Michelle Zhang/Shanghai Daily news

“The Taming of a Shrew”(left), one of Shakespeare’s early comedies, will be presented by Poland’s Teatr Dramatyczny from Warsaw this week and will be followed by British theater company TNT’s production of “Macbeth”(right), one of English drama’s best-known tragedies, later this month.

Shanghai is certainly spreading out the welcome mat for England's greatest playwright, William Shakespeare.
To follow up the successful staging of Shakespeare's "The Merchant of Venice" and "Othello" - both instant hits with local theatergoers - Shanghai Drama Arts Center this month hosts the classic comedy "The Taming of the Shrew" and the black tragedy, "Macbeth."
As part of the ongoing Shanghai International Arts Festival, "The Taming of the Shrew" is being performed by Poland's Teatr Dramatyczny from Warsaw and "Macbeth" by the TNT theater from Britain.
The Polish troupe's production of the play had its premiere in 1997 and it was said to "have determined a new style of performing Shakespeare in the Polish theater." The following year the production won the Polish National Contest for the Staging of Shakespeare's Works.
One of Shakespeare's early comedies, "The Taming of the Shrew" is not all about a man's "taming" of a woman's ambition. It is also about the hypocrisy and blandishments of men and women and their bargain over love and money.
Director Krzysztof Warlikowski, who is reported to have "a talent for reading classic dramas as if they were written yesterday," has reinterpreted the play in a modern perspective. It becomes a story that relates the persecution of a woman's spirit and the deprivation of her freedom. He not only dresses the characters in modern clothes but also endows them with a contemporary consciousness. The actors perform as if they have just read "The Godfather" and the actresses seem to have read too much "Vogue."
Dramatic heritage
To the accompaniment of music on the accordion and the saxophone, Shakespeare becomes 400 years younger and the audience can compare this unconventional theatrical treatment with some of Fellini's films.
"It is the first time a Polish theatrical company has performed in Asia," says Yang Shaolin, general manager of the Shanghai Drama Arts Center. "Poland is known as a country with abundant dramatic heritage. We believe our theater will bring to Shanghai's drama scene a lot of new ideas."
The comedy will be followed by one of Shakespeare's best-known tragedies, "Macbeth."
Written late in his working life as a playwright, "Macbeth" is the last of Shakespeare's great tragedies and is considered by many scholars as his darkest masterpiece. The tragedy is about Macbeth's bloody rise to power, involving the murders of the rightful King of Scotland, Duncan, his noble friend Banquo and the family of another noble, MacDuff.
The guilt-ridden pathology of evil deeds generates more evil deeds seemingly without end.
The witches in the original work are identified as the source of the dramatic energy of the play. They are shamans, wild forest spirits, and they are neither man nor woman. They inhabit the entire world of the play. Macbeth himself is a warrior, not a thinker - a man of courage whose bravery is corrupted by unthinking ambition.
His wife is another kind of witch. Lady Macbeth calls down the spirits to "unsex" her but in the end is possessed and destroyed by the demons she thought to command. Thus human beings corrupt and destroy themselves in their ruthless pursuit of power.
Founded in 1980 in Britain, TNT theater has established itself as one of the most popular international touring theater companies in the world. The company's style aims to integrate all the performing arts.
Its productions always include a specially commissioned score by a leading composer. The director always works with a choreographer and the ensemble actors are chosen for their ability to cross the disciplines of theater, music and dance.
Physical style
Although the company always explores complex texts and serious themes, its style is highly visual and accessible to an audience who's first language need not be English.
TNT premiered "Macbeth" in 2000 and it was the company's first staging of a Shakespeare play. It ran continuously for more than two years and toured Britain, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France, Japan and the United States.
The production is notable for the troupe's highly physical style and their dynamic interpretation of the plot which concentrates on the supernatural elements and above all on the witches. The sets are innovative, shifting on wheels and pulleys to create a constantly moving image of forest and heath and castle.
"One of the most exciting thing about Shakespeare is that there are always fresh interpretations and ways of looking at each of his plays," says Jim Hollington, cultural attache of the British Consulate-General in Shanghai, which cooperated with the local arts center in bringing this production to the city. "Shakespeare is not something historical. His plays are never fixed in time or form."

"The Taming of the Shrew"
Date: November 17-19, 7:15pm; November 19, 2pm
Tickets: 100-800 yuan
In Polish with Chinese and English subtitles

"Macbeth"
Date: November 24-27, 7:15pm; November 26, 2pm
Tickets: 100-800 yuan
In English with Chinese subtitles

Address: 288 Anfu Rd
Tel: 5465-6200, 6433-4560

A 15-percent discount for those who purchase tickets for both plays (minimum of two tickets for each); 50 yuan for students for each play.