The Taming of the Shrew in performance
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The Taming of the Shrew ''The Taming of the Shrew'' is a comedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1590 and 1592. The play begins with a framing device, often referred to as the induction, in which a mischievous nobleman tricks a drunken ...
'' in performance has had an uneven history. Popular in
Shakespeare's William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...
day, the play fell out of favour during the seventeenth century, when it was replaced on the stage by John Lacy's ''Sauny the Scott''. The original Shakespearean text was not performed at all during the eighteenth century, with David Garrick's adaptation '' Catharine and Petruchio'' dominating the stage. After over two hundred years without a performance, the play returned to the British stage in 1844, the last Shakespeare play restored to the repertory. However, it was only in the 1890s that the dominance of ''Catharine and Petruchio'' began to wane, and productions of ''The Shrew'' become more regular. Moving into the twentieth century, the play's popularity increased considerably, and it became one of Shakespeare's most frequently staged plays, with productions taking place all over the world. This trend has continued into the twenty-first century, with the play as popular now as it was when first written.


Performance history


Pre 20th century

The earliest known performance of the play is recorded in Philip Henslowe's diary on 11 June 1594, performed by the Lord Admiral's Men and the
Lord Chamberlain's Men The Lord Chamberlain's Men was a company of actors, or a " playing company" (as it then would likely have been described), for which Shakespeare wrote during most of his career. Richard Burbage played most of the lead roles, including Hamlet, Oth ...
at Newington Butts Theatre; "begininge at newing ton my Lord Admeralle men & my Lorde chamberlen men as ffolowethe ..11 of June 1594 Rd at the tamynge of A Shrowe." This could have been either ''A Shrew'' or ''The Shrew'', but as the Lord Chamberlain's Men were sharing the theatre at the time, and as such Shakespeare himself would have been there, scholars tend to assume it was ''The Shrew''. The earliest definite performance of ''The Shrew'' was at
court A court is any person or institution, often as a government institution, with the authority to adjudicate legal disputes between parties and carry out the administration of justice in civil, criminal, and administrative matters in acco ...
before
Charles I Charles I may refer to: Kings and emperors * Charlemagne (742–814), numbered Charles I in the lists of Holy Roman Emperors and French kings * Charles I of Anjou (1226–1285), also king of Albania, Jerusalem, Naples and Sicily * Charles I of ...
and
Henrietta Maria Henrietta Maria (french: link=no, Henriette Marie; 25 November 1609 – 10 September 1669) was Queen of England, Scotland, and Ireland from her marriage to King Charles I on 13 June 1625 until Charles was executed on 30 January 1649. She was ...
on 26 November 1633, where it was described as being "likt". Aside from the court performance, evidence of the play's stage history during the seventeenth century is relatively sparse. The title page of the 1631 quarto states the play had been acted by the King's Men at both the
Globe A globe is a spherical model of Earth, of some other celestial body, or of the celestial sphere. Globes serve purposes similar to maps, but unlike maps, they do not distort the surface that they portray except to scale it down. A model glo ...
and Blackfriars. The King's Men only began performing at Blackfriars in 1610, suggesting the play was still popular enough to be performed at least sixteen years after its debut. However, there is no further information available. Apart from a possible production at Drury Lane in 1663 or 1664, the play's place on the stage was taken by John Lacy's adaptation, ''Sauny the Scot'' at some point during the seventeenth century. The original play seems not to have been performed at all during the eighteenth century, and instead a range of adaptations held the stage, most notably David Garrick's 1754 adaptation, '' Catharine and Petruchio''. Shakespeare's ''The Shrew'' was not performed again until 1844, the last of his plays restored to the repertory, 211 years since the last definite performance. That year,
Benjamin Webster Benjamin Nottingham Webster (3 September 17973 July 1882) was an English actor-manager and dramatist. Early life Webster was born in Bath, the son of a dancing master. Career First appearing as Harlequin, and then in small parts at D ...
directed a production designed by J.R. Planché at the Haymarket Theatre. Starring
Louisa Cranstoun Nisbett Louisa Cranstoun Nisbett (1812 – 15 January 1858), English actress, was the daughter of Frederick Hayes Macnamara, an actor, whose stage name was Mordaunt. As Miss Mordaunt she had considerable experience, especially in Shakespearean leading p ...
as Katherina and Webster himself as
Petruchio Petruchio (an anglicisation of the Italian name Petruccio; ) is the male protagonist in Shakespeare's '' The Taming of the Shrew'' (c. 1590–1594). Petruchio is a fortune seeker who enters into a marriage with a strong-willed young woman ...
, the production was staged in a minimalist Elizabethan manner, with only two simple locations; the outside of the alehouse, and the Lord's chamber in which the play is staged for
Christopher Sly Christopher Sly is a minor character in William Shakespeare's ''The Taming of the Shrew.'' He is a drunk man who is easily dominated by women, set up as a Foil (literature), foil to Petruchio, the central male character in the play. Role ''The T ...
. The
Induction Induction, Inducible or Inductive may refer to: Biology and medicine * Labor induction (birth/pregnancy) * Induction chemotherapy, in medicine * Induced stem cells, stem cells derived from somatic, reproductive, pluripotent or other cell t ...
was included in full, with Sly remaining at the front of the stage after Act 1, Scene 1, and slowly falling asleep over the course of the play. At the end, as the final curtain falls, the Lord's attendants came and carried him off-stage. Planché referred to his role in returning the play to the stage as "one of the events in my theatrical career on which I look back with greatest pride and gratification." The play received mixed reviews, with many criticising Webster's performance, and accusing the production of being overly bawdy, but it was a box office success and was revived in 1847. Despite the financial success of Webster and Planché's production, ''Catharine and Petruchio'' continued to dominate the stage, and it was not until 1856 that Shakespeare's text was performed again, in a production directed by
Samuel Phelps Samuel Phelps (born 13 February 1804, Plymouth Dock (now Devonport), Plymouth, Devon, died 6 November 1878, Anson's Farm, Coopersale, near Epping, Essex) was an English actor and theatre manager. He is known for his productions of William ...
at
Sadler's Wells Sadler's Wells Theatre is a performing arts venue in Clerkenwell, London, England located on Rosebery Avenue next to New River Head. The present-day theatre is the sixth on the site since 1683. It consists of two performance spaces: a 1,500-seat ...
