Now, you listen here, hombre. You and me, we done rode through all that "talk like a pirate" bosh, but all that balled-up palaver didn't hold a candle to talkin' like a cowboy. And you might think such frontier lingo wouldn't rightly fit into the flannel-mouthed Elizabethan purty-talk of one Wm.  Shakespeare, but that just goes to show you ain't no feller to ride down the river with, so you just hobble your lip. Harlequin buckaroo Scot Whitney done nailed that to the counter. His production of The Taming of the Shrew cuts a swell, and that's the real Simon Pure.

The time: the early 1880s. The place: Tombstone, Arizona. Cue the Ennio Morricone sting. Harlequin's Shrew earns laughs from its opening movie trailer.

Despite Shrew's ongoing popularity, there have always been difficulties in staging the play. Its plot, in which spitfire Katherine is brutally domesticated by suitor Petruchio, is often accused of misogyny. (An opposing argument notes we love Kate precisely for her most outspoken qualities.) And there's Shakespeare's circa-1590 verbiage to contend with, plus at least four easily muddled protagonists. Harlequin solves all these problems by transporting the play to the anachronistic, politically incorrect milieu of cowboy cinema. Kate (Melanie Moser) is now a hellion à la Jessie the Cowgirl. All the place names have been changed, and the mild oaths replaced with "gosh-dang," "tarnation" and the like. Petruchio (Ian McNeely) is now a singin' cowboy, strumming his guitar to songs by Bruce Whitney. Sword fights are bare-fisted dustups courtesy of fight choreographer Robert Macdougall.

This production thumbs its nose at so many racial clichés I risk censure by describing them. To wit, Biondello is a stereotypical movie "Injun," complete with missing articles and esoteric hand gestures. Sugarsop is a railroad "Celestial," played by an Anglo girl. Consider also Jeffrey Painter as Lucentio and Trick Danneker as faithful servant Tranio. The Bard says they're from Pisa by way of Florence.  "Shut yer big bazoo," counters Whitney, who doesn't give a continental for liberal caution. He drapes the all-too-white Painter and Danneker in mariachi outfits and claims they're from Juarez. Now, I'm a proud Hispanic-American, but Danneker and his perfectly imperfect Speedy Gonzales accent steal every scene he's in. It's a breakout performance that carries otherwise passé material. I also dug Painter's "Fwench " Kurt-from-Glee persona and was surprised to see him bust out an accordion solo in Act V. I played Gremio in TAO's version three years ago, so it was fun to watch Russ Holm's Foghorn Leghorn take on that character. Dennis Rolly makes a fine drawlin' Baptista, and Jason Haws loses himself in a George "Gabby" Hayes impersonation that enlivens Petruchio's sidekick, Grumio.

There's so much good stuff in this production that I note its flaws merely from a sense of obligation. The many songs butt up against a law of diminishing returns about two hours in, and a few less-experienced performers can't keep pace with the old pros. But if you're looking for a rootin'-tootin' demonstration of how to make Elizabethan comedy both consistently logical and accessible, this here's your huckleberry. I don't know if I've ever seen a better example of transporting Shakespeare, and dude, I mean that for real play. This here shindig is tomfoolery of the first water. Now, if that don't take the rag off the bush!

The Taming of the Shrew

Through Oct. 30, 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday, $12-$35
Harlequin Productions
202 Fourth Ave. E, Olympia
360.786.0151