Taming a shrew in America's Wild West

All productions of Shakespeare’s “The Taming of the Shrew” capitalize on the play’s comedy, emphasizing the spicy arguments between Petruchio and Katherine, the strong-headed woman he tries to woo and marry. In the current Folger Shakespeare Theatre production of “The Taming of the Shrew,” those arguments are ratcheted up to the ultimate degree. The rapid verbal banter between Petruchio (Cody Nickell) and Katherine (Kate Eastwood Norris) is supplemented with plenty of low comedy, as the play’s subplots are brought out and clarified in new and different ways.