, starring Emma Atkinson and Henry Marston. Phelpes himself played the role of Sly to general critical acclaim. In this production, Sly was carried off-stage at the end of Act 1, and although Phelps stuck to the ''First Folio'' text throughout the play, he "much abbreviated" Katherina's final speech. In the United States, Shakespeare's ''The Shrew'' was first performed in 1887, directed by
Augustin Daly John Augustin Daly (July 20, 1838June 7, 1899) was one of the most influential men in American theatre during his lifetime. Drama critic, theatre manager, playwright, and adapter, he became the first recognized stage director in America. He exer ...
at Daly's Theatre in New York, starring Ada Rehan and John Drew. Despite claims the production was pure Shakespeare, Daly made several alterations. For example, the
Bianca Bianca is a feminine given name. It means "white" and is an Italian cognate of Blanche. Variants * Blanche: French * Bianca: Italian * Bianka ( Polish, Hungarian, Slovak, German, English, French, Icelandic, Finnish, Dutch, Norwegian, C ...
subplot was heavily cut to allow more focus on the taming storyline. Daly also reorganised Act 4 so that Scene 2 (the arrival of the pedant in Padua) was followed by Scene 4 (the pedant confirms the dowry for Bianca), and Scene 1 (Petruchio and Katherina arriving at his house), Scene 3 (Petruchio begins taming Katherina) and Scene 5 (Petruchio and Katherina set out for Padua) formed one continuous sequence. He also included several snippets from Garrick, such as Katherina threatening to tame Petruchio in Act 2, Scene 1, and he edited Katherina's final speech in the same manner as Garrick. Another significant alteration was the omission of Katherina from Act 1, Scene 1. As such, the audience was not introduced to her in a crowded street scene where she is spoken of as if she is not present, but instead first meets her in Act 2, Scene 1, after she has tied Bianca's hands together. Critics praised this alteration, feeling it was a more explosive introduction to the character. The production was hugely successful and ran for 121 performances. It subsequently toured internationally, and was performed to critical acclaim at the
Gaiety Theatre, London The Gaiety Theatre was a West End theatre in London, located on Aldwych at the eastern end of the Strand. The theatre was first established as the Strand Musick Hall in 1864 on the former site of the Lyceum Theatre. In 1868, it became known a ...
in March 1888 and the
Shakespeare Memorial Theatre The Royal Shakespeare Theatre (RST) (originally called the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre) is a grade II* listed 1,040+ seat thrust stage theatre owned by the Royal Shakespeare Company dedicated to the English playwright and poet William Shakesp ...
in August. It was also chosen as the inaugural performance at
Daly's Theatre Daly's Theatre was a theatre in the City of Westminster. It was located at 2 Cranbourn Street, just off Leicester Square. It opened on 27 June 1893, and was demolished in 1937. The theatre was built for and named after the American impresar ...
in London on 12 March 1893. Most critics consider the success of Daly's production as critical in breaking the dominance of ''Catharine and Petruchio'' on both sides of the Atlantic. Additionally, Rehan's performance is generally acknowledged as one of the finest depictions of Katherina ever seen.
Elizabeth Schafer Elizabeth or Elisabeth may refer to: People * Elizabeth (given name), a female given name (including people with that name) * Elizabeth (biblical figure), mother of John the Baptist Ships * HMS Elizabeth, HMS ''Elizabeth'', several ships * Elisa ...
writes "Ada Rehan's Katherina was to haunt her successors, who were always found wanting alongside the fiery, imperious character she created." So popular was she in the role, that she continued to play it until 1905. The first major production in England after Daly's success was that of F.R. Benson. Originally performed in the
Prince's Theatre, Manchester The Prince's Theatre in Oxford Street, Manchester, England, was built at a cost of £20,000 in 1864. Under the artistic and managerial leadership of Charles Calvert, "Manchester's most celebrated actor-manager", it soon became a great popular suc ...
in 1889, the production then moved to the
Adelphi Theatre The Adelphi Theatre is a West End theatre, located on the Strand in the City of Westminster, central London. The present building is the fourth on the site. The theatre has specialised in comedy and musical theatre, and today it is a receiv ...
in London in 1890, before settling at the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in 1893, where it became one of the most popular and often performed plays in Benson's repertory. The play was regularly performed there until the 1920s and was revived at theatres around the country up to 1932. Starring Benson's wife,
Constance Benson Gertrude Constance Cockburn Benson ( Samwell; 26 February 1864 – 19 January 1946) was a British stage and film actress. Before her marriage to Frank Benson, she was known by the stage name Constance Featherstonhaugh, pronounced "Fanshaw" (). B ...
and Benson himself as Petruchio, Benson followed Daly's example in rewriting and restructuring, such as truncating the Bianca subplot. Unlike Daly, however, Benson also removed the Induction. The production was very much a farce, with the emphasis on broad physical comedy in which Petruchio athletically leaps about the stage terrorizing a relatively passive Katherina. In its early days, it received generally strong reviews, but by 1910, the political climate had changed somewhat; the 1909 Stratford
by-election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, a bye-election in Ireland, a bypoll in India, or a Zimni election (Urdu: ضمنی انتخاب, supplementary election) in Pakistan, is an election used to f ...
had seen suffragette protests, and henceforth some critics expressed discomfort with Benson's use of farce to depict what had now become a socially relevant situation. Indeed, in the 1912 season, suffragette activist
Violet Vanbrugh Violet Vanbrugh (11 June 1867 – 10 November 1942), born Violet Augusta Mary Barnes, was an English actress with a career that spanned more than 50 years. Despite her many successes, her career was overshadowed by that of her more famous sister ...
replaced Constance Benson in the role of Katherina, although her performance was roundly criticised for failing to bring the anticipated political edge to the character.


