Truly, it would not be a play de nos jours without the Occupy movement, who loom larger in significance in the minds of today's theatre directors than they do to most of the population. Here the hooded masses are recast as Athenian street protesters. The useful thing about malcontent mobs is that they really don't change that much. 

The Taming of the Shrew suffers from some of the same disadvantages as Timon — a plot with so much extraneous intrigue, clothes swapping and needless exposition that Shakespeare surely wrote it with a hangover. Added to which, its treatment of relationships between the sexes was regressive even in the 1590s. This may be the play that launched a thousand feminist literary theory seminars, but it can be extremely dull. I went to the Globe expecting little from Kate and Petruchio and was duly confounded to discover that Toby Frow has done a very good job indeed.

The key to this galloping production is the recognition that its best qualities are slapstick. Samantha Spiro comes from a stand-up comedy background. She has the muscular heft and the broad comedy skills to be a full-on shrew; her sister is rendered here as the truly nastier piece of work, all simpering passive-aggression, and the sisters' fights are terrifying battles indeed. None of this would suffice if Simon Paisley Day had not turned the uneven role of Petruchio into a tour de force. Lanky, angular and a sight for sore eyes when he arrives to wed Kate in a maroon thong (ladies, you will not need to bring opera glasses), he carries this production with the gauche assurance of a latter-day John Cleese, ably abetted by the Baldric-esque sidekick Grumio (Pearce Quigley), who keeps the belly laughs coming as a disruptive foil.

Paisley Day's quirks and charm make it easier to see why Kate is prepared to turn from feisty woman to pliant bride. Her final speech is delivered  with a nudge and a wink, but also the recognition that some submission is at the heart of all marital happiness, so that "soft, weak and smooth" sorts or not, we'd better get on with enjoying it.