Veteran stage director Bob Hall needed two actors to pull off Shakespeare’s ultimate battle of the sexes in “The Taming of the Shrew.”

He found them in his production of “Macbeth.”

George Hansen and Melissa Lewis are back on stage together again, playing Petruchio and Kate, respectively, in a spaghetti western version of the Bard’s comedy.

Flatwater Shakespeare begins a 12-performance run of “The Taming of the Shrew” Thursday at the Swan Theatre in Wyuka Cemetery.   

Hansen and Lewis won accolades for their performances of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth in Hall’s production of the Shakespeare tragedy in March 2006.

“They have a chemistry,” Hall said. “They work well together. They work out things together. They seem to have a lot of confidence in each other.”

Or disdain.

“He’s ghastly and just a nightmare every single day,” Lewis joked about her co-star, possibly prepping for what is to come on stage.

Seriously, she’s a fan of Hansen’s, having also played opposite him in Noel Coward’s “Private Lives” at the Haymarket Theatre.

“George is such a pro,” she said. “He lets me experiment and play.”

Hansen was just as complimentary of Lewis.

“We just seem to click,” he said. “It’s funny. We never talk to each other off stage. I only see her when we’re cast together. It’s fun working with her.”

Flatwater transports Shakespeare’s classic comedy to the Wild Wild West, with Hall giving the brash farce a cowboy flavor through costuming, dialects and pistols.

“Which will be fired,” he said.

There will be no horses, however, even though the play is being staged in a former carriage house.

  “Shrew” is the Bard’s controversial comedy about arranged marriages, disguises and deceptions and “proper” roles for men and women in society.

In the town of Padua, young Bianca (Amy Jirsa) has many suitors for her hand, but her father Baptista (Stephen Gaines) will not allow her to be married before a spouse can be found for his elder daughter, the fiercely independent Katherine (Melissa Lewis).

Further complications arise when two strangers come to town. Lucentio (Rob Burt) would do anything to win the heart of Bianca, while Petruchio (George Hansen) would do anything to strike it rich — even marry “Kate the curst.”     

Other performers include Flatwater regulars Will Bennett, Tom Bolin, Tom Crew, Darin Hemmer, Richard Imig, Dick Nielsen, Margy Ryan, Sean Schmeits and Rich Sibley, with Robie Hayek making his Flatwater debut in the role of Grumio, long-suffering attendant to Petruchio.

Hall went with a Western setting because “Shrew” is the type of play that works with “some kind of a handle.”

“Some cry out for them, others ask to be left alone,” he said. “This is one of the ones that setting it someplace adds a little something.”

Though often performed and adapted (see sidebar), the play has been the subject of criticism. Feminists find the play’s final scene as misogynistic, with the “tamed” Kate explaining that wives always obey their husbands and lords.

 “When I read the speech for the first time, I was stunned by what I read,” Lewis admitted. “On one hand, it was, ‘Holy Mackerel,’ but on the other hand, I found some of it to be true.”

Lewis defends the monologue.

“There’s a difference between weakness and vulnerability,” she said. “I look at my relationship with my husband. At times, I may be vulnerable, but it doesn’t mean weakness or shows a loss of power.”

Reach Jeff Korbelik at 473-7213 or jkorbelik@journalstar.com.