Early 20th century

Another husband and wife team who had a long and successful run with the play was
Oscar Asche John Stange(r) Heiss Oscar Asche (24 January 1871 – 23 March 1936), better known as Oscar Asche, was an Australian actor, director, and writer, best known for having written, directed, and acted in the record-breaking musical ''Chu Chin C ...
and
Lily Brayton Elizabeth "Lily" Brayton (23 June 1876 – 30 April 1953) was an English actress and singer, known for her performances in Shakespeare plays and for her nearly 2,000 performances in the First World War hit musical ''Chu Chin Chow''. Early life ...
. First staged in 1899 in the Theatre Royal in Wigan, the play became more prominent when performed at the Adelphi in 1904, directed by Otho Stuart. It subsequently went on a world tour, beginning in Australia, and Asche estimates it was performed about 1,500 times all over the world. Although a financial success, the production received mixed reviews. Many critics commented on the size difference between the large and imposing Asche and the diminutive Brayton, feeling the disparity lent the production an uncomfortable tone, especially insofar as Asche rejected Benson's farcical production in favour of a more psychologically real representation. In the wake of the success of the Daly, Benson and Asche productions, the play began to be performed with much more frequency all over the world. A celebrated early twentieth-century Katherina was
Margaret Anglin Mary Margaret Warren Anglin (April 3, 1876 – January 7, 1958) was a Canadian-born Broadway actress, director and producer. Encyclopædia Britannica calls her "one of the most brilliant actresses of her day." Biography Anglin was born in O ...
, who first performed the role in 1908 in
Her Majesty's Theatre, Melbourne Her Majesty's Theatre is a 1,700-seat theatre in Melbourne's East End Theatre District, Australia. Built in 1886, it is located at 219 Exhibition Street, Melbourne. It is classified by the National Trust of Australia and is listed on the Vict ...
. Acting opposite
Henry Kolker Joseph Henry Kolker (November 13, 1874 ome sources 1870– July 15, 1947) was an American stage and film actor and director. Early years Kolker was born in Quincy, Illinois. Career Kolker, like fellow actors Richard Bennett and Robert Wa ...
in a production she herself directed, Anglin is generally regarded as the first actress to have performed Katherina's final speech in an ironic manner. The play was a huge success in Australia, and in 1914, Anglin brought it on tour to New York. Of the last scene, Anglin wrote "when I run gaily in to do my lord's bidding in the last act, I do it with a twinkle in my eye. I don't play it as Shakespeare wrote that last scene." In a 1909
Max Reinhardt Max Reinhardt (; born Maximilian Goldmann; 9 September 1873 – 30 October 1943) was an Austrian-born theatre and film director, intendant, and theatrical producer. With his innovative stage productions, he is regarded as one of the most pro ...
directed production at the Deutsches Theater in Berlin, starring
Lucie Höflich Lucie Höflich (born Helene Lucie von Holwede; 20 February 1883 – 9 October 1956) was a German actress, teacher and head of the Staatliche Schauspielschule (State Drama School) in Berlin.
and
Albert Bassermann Albert Bassermann (7 September 1867 – 15 May 1952) was a German stage and screen actor. He was considered to be one of the greatest German-speaking actors of his generation and received the famous Iffland-Ring. He was married to Elsa Sch ...
, the Induction was emphasised and the play was presented as a '' commedia dell'arte'' style farce, to the point of the male leads literally wearing clown costumes. In 1913, Martin Harvey, in collaboration with
William Poel William Poel (1852-1934) was an English actor, theatrical manager and dramatist best known for his presentations of Shakespeare. Life and career A son of William Pole, he grew up among Pre-raphaelite painters and reportedly sat for William Holm ...
, directed a production at the
Prince of Wales Theatre The Prince of Wales Theatre is a West End theatre in Coventry Street, near Leicester Square in London. It was established in 1884 and rebuilt in 1937, and extensively refurbished in 2004 by Sir Cameron Mackintosh, its current owner. The theatre ...
. Starring Harvey's wife Nina de Silva and Harvey himself as Petruchio, the production was very much in the style of Poel's own minimalist and authentically Elizabethan productions. Harvey kept Sly on stage throughout, however, in a unique move, he neither incorporated text from ''A Shrew'' nor did he have Sly lose interest and fall asleep. Instead, Sly explicitly reacts to the play - laughing at certain points, attempting to climb onto the stage during the wedding before being restrained by his 'wife', and finally succeeding in getting onto the stage later in the play, at which point he shook Petruchio's hand and then introduced himself to Katherina (albeit without dialogue). In an "extremely conventional production" at the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in 1919, starring Ethel Warwick and
Edmund Willard Edmund Willard (19 December 1884 – 6 October 1956) was a British actor of the 1930s and 1940s. Born in Brighton, Sussex in 1884, the nephew of Victorian era actor Edward Smith Willard, in 1920 Willard appeared in the plays of William Shak ...
