial and she delivers her lines with a lack of inflection and emotion - although, like Divine, she finally overcomes her nerves as the play progresses and becomes rather more likable.

Clearly, it's Gronemeyer's show: As Katherine, she plays her beauty pageant contestant with honesty throughout, delivering her lines with a flash and verve that only a Miss America contestant could muster. She remains focused and committed throughout the play (which is performed without intermission) while obviously having fun and recognizing the humor in Gunderson's script.

Morgan Matens provides the scenic design for the production, which would have benefitted from a far less literal translation to the stage, while Katie Gant's lighting design helps illuminate the onstage action. Kassia Dombroski's costume designs are generally well-conceived, although her costumes for Gronemeyer's Miss Georgia are unworthy of the Atlantic City boardwalk.

• The Taming. By Lauren Gunderson. Directed by Maryanna Clarke. Produced by Chris Clarke. Presented by Tennessee Women's Theater Project at the Z. Alexander Looby Theatre, Nashville. Through October 18. For details, go to www.TWTP.org. Running time: 1 hour, 45 minutes (with no intermission).

To post a comment, you must register and login.