The Taming of the Shrew

Content Group

Overview
The Taming of the Shrew, Gaiety Theatre, 1888

In modern times, like The Merchant of Venice, this play has proved one of the most controversial and censured of any by Shakespeare, because critics have chosen to read it in the light of present-day perspectives. Feminists have chosen it to exemplify the vices of male patriarchy, even though most of Shakespeare's comedies illustrate the virtues of female initiative via such examples as Rosalind and Marina, not to mention Katherine of Aragon. Like Orlando, Katherina Minola starts in a condition of violent, even suicidal resentment at the neglect of her talents. She alone in the play specifically strikes others on several occasions. The Induction of the original script stresses that Katherina would be played by a boy actor, as the youthful Olivier confirmed, so anyway no direct female physical abuse could occur. However, having already outwitted Petruchio at his own game in 4.5—the famous "sun is moon" scene (as demonstrated brilliantly by Elizabeth Taylor in Zeffirelli's film)—in the last scene of the play Katherina has learned how to dominate a whole assembled society (see this 1893 staging) in a way impossible for them to resist. In view of current censures, it is ironic that this is one of Shakespeare's most popular scripts, as seen in the success of Zeffirelli's film, with Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, which cleverly blends the drunken Sly with the cynical Petruchio to create a plausibly clumsy maverick. Indeed, the play, like Coriolanus, investigates the dangers from mistreated talents. It was written for audiences including many bold women (no doubt including a very assertive queen); England in Shakespeare's time was already known as a "paradise for women" because of their freedom to appear unescorted in public places such as theatres. As in his other "problem plays", Shakespeare was writing provocatively to excite such people in the spirit of Ibsen's A Doll's House, not to mention G. B. Shaw's version in Pygmalion. It is true that over the years some naïve Petruchios have rescripted the play to validate their own misogyny (George Clarke and John Drew come to mind), but the original text never justifies their whips and brutality. Instead, it assumes from the start of their relationship a mutual interest between two non-conforming personalities, as convincingly established in the Burton/Taylor reading and others (like this 1946 German production). At least Victorian and Edwardian Katherinas (like Ada Rehan, Mary Anderson and Lily Brayton) were able to establish her verve and attractiveness.

Images
The Taming of the Shrew, Royal Shakespeare Company, 1962
The Taming of the Shrew, Royal Shakespeare Company, 1995
The Taming of the Shrew, Royal Shakespeare Company, 1999
The Taming of the Shrew, John Drew as Petruchio, 1893
The Taming of the Shrew, Mary Anderson as Katherina, 19th Century
The Taming of the Shrew, Lily Brayton as Katherina, 1904
The Taming of the Shrew, Laurence Olivier as Katherina, 1922
The Taming of the Shrew, Ada Rehan as Katherina, 1893
The Taming of the Shrew, Frank Benson as Petruchio, 1916
The Taming of the Shrew, Open-air Theatre, Schöneberg, Berlin, 1946
The Taming of the Shrew, Open-air Theatre, Schöneberg, Berlin, 1946
The Taming of the Shrew, Wolker Theatre in Prague, 1978
The Taming of the Shrew: George Clarke as Petruchio
The Taming of the Shrew: Laurence Olivier (aged almost 15) as Katharina
The Taming of the Shrew: Richard Burton as Petruchio, Elizabeth Taylor as Katherina
The Taming of the Shrew: Open-air Theatre, City Park, Schöneberg, Berlin

Pages

Videos
Taming of the Shrew, Act 2, Scene 1: Early Sound Recording: Edward Sothern and Julia Marlowe
Taming of the Shrew, Act 2, Scene 1: Early Sound Recording: Edward Sothern and Julia Marlowe
Slideshows
Renaissance Marriages: Venice, the Veneto, and Italy
Bibliography

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Alexander, Peter, ed. The Taming of the Shrew. London: BBC, 1980.

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Cohen, Ralph Alan. "Looking for Cousin Ferdinand: The Value of F1 Stage Directions for a Production of The Taming of the Shrew." In Textual Formations and Reformations, edited by Laurie E. Maguire and Thomas L. Berger, 264-80. Newark: University of Delaware Press; London: Associated University Presses, 1998.