, William Bridges-Adams stuck rigidly to the ''First Folio'' text, but completely removed the Induction and all references to Sly. In a 1922 production at
The Old Vic The Old Vic is a 1,000-seat, not-for-profit producing theatre in Waterloo, London, England. Established in 1818 as the Royal Coburg Theatre, and renamed in 1833 the Royal Victoria Theatre. In 1871 it was rebuilt and reopened as the Royal ...
starring Florence Buckton and Rupert Harvey, director Robert Atkins was the first to graft the ''A Shrew'' epilogue onto a performance of ''The Shrew'', with
Hay Petrie David Hay Petrie (16 July 1895 – 30 July 1948) was a Scottish actor noted for playing eccentric characters, among them Quilp in ''The Old Curiosity Shop'' (1934), the McLaggen in '' The Ghost Goes West'' (1935) and Uncle Pumblechook in ''Great ...
playing Sly. In 1927, H.K. Ayliff directed a modern dress production at the
Garrick Theatre The Garrick Theatre is a West End theatre, located in Charing Cross Road, in the City of Westminster, named after the stage actor David Garrick. It opened in 1889 with ''The Profligate'', a play by Arthur Wing Pinero, and another Pinero play, ' ...
in New York, with
Mary Ellis Mary Ellis (born May Belle Elsas, June 15, 1897 – January 30, 2003) was an American actress and singer appearing on stage, radio, television and film, best known for her musical theatre roles, particularly in Ivor Novello works. After appe ...
and
Basil Sydney Basil Sydney (23 April 1894 – 10 January 1968) was an English stage and screen actor. Career Sydney made his name in 1915 in the London stage hit ''Romance'' by Edward Sheldon, with Broadway star Doris Keane, and he costarred with Keane in t ...
. At the time, modern dress productions were still rare enough to elicit a great deal of attention, and the production ran for 175 performances, a record for the theatre at the time. The production was remounted in England in 1928, first at the
Birmingham Repertory Theatre Birmingham Repertory Theatre, commonly called Birmingham Rep or just The Rep, is a producing theatre based on Centenary Square in Birmingham, England. Founded by Barry Jackson, it is the longest-established of Britain's building-based theatre ...
, and subsequently at the
Royal Court Theatre The Royal Court Theatre, at different times known as the Court Theatre, the New Chelsea Theatre, and the Belgravia Theatre, is a non-commercial West End theatre in Sloane Square, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London, England ...
, starring
Eileen Beldon Eileen Beldon (12 September 1901 – 3 August 1985) was an English stage and film actress. She had a successful career as a Shakespearean actress as well as in modern repertory theatre. Biography Eileen Beldon was born on 12 September 1901 in ...
and Scott Sunderland. In this production, the Induction was kept, with Sly moving from the front of the stage to one of the boxes after the first act. Barry Jackson, who co-directed the Birmingham performances, was initially keen to use the epilogue from ''A Shrew'', but he ultimately decided against it "because the actual words in the old edition are so corrupt as to be illiterate." In a 1935 production starring
Catherine Lacey Catherine Lacey (6 May 1904 – 23 September 1979) was an English actress of stage and screen. Stage Lacey made her stage debut, performing with Mrs Patrick Campbell, in ''The Thirteenth Chair'' at the West Pier Brighton on 13 April 1925. Her ...
and Neil Porter, director
Ben Iden Payne Ben Iden Payne (September 5, 1881 – April 6, 1976), also known as B. Iden Payne, was an English actor, director and teacher. Active in professional theater for seventy years, he helped the first modern Repertory Theatre in the United Kingdom, was ...
became the first to use the ''A Shrew'' epilogue in a performance of ''The Shrew'' at the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, with
Roy Byford Roy Byford (12 January 1873 – 31 January 1939) was a British actor. Selected filmography * '' The Little Damozel'' (1916) * '' On the Banks of Allan Water'' (1916) * '' The Happy Warrior'' (1917) * '' The Twelve Pound Look'' (1920) * '' The D ...
initially playing Sly, followed by Jay Laurier. Both actors received excellent reviews for their performances. The most successful early-twentieth century staging was the 1935/1936
Theatre Guild The Theatre Guild is a theatrical society founded in New York City in 1918 by Lawrence Langner, Philip Moeller, Helen Westley and Theresa Helburn. Langner's wife, Armina Marshall, then served as a co-director. It evolved out of the work of th ...
production, which began on
Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street **Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...
and subsequently toured all over North America. Starring husband and wife
Alfred Lunt Alfred David Lunt (August 12, 1892 – August 3, 1977) was an American actor and director, best known for his long stage partnership with his wife, Lynn Fontanne, from the 1920s to 1960, co-starring in Broadway and West End productions. After th ...
and
Lynn Fontanne Lynn Fontanne (; 6 December 1887 – 30 July 1983) was an English actress. After early success in supporting roles in the West End theatre, West End, she met the American actor Alfred Lunt, whom she married in 1922 and with whom she co-starred i ...
, the show ran for a record 129 performances, and was remounted in 1940 as a fundraiser for the Finnish Relief Fund. Ostensibly directed by Harry Wagstaff Gribble, the production notes indicated that Lunt and Fontanne were responsible for the "scheme of the production," which most people took to mean they were the real directors. Presented as a rollicking farce involving circus animals, dwarfs, acrobats and clowns, the performers would often involve the audience in the play; latecomers would be heckled by the actors on some nights, whilst on others, the actors would stop the play to politely explain to the latecomers what they had missed. Any particularly loud coughing in the audience would often lead to the entire cast breaking into a fit of coughing. At the end of the play, Katherina and Petruchio ascended into the heavens in a golden chariot, accompanied by
choral music A choir ( ; also known as a chorale or chorus) is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform. Choirs may perform music from the classical music repertoire, which s ...
. To enhance Katherina's fiery reputation, the production kept her offstage during Act 1, Scene 1. However, none of her lines were cut. Instead, they were all shouted from offstage, and were often accompanied by her flinging objects at the on-stage performers. The fight with Petruchio was also commented upon by many reviewers as being extremely physical. Lunt and Fontanne were the most famous celebrity couple of the time, and their backstage fights were rumoured to be just as ferocious as their on-stage performances. So legendary did the tempestuous reputation of the couple become that Cole Porter's 1948 musical ''
Kiss Me, Kate ''Kiss Me, Kate'' is a musical written by Bella and Samuel Spewack with music and lyrics by Cole Porter. The story involves the production of a musical version of William Shakespeare's ''The Taming of the Shrew'' and the conflict on and off-stag ...
