This Shrew‘s for you

Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew may be out of phase with contemporary feminism, but Main Street Theatre Works of Sutter Creek makes a solid case that it’s still a very entertaining play. This elaborate community production, featuring an extensively costumed cast of 19, gets to the laughs in scene after scene, replete with would-be husbands, concealed identities and secret strategies, and above all the fireworks between Petruchio and Kate (played well by Allen Ponce and Julie Anchor)—it becomes not so much a battle of the sexes as a battle between two strong-willed souls who are used to having their way. Co-director Scott Divine is hilariously cast entirely against type as the wizened, almost toothless suitor Gremio, and also as an over-the-top gay haberdasher. This is the most purely enjoyable and adeptly staged production of a straight-up Shakespeare comedy by a community group in the Sacramento area in recent years. Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m., also a Sunday matinee at 2 p.m.(November 18 only) at Sutter Creek Theater, 44 Main St. (Highway 49) in Sutter Creek, (209) 267-1590. $14. Through December 1.