Ah, his Petruchio and Prospero, yes, and preserved on videotape! The most unfetteredly funny Petruchio one could see, and his Prospero is the only one I've seen who actually conveys such vengeful power and determination that his final rediscovery of the grace of mercy rings utterly relieving. (So often, too, Prosperos are too old to gather the energy needed.) Also, Cariou picked up on Prospero's gentle appreciation of the good things of the world, Miranda's "very virtue of compassion" and so on. But his courting scene with Kate in Taming is also unparalleled in my theatergoing experience. By "unfetteredly funny", I mean no director imposed some framing device or updating trick to "apologise" for arguably unsavoury aspects of Taming. Cariou's Petruchio took on Kate head-on, and believed every minute he had to tame a woman - and audience's then were intelligent enough not to be offended by what is clearly a comical twist on what Shakespeare and everyone else knows - that normally it is a woman who ends up taming a man. The play is a reversal for comic purposes.
I have to add that, arguably, the best King Lear around is still the James Earl Jones one, for sympathetic intelligence; Kevin Kline was both a warmly intellectual and a heart-felt Hamlet, arguably none better; and Cariou conquered the two Ps. But then, after all, America and Canada are deeply Elizabethan era countries, so that may explain why some of the best Shakespeare happens West of the Atlantic.
Cariou's Sweeney Todd was recorded for TOFT and the pleasure awaits the rediscover. |
