The Off Broadway West Theatre Company is presently performing The Taming Of The Shrew at the Phoenix Theatre in San Francisco. Contrary to the much-paraphrased Hippocrates, desperate times do not always call for desperate measures. An unraveling economy may provoke many of us to hunker down materially speaking, yet our culture is far from bankrupt nor is it slipping into a recession: it remains opulently rich, thanks to people like Shakespeare and the people who continue to trot him out to stage.

This production is every bit as elevating as it is hilariously entertaining. For those not au courant in Elizabethan English, visual and physical comedy clarifies, augments and reinforces the poetic, bawdy, erudite, ironic and refined humor of Shakespeare. Director and Alamedan Joyce Henderson has graced her show with some amazing people, true bohemians: all of who are entirely devoted to the performing arts.

Ben Fisher, who plays Petruchio: suitor to Katherina, is bold and brash; with swagger and arrogant confidence he carries off Petruchio's antic to "fight fire with fire" with convincing effectiveness: surpassing the irascible Katherina at her own shrewish game and winning her reluctant yet ardent love.

Jocelyn Stringer, an endearing Katherine, so sharply defines her truculent surly character that one inwardly hopes that Petruchio might overstep the reins of the script to stealthily take the highroad: safely out of town.

Stringer's well-crafted Kate is not the kind of woman around whom you would openly make disparaging remarks about Sarah Palin, Hillary Clinton nor Nancy Pelosi.

Like many before her, Henderson has "freely adapted and directed" Shakespeare's finest romantic comedy. Included in Henderson's revised script are new characters such as Lil' Billie (played by the delightful Sandy Rouge), a ludicrous Bible Salesman (played by Steven Spohn), the Russian Guy (played by débuting Fred Tabsharani), and a very scintillating and simmering Hostess (torridly played by Tabitha Lentle).

The perennial nature of Taming Of The Shrew — written in 1594, depending on your source — is confirmed by its many recent adaptations. Cole Porter set it to music and re-titled it Kiss Me Kate. Heath Ledger and Julia Stiles starred in the Hollywood version: Ten Things I Hate About You, set in a contemporary high school.

Don't sit at home drearily focusing on the collapse of Lehman Brothers, Indy Mac, Freddy Mac, AIG, your trust fund, your stock portfolio and your arches. The essence of our humanity is to be an artist and to partake of the arts.

Get thee to the Phoenix Theatre at 414 Mason St., San Francisco, where the curtain goes up on The Taming of The Shrew every Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. until Oct. 18.

For more info or tickets surf on over to www.offbroadwaywest.org or call 800-838-3006 (but not while you're driving).

Jeff Smith is a member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle.