Beer, more beer, beer bellies and hillbillies aren’t what you expect in a typical production of Shakespeare, but that’s exactly what you’ll find in the Wooden O’s delightfully off-beat production of The Taming of the Shrew, the Bard’s wild tale of forceful romance.

Last Thursday, in Mercer Island’s Luther Burbank Park, mosquitoes nibbled on dozens of families and retirees as they sat reclined on a grassy hill, some munching sandwiches, others simply stretched out in the setting sun (food and bug spray are advisable).

The proverbial stage seems typical enough at first, but visitors might notice something different as soon as the action (and yes, it is action) begins.

There are no period costumes, the dialogue is discernable, and the ploy-filled plot is fairly easy to follow — not something that happens terribly often in outdoor Shakespeare. Best of all, the whole thing is enjoyable in a belly-laugh sort of way — as opposed to a more subdued, “high-culture” experience.

Instead, the audience guffaws gratuitously at Director Aimée Bruneau’s disciplined production. It might look random, but take it from someone who played protagnist Petruchio’s buddy Hortensio in high school: Comedy is hard to do, especially outdoors.

As the story goes, wife-hunter Petruchio (David Quicksall) is a man on what appears to modern viewers as a mildly misogynistic mission: an extended, somewhat violent and always nutty “taming” operation of the wealthy and sultry Katherine Minola (Kelly Kitchens), aka “Kate,” a woman who has defied any and all suitors.

Her seemingly sweet sister, Bianca (Angela DiMarco), is pursued by several of these suitors, but their “father,” who, in Wooden O’s world, is cleverly recast as a woman (Karen Jo Fairbrook as “Mama” Baptista Minola), will let none near Bianca until Kate is married off.

All this is set in the “Padua Trailer Park,” and the characters deliver their lines, complete with appropriate c. 1600s rhythm, with all manner of goofy drawls. The good-natured teasing of Southerners doesn’t detract from the story and is clearly not an afterthought, as the ragamuffin costumes indicate. The “white-trash” clothing that appears to be from a consignment store gives character to the group of 30 people reciting their Elizabethan-era lines.

Hilarity and hijinks, along with many jokes directed at a specific part of the male body, ensue as one might imagine. There’s also plenty of slapping, dragging, kicking, and a little bit of screaming and kidnapping.

But for all that Shakespeare-as-redneck ridiculousness, it is the fiery chemistry between male-lead Quicksall’s Petruchio and leading lady Kitchens’ Kate that makes the play a success.

While Petruchio aims “to wive and thrive” as best he may, and woo, wed and bed Kate in a way that would make most Seattleites squirm, Quicksall and Kitchens’ subtle acting and underlying concern enhance their roles so that even the roughest parts don’t seem so bad.

In the midst of the comedic raveling and unraveling of plots, counter-scheming and miscellaneous plotting, the audience is left to wonder who will and won’t be tamed in this complex battle of wills that transcends its silly setting.

Reach Opinion Editor Will Mari at arts@dailyuw.com.