That’s amore—or is it?

Shakespeare set Shrew in Italy (circa 1500s). In this amiable, upbeat outdoor production, Main Street Theatre Works slides the play into a New Jersey Italian-American enclave. Petruchio wears a fedora and puffs a cigar. The tempestuous Kate gleefully confiscates her pretty sister Bianca’s shopping bags from Macy’s, then hogties Bianca and cuts up her credit cards. Geographic references hit on Hoboken and Princeton; the sound design features Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra; a motorcycle turns up in one climactic scene.

The critical leads in this battle-of-the-sexes over an arranged marriage—veterans Julie Anchor as Kate, Allen Pontes as Petruchio—resourcefully reprise roles they handled cleverly 11 years ago (with this very company). Their experience shows, and they’ve still got good chemistry—the verbal/physical jousting feels fresh. Dapper old Marty Brifman (now an Amador County chicken rancher, but a UC theater major decades ago) does patriarchal Baptista in a gravelly voice like a Mafia don, going on about “yooz guyz” and respect. Scott Adams (who’s worked professional shows) puts zing into Petruchio’s man Grumio, while jaunty, diminutive Brittany Grant gives us an outsized Biondello (as a girl) with a voice that’s bigger than her stature. The community cast also includes a few rookies, but they do reasonably well.

Director Susan McCandless favors brisk activity onstage, sexy (but not particularly naughty) implications in the subplots, and doesn’t push for a major reinterpretation of the main conflict (or is it a romance, or both?) between Kate and Petruchio. It makes for a fun summer show in a lovely amphitheater in the Gold Country.