'', about a fiery couple attempting to stage an adaptation of ''The Taming of the Shrew'', was based on their real-life antics.


Mid to late 20th century

In the latter half of the twentieth century, the play has been frequently staged all over the world. Some notable productions include: *
Michael Benthall Michael Pickersgill Benthall CBE (8 February 1919 – 6 September 1974) was an English theatre director. Michael Benthall was the son of the British businessman and public servant Sir Edward Charles Benthall and of the Hon. Lady Benthall, ''née ...
's 1948 Shakespeare Memorial Theatre production, starring
Diana Wynyard Diana Wynyard, CBE (born Dorothy Isobel Cox; 16 January 1906 – 13 May 1964) was an English stage and film actress. Life and career Born in Lewisham, South London, Wynyard began her career on the stage. After performing in Liverpool and Lon ...
and
Anthony Quayle Sir John Anthony Quayle (7 September 1913 – 20 October 1989) was a British actor and theatre director. He was nominated for an Oscar and a Golden Globe for his supporting role as Thomas Wolsey in the film '' Anne of the Thousand Days'' (1969 ...
. This production is as well known for what it did not achieve as what it did. Benthall originally wanted to do an all-male version of the play, with
Robert Helpmann Sir Robert Murray Helpmann CBE ( Helpman, 9 April 1909 – 28 September 1986) was an Australian ballet dancer, actor, director, and choreographer. After early work in Australia he moved to Britain in 1932, where he joined the Vic-Wells Ballet ( ...
playing Katherina. The theatre governors were so unimpressed with the idea, they fired Barry Jackson from his position as artistic director for not dismissing Benthall's idea out of hand immediately. *
George Devine George Alexander Cassady Devine (20 November 1910 – 20 January 1966) was an English theatrical manager, director, teacher, and actor based in London from the early 1930s until his death. He also worked in TV and film. Early life and education ...
's 1953 Shakespeare Memorial Theatre production, starring
Yvonne Mitchell Yvonne Mitchell (born Yvonne Frances Joseph; 7 July 1915 – 24 March 1979) was an English actress and author. After beginning her acting career in theatre, Mitchell progressed to films in the late 1940s. Her roles include Julia in the 1954 BBC ...
and
Marius Goring Marius Re Goring, (23 May 191230 September 1998) was a British stage and screen actor. He is best remembered for the four films he made with Powell & Pressburger, particularly as Conductor 71 in '' A Matter of Life and Death'' and as Julian Cr ...
. This production is regarded by some as the first to use the Sly character as more than a vehicle to elicit laughter from his reactions to the taming. * Michael Benthall's 1955
Old Vic Old or OLD may refer to: Places *Old, Baranya, Hungary *Old, Northamptonshire, England * Old Street station, a railway and tube station in London (station code OLD) *OLD, IATA code for Old Town Municipal Airport and Seaplane Base, Old Town, Ma ...
production, starring Katharine Hepburn and Robert Helpmann. Benthall had failed to cast Helpmann as Katherina in 1948, but in 1955, he cast him as Petruchio in a production noted for excess; Katherina is literally hung upside-down from the rafters, she beats Petruchio with a slipper, he spends much of the play leaping over furniture and brandishing his whip. After a successful run at the Old Vic, the play went on tour to Australia. * John Barton's 1960 Shakespeare Memorial Theatre production, starring
Peggy Ashcroft Dame Edith Margaret Emily Ashcroft (22 December 1907 – 14 June 1991), known professionally as Peggy Ashcroft, was an English actress whose career spanned more than 60 years. Born to a comfortable middle-class family, Ashcroft was deter ...
and Peter O'Toole, with
Jack MacGowran John Joseph MacGowran (13 October 1918 – 30 January 1973) was an Irish actor, probably best known for his work with Samuel Beckett. Stage career MacGowran was born on 13 October 1918 in Dublin, and educated at Synge Street CBS. He establi ...
as Sly. This production highlighted meta-theatricality by using a revolving set, which occasionally gave the audience glimpses of the actors backstage, changing costumes and consulting scripts. Barton's production included an Induction featuring material from both ''A Shrew'' and ''The Shrew'', as well as the epilogue from ''A Shrew'', and additional material for Sly written by Barton himself. For example, when Vincentio is about to be arrested, Sly ran onstage in disgust and had to be dragged away. This 'unexpected' disruption left the performers stunned, and the actors required prompting so as to continue with the performance. The production was seen by many critics as politically very conservative, with Katherina's final speech delivered sincerely. The ''
Evening Standard The ''Evening Standard'', formerly ''The Standard'' (1827–1904), also known as the ''London Evening Standard'', is a local free daily newspaper in London, England, published Monday to Friday in tabloid format. In October 2009, after be ...
'' called it "a complete and uncompromising anti-feminist version
n which N, or n, is the fourteenth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''en'' (pronounced ), plural ''ens''. History ...
women's suffrage suffers a considerable beating in the completeness of Katherina's capitulation."Quoted in In a controversial review,
Kenneth Tynan Kenneth Peacock Tynan (2 April 1927 – 26 July 1980) was an English theatre critic and writer. Making his initial impact as a critic at ''The Observer'', he praised Osborne's ''Look Back in Anger'' (1956), and encouraged the emerging wave of ...
wrote Ashcroft delivered the final speech "with an eager, sensible radiance that almost prompts one to regret the triumph of the suffragette movement." Controversy also encapsulated the fact that Ashcroft was twenty-five years older than O'Toole, and that O'Toole had a reputation in real life for being a hell-raiser not entirely dissimilar to Petruchio. Nevertheless, it was a huge financial success. *
Trevor Nunn Sir Trevor Robert Nunn (born 14 January 1940) is a British theatre director. He has been the Artistic Director for the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Royal National Theatre, and, currently, the Theatre Royal, Haymarket. He has directed dramas ...