Crocker, Holly A. "Affective Resistance: Performing Passivity and Playing A-Part in The Taming of the Shrew." Shakespeare Quarterly 54 (2003): 142-59.

Cunningham, David S. "A Hermeneutic of Shrew-Taming." Word and World: Theology for Christian Ministry 10 (1990): 285-94.

Dessen, Alan C. "The Tamings of the Shrews." In Shakespeare's Sweet Thunder: Essays on the Early Comedies, edited by Michael Collins, 35-49. Newark: University of Delaware Press, 1996.

Hagerman, Anita M. "The Taming of the Shrew." Shakespeare Bulletin 27, no. 2 (Summer 2009): 322-26.

Hayes, Elliott and Michal Schonberg, eds. The Taming of the Shrew. Stratford, Ontario: CBC Enterprises, 1983.

Holderness, Graham. The Taming of the Shrew. Shakespeare in Performance. Manchester; New York: Manchester University Press, 1989.

Kobayashi, Kaori. "Can a Woman Be Liberated in a 'Chauvinist's Dream'?: Michael Bogdanov's Production of The Taming of the Shrew in 1978." Shakespeare Studies (Shakespeare Society of Japan) 35 (1997): 59-102.

Larque, Thomas. "Shrew'd: The Taming of the Shrew and The Tamer Tamed by Shakespeare and John Fletcher, Arcola Theatre, [2001]." Shakespeare Bulletin 20, no. 1 (Winter 2002): 24-25.

Larque, Thomas. "The Taming of the Shrew, Royal Shakespeare Company, [2003]." Shakespeare Bulletin 21, no. 4 (Winter 2003): 76-79.

Larque, Thomas. "The Tamer Tamed by John Fletcher, Royal Shakespeare Company, [2003]." Shakespeare Bulletin 21, no. 4 (Winter 2003): 79-8.

Long, Doug, and Thomas P. Shafer, eds. The Taming of the Shrew: A Study Guide. Bloomington: Indiana University Department of Theatre and Drama, 1991.

McDonald, Jan. "The Taming of the Shrew at the Haymarket Theatre, 1844 and 1847." In Nineteenth-Century British Theatre, edited by Kenneth Richards and Peter Thomson, 157-70. London: Methuen, 1971.

MacDonald, Jan. "'An Unholy Alliance': William Poel, Martin Harvey, and The Taming of the Shrew." Theatre Notebook 36 (1982): 64-72.

Mangan, Michael. "Breaking Butterflies and Taming Shrews: Hysteria, Acting Styles, and Gender Politics in Late Victorian Shakespeare Production." In The Globalization of Shakespeare in the Nineteenth Century, edited by Krystyna Kujawinska-Courtney and John M. Mercer, 139-57. Lewiston; Queenston; Lampeter: Mellen, 2003.

Martins, Maria Lucia Milléo. "The Taming of the Shrew: Shakespeare's Theater of Repetition." In Foreign Accents: Brazilian Readings of Shakespeare, edited by Aimara da Cunha Resende, 126-37. Newark: University of Delaware Press; London: Associated University Presses, 2002.

Miller, Stephen Roy, ed. The Taming of a Shrew: The 1594 Quarto. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998.

Pearson, Velvet D. "In Search of a Liberated Kate in The Taming of the Shrew." Rocky Mountain Review of Language and Literature 44 (1990): 229-42.

Richmond, Hugh M. "The Taming of the Shrew, or How a Talented Woman Can Become a Successful Wife and Be Happy." In Shakespeare's Sexual Comedy, 83-101. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1972.

Schafer, Elizbeth, ed. The Taming of the Shrew. Shakespeare in Production. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003.

Shurgot, Michael W. "From Fiction to Reality: Character and Stagecraft in The Taming of the Shrew." Theatre Journal 33 (1981): 327-40.

The Taming of the Shrew at Talkin' Broadway.

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