The Roundtable Ensemble

A group of actors discover the quarrelsome and quaffed Sly berating a bar hostess. When he passes out in their midst, they conspire to teach him a lesson by acting out a new play about Kate the Shrew, but their show soon takes on a life of its own, teaching the actors that love strikes when you least expect it.

Seven actors play all twenty-three roles in this fast and furious 90-minute telling of Shakespeare's classic play-within-a-play comic bonanza about the most terrifying woman in Italy, the man who wants to marry her, and finding love in disguise.

The Taming of the Shrew played in rotating repertory with Silence and The Mammy Project.

A High 5 Pick of the Week.

A New York Theatre Experience Editor's Pick.

Chosen as one of the New Theater Corps' Five Favorites.

In this highly engaging production of Shakespeare's classic battle of the sexes, seven actors play 23 roles in a fast-paced play within a play. On Ryan Palmer's roomy backstage set, complete with wardrobe and prop shelves, and under Grosso's inspired direction, [the actors] showcase their versatility in highly physical, energetic ensemble work. It's a delightful production; the acting is surprising, the stage business brims with life, and the Elizabethan text leaps off the page, becoming entirely accessible. As is, this Shrew is a highly theatrical, entertaining production . . . see it.
          - Nancy Ellen Shore, Back Stage

The principal pleasure of the Roundtable Ensemble's current production of Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew is the cast's ability to convince us that the whole play is being improvised. No easy task; it's often difficult for actors to make Shakespeare's words feel entirely motivated, let alone seemingly spontaneous. But director Andrew Grosso's concept that the whole thing is being played out backstage at a USO show as a sort of competition between military officers and entertainers gives the actors a good excuse to madly switch off characters, and seemingly riff off each other's cues. . . . it's worth seeing this play, and especially since the actors bring such a fresh sense of spontaneity to it.
          - Matt Schicker, The New York Theatre Experience

The Roundtable Ensemble's latest production uses seven actors for the 23 roles of Bill Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew, doling it out as a 90-minute booster shot for one of the Bard's more misogynistic pieces. The fact that Katrina is played by a man in this production may assuage feminist fears; that the entire show takes place behind the scenes of a USO production of Shrew should ease the "been there, done that" trauma of bad festival productions and 10 Things I Hate About You. A postmodernist Shakespeare would be proud.
          - Foster Kamer, Flavorpill

The Roundtable Ensemble ups the laughs in its small-cast, 90-minute version of The Taming of the Shrew. The most surprising change about the Roundtable's adaptation is the male player who takes the role of Katarina . . . it presents us with a series of questions about the shrew's own nature and it changes the titular taming: With a man in Katarina's shoes, the struggle between her and Petruchio takes on an erotic subtext which was present in the original play when all the parts were played by men, but which our modern castings have allowed us to forget.
          - Ellen Wernecke, New Theater Corps

Read Managing Director Joshua P. Weiss' interview with nytheatre voices here.