's 1967 Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) production at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre (formerly the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre), starring Michael Williams and
Janet Suzman Dame Janet Suzman, (born 9 February 1939) is a South African-born British actress who enjoyed a successful early career in the Royal Shakespeare Company, later replaying many Shakespearean roles, among others, on TV. In her first film, ''Nichol ...
, with W. Morgan Sheppard as Sly. The poster for this production displayed a wooden door painted on which was "RSC IN THE TAMING OF THE SHREW." Nunn was heavily influenced by Barton's production, keeping the revolving set and also having Sly attempt to intervene during Vincentio's arrest. This production also featured the epilogue from ''A Shrew''. *
Jonathan Miller Sir Jonathan Wolfe Miller CBE (21 July 1934 – 27 November 2019) was an English theatre and opera director, actor, author, television presenter, humourist and physician. After training in medicine and specialising in neurology in the late 1 ...
's 1972
Chichester Festival Theatre Chichester Festival Theatre is a theatre and Grade II* listed building situated in Oaklands Park in the city of Chichester, West Sussex, England. Designed by Philip Powell and Hidalgo Moya, it was opened by its founder Leslie Evershed-Mart ...
production, starring
Joan Plowright Joan Ann Olivier, Baroness Olivier, (née Plowright; born 28 October 1929), professionally known as Dame Joan Plowright, is an English retired actress whose career has spanned over seven decades. She has won two Golden Globe Awards and a Tony ...
and
Anthony Hopkins Sir Philip Anthony Hopkins (born 31 December 1937) is a Welsh actor, director, and producer. One of Britain's most recognisable and prolific actors, he is known for his performances on the screen and stage. Hopkins has received many accolad ...
. This production did away with the Induction and presented the play as a realistic social comedy, set in an historical context which explored the
Puritan The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to purify the Church of England of Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should become more Protestant. ...
concept of marriage. Plowright played Katherina as a spoiled, psychologically disturbed child in need of Petruchio's harsh, but effective therapy. In 1980, Miller adapted this production for BBC television's Shakespeare series in 1980, starring John Cleese and
Sarah Badel Sarah M. Badel (born 30 March 1943) is a retired British stage and film actress. She is the daughter of actors Alan Badel and Yvonne Owen. Life and career Badel was born in London to actor, Alan Badel and actress, Yvonne Owen. She was educ ...
* Robin Lovejoy's 1972
Old Tote Theatre Company The Old Tote Theatre Company (1963–1978) was a New South Wales theatre company that began as the standing acting and theatre company of Australia's National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA). It was the predecessor to the Sydney Theatre Company ...
production at the Drama Theatre of the Sydney Opera House, starring Carol Macready and John Bell, with Martin Vaughan as Sly. Relocated to an unspecified town in
New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...
at the turn of the twentieth century, Katherina is a frustrated feminist writer and Petruchio is a soldier back from the
Boer War The Second Boer War ( af, Tweede Vryheidsoorlog, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, the Anglo–Boer War, or the South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer Republics (the Sou ...
. The production was a huge box office success, and subsequently went on a national tour. In 1973, it was screened on Australian television. * Clifford Williams' 1973 RSC production at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, starring Susan Fleetwood and Alan Bates, with
Sydney Bromley Sidney Charles Bromley (24 July 1909 – 14 August 1987GRO Register of Deaths: AUG 1987 18 2293 WORTHING - Sydney Charles Bromley DoB = 24 Jul 1909 aged 78), credited as Sydney Bromley, was an English character actor. He appeared in more than si ...
as Sly. This production began by using slides projected onto the rear of the stage explaining that in 1593, the London theatres were closed due to an outbreak of plague, and playing companies were forced to tour the provinces, often unsuccessfully. The play then used a newly written version of the Induction, which omitted the Lord and the practical joke. A playing company is trying to find shelter on a rain-swept night, and set up camp in a ditch, where they find Sly also sheltering. Glad of an audience, they offer to present a play for him. The production was noted for the contrast between the darkness of the opening, and the vibrancy of the play-within-the-play. * William Ball's 1976 American Conservatory Theater production, starring Fredi Olster and
Marc Singer Marc Singer (born January 29, 1948) is a Canadian-born American actor best known for his roles in the '' Beastmaster'' film series, as Mike Donovan in the original 1980s TV series '' V'', and as Matt Cantrell in ''Dallas''. Early life Singer wa ...
. This celebrated production was grounded very much in ''commedia dell'arte'', with acrobats, clowns,
pantomime Pantomime (; informally panto) is a type of musical comedy stage production designed for family entertainment. It was developed in England and is performed throughout the United Kingdom, Ireland and (to a lesser extent) in other English-speaking ...
-style violence, over-the-top posturing (Petruchio is depicted shirtless for almost the entire performance), much highly choreographed physicality on the part of the two leads, and an on-stage audience of clowns who provided on-going sound-effects, such as drums for punches and whistles for people fainting. This production dropped Sly altogether. Katherina's final speech is delivered in an ironic manner, with Olster winking at the audience, before grabbing a confused Petruchio and kissing him passionately. The production was broadcast by
PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...
in 1976 as part of their ''
Great Performances ''Great Performances'' is a television anthology series dedicated to the performing arts; the banner has been used to televise theatrical performances such as plays, musicals, opera, ballet, concerts, as well as occasional documentaries. It is p ...
'' series, with the TV presentation directed by
Kirk Browning Kirk Browning (March 28, 1921 – February 10, 2008) was an American television director and producer who had hundreds of productions to his credit, including 185 broadcasts of '' Live from Lincoln Center''. Born in New York City, Browning drop ...
. *
Michael Bogdanov Michael Bogdanov (15 December 1938 – 16 April 2017) was a British theatre director known for his work with new plays, modern reinterpretations of Shakespeare, musicals and work for young people. Early years Bogdanov was born Michael Bogd ...
's 1978 RSC production at the
Aldwych Theatre The Aldwych Theatre is a West End theatre, located in Aldwych in the City of Westminster, central London. It was listed Grade II on 20 July 1971. Its seating capacity is 1,200 on three levels. History Origins The theatre was constructed in th ...
, starring
Jonathan Pryce Sir Jonathan Pryce (born John Price; 1 June 1947) is a Welsh actor who is known for his performances on stage and in film and television. He has received numerous awards, including two Tony Awards and two Laurence Olivier Awards. In 2021 he was ...
and
Paola Dionisotti Paola Dionisotti (; born 1946) is an Italian-British actress active on stage and British television since 1975. A character actress best known on television for recurring roles as Lady Patricia Broughall in ''Forever Green'' and Aunt Nicholls i ...
. In this modern dress production, after the house lights went down, nothing happened on stage for a moment. Then, a commotion arose from within the audience. The house lights came back on, and a member of the audience (Pryce) is seen to be in altercation with an usherette (Dionisotti). After pushing the usherette to the ground, the man then clambered onto the stage, and began to smash parts of the set before being restrained by the usherette and theatre staff, stripped and thrown into a bath. The subsequent play was then presented as his dream. At several performances of the play, audience members were duped into thinking the fight between the man and the usherette was real, and several times, other audience members attempted to intervene in the conflict. This production very much embraced a feminist reading of the play, presenting the taming as a distasteful display of male chauvinism, with the process presented as Sly's dream of male domination and power over the usherette who had restrained him. In this version, Katherina delivers the final speech (with the men sitting not at a dining table but a poker table) in a toneless, lifeless voice, and although Petruchio appeared thoroughly ashamed of what he had done to her, he still collected his winnings from the other men before leaving. Dionisotti's own feelings about her delivery of the speech was that it was "full of affection for women." She also felt the production had a very bleak ending; "the last image was of two very lonely people. The lights went down as we left - I following him, the others hardly noticing we'd gone. They'd got down to some hard gambling. They just closed ranks around the green baize table." Michael Billington was especially complementary, praising Bogdanov for the honesty shown in "his approach to this barbaric and disgusting play ..Instead of softening its harsh edges like most recent directors, he has chosen to emphasise its moral and physical ugliness." Graham Holderness argues of this production, "Bogdanov was concerned to stress the continuities between the mercantile ethics of
Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history The history of Europe is traditionally divided into four time periods: prehistoric Europe (prior to about 800 BC), classical antiquity (800 BC to AD ...
Padua and the commercial values of modern-day British
capitalism Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for profit. Central characteristics of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, price system, priva ...
; between the oppression of women in Shakespeare's time, and the continuing exploitation of sex today; between the class-divisions of the sixteenth century and the economic inequality of the twentieth." * Wilford Leach's 1978
Delacorte Theater The Delacorte Theater is a 1,800-seat open-air theater in Central Park, in the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is home to the Public Theater's free Shakespeare in the Park productions. Over five million people have attended more than 15 ...
production for the
New York Shakespeare Festival Shakespeare in the Park (or Free Shakespeare in the Park) is a theatrical program that stages productions of Shakespearean plays at the Delacorte Theater, an open-air theater in New York City's Central Park. The theater and the productions ar ...
, starring
Meryl Streep Mary Louise Meryl Streep (born June 22, 1949) is an American actress. Often described as "the best actress of her generation", Streep is particularly known for her versatility and accent adaptability. She has received numerous accolades throu ...
and
Raúl Juliá Raúl Rafael Carlos Juliá y Arcelay (March 9, 1940 – October 24, 1994) was a Puerto Rican actor. Born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, he took an interest in acting while still in school and pursued the career upon completion of his studies. After ...
. In this semi-farcical production, which mixed modern dress with Elizabethan clothing, Katherina was very much a match for Petruchio, and after apparently delivering her final speech with sincerity, she subsequently embarrassed him by leaving the dining hall alone. A documentary about the production, presented by
Joseph Papp Joseph Papp (born Joseph Papirofsky; June 22, 1921 – October 31, 1991) was an American theatrical producer and director. He established The Public Theater in what had been the Astor Library Building in Lower Manhattan. There Papp created ...
, titled ''Kiss Me, Petruchio'', aired on BBC2 in 1979, PBS in 1981, and was subsequently released on home video. * Jonathan Miller's 1987 RSC production at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, starring Fiona Shaw and Brian Cox. This production was essentially a re-mounting of Miller's 1980 ''BBC Television Shakespeare'' production, which itself had been a re-mounting of his 1972 Chichester Festival Theatre production. All three productions removed the Induction and presented the play as a realistic comedy, set in an historical context. All three productions presented a Puritanical Petruchio and a spoiled, psychologically disturbed childlike Katherina, in need of Petruchio's treatment to make her see the error of her ways. All three productions had the final speech delivered sincerely and in both the BBC production and the RSC production, the play ended with the group singing a Puritan hymn. * A.J. Antoon's 1990 Delacorte Theater production for the New York Shakespeare Festival, starring
Tracey Ullman Tracey Ullman (born Trace Ullman, 30 December 1959) is a British-American actress, comedian, singer, writer, producer, and director. Her earliest mainstream appearances were on British television sketch comedy shows '' A Kick Up the Eighties'' ( ...
and Morgan Freeman. This production was set in the
old west The American frontier, also known as the Old West or the Wild West, encompasses the geography, history, folklore, and culture associated with the forward wave of American expansion in mainland North America that began with European colonial ...
, with Petruchio depicted as a cowboy who rides into a small frontier town and is charged with taming Katherina, daughter of the largest landowner in the district, and a noted
sharpshooter A sharpshooter is one who is highly proficient at firing firearms or other projectile weapons accurately. Military units composed of sharpshooters were important factors in 19th-century combat. Along with " marksman" and "expert", "sharpshooter" ...
, as she demonstrates at one point by shooting balloons affixed to her terrified sister. * Bill Alexander's 1992 RSC production at the Swan Theatre, starring Amanda Harris and
Anton Lesser Anton Lesser (born 14 February 1952) is an English actor. He is well known for his roles as Qyburn in the HBO series ''Game of Thrones'', as Thomas More in ''Wolf Hall'', as Prime Minister Harold Macmillan in ''The Crown'', as Prime Minister ...
, with Maxwell Hutcheon as Sly. Originally a small scale touring production starring Naomi Wirthner and Gerard Murphy, with Jim Hooper as Sly, the touring production proved popular enough to warrant a revival in 1992. In the touring production, "Lord Simon's hunting party" is composed of four men and three women, who are depicted as representatives of modern Britain's upper class. The Induction was rewritten in modern language, and the play-within-the-play featured the actors often having to consult their scripts and continually forgetting lines. In the 1992 production, the same basic form of Induction was kept. *
Gale Edwards Gale Edwards (born 14 November 1954) is an Australian theatre director, who has worked extensively throughout Australia and internationally. She has also directed for television and film. Professional career Edwards began her career at Adelaid ...
' 1995 RSC production at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, starring
Josie Lawrence Josie Lawrence (born Wendy Lawrence; 6 June 1959) is an English actress and comedian. She is best known for her work with the Comedy Store Players improvisational troupe, the television series '' Whose Line Is It Anyway?'' and as Manda Best in ...
and
Michael Siberry Michael Siberry (born 1956) is an Australian stage and screen actor. Life and career Siberry was born in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia. He graduated from the National Institute of Dramatic Art in Sydney, Australia and began his career in Adel ...
. Edwards was the first woman to direct the play at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, and for this reason alone, it received a great deal of attention. The play opens on a stormy night, with a woman (played by Lawrence) dressed in rags trying to get her drunk husband (played by Siberry) to come home. He refuses, and falls asleep outside the tavern. As with the Bogdanov production, the taming story was then presented as Sly's dream. However, in Edwards, it was set in a surreal landscape, with the characters sporting a bizarre mixture of costumes; Elizabethan, ''commedia dell'arte'', pantomime, Victorian,
Edwardian The Edwardian era or Edwardian period of British history spanned the reign of King Edward VII, 1901 to 1910 and is sometimes extended to the start of the First World War. The death of Queen Victoria in January 1901 marked the end of the Victori ...
, and modern dress. At the end of Katherina's speech (which was delivered lovingly until she realised she was part of a wager, at which point she began to speak angrily, and by the end, Petruchio had become bowed with shame), the text was cut and at this point, the play returned to the Induction setting. Sly, having been deeply moved by his dream, condemns the subjugation of women and embraces his wife, whose love he now appreciates for the first time in his life. The production notes say of Katherina's speech; "Petruchio slowly realises what he has been attempting to do to Katherina in the name of love. By the end of the speech, his dream has become his nightmare." Speaking of the correlation between Sly and Petruchio, Siberry stated that Petruchio becomes "sobered and then shamed" during the speech, whilst Sly releases "that his behavior has become unacceptable." As the play ends with a kneeling Sly embracing his standing wife, Siberry argues that Sly "is trying to make some sense of what had happened, understanding that he has made an awful mistake and trying to come to terms with it." The production ended ambiguously, however, with no indication as to whether Sly's wife would forgive him.


21st century

''The Shrew''s popularity on stage has continued into the twenty-first century. Some notable productions include: *
Phyllida Lloyd Phyllida Christian Lloyd, (born 17 June 1957) is an English film director and producer, best known for ''Mamma Mia!'' (2008) and '' The Iron Lady'' (2011). Her theatre work includes directing productions at the Royal Court Theatre and Royal Na ...
's 2003 production at
Shakespeare's Globe Shakespeare's Globe is a reconstruction of the Globe Theatre, an Elizabethan playhouse for which William Shakespeare wrote his plays, in the London Borough of Southwark, on the south bank of the River Thames. The original theatre was built in ...
, with an all female cast, starring
Kathryn Hunter Aikaterini Hadjipateras ( el, Αικατερίνη Χατζηπατέρας; born 9 April 1957), known professionally as Kathryn Hunter, is an American-born British actress and theatre director, known for her appearances as Arabella Figg in th ...
as Katherina and
Janet McTeer Janet McTeer (born 5 August 1961"Ms Janet McTeer, OBE"
. ''Derbrett's P ...
as Petruchio. The production emphasised the physicality of both the comedy and the taming, with McTeer's Petruchio a commanding and domineering figure alongside Hunter's shrinking waif-like Katherina. Katherina's final speech was played in an unusual way. The speech was broken up into separate "beats", with Hunter playing each beat up to a false ending (to the relief of the 'men') only to begin the next beat immediately afterwards (much to the chagrin of the 'men'). At the end of the speech, the three giggling wives all flung themselves at their husband's feet. At the end of the play, when the main stage had cleared, Katherina and Petruchio appeared as silhouettes on the upper stage in the throes of a huge argument. The production received mixed reviews, with many feeling it was unable to decide if it was a farce or a feminist statement, and ultimately ended up being neither. *
Gregory Doran Gregory Doran (born 24 November 1958) is an English director known for his Shakespearean work. ''The Sunday Times'' called him 'one of the great Shakespearians of his generation'. Doran was artistic director of the Royal Shakespeare Company (RS ...
's 2003 RSC production at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, starring Alexandra Gilbreath and Jasper Britton. This production was presented with Fletcher's '' The Tamer Tamed'' as a two-part piece, with Gilbreath also playing Maria, Petruchio's second wife, in ''Tamer Tamed''. This was the first recorded production of ''Shrew'' and ''Tamer Tamed'' as a two piece since the seventeenth century. The play subsequently moved to the
John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (formally known as the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts, and commonly referred to as the Kennedy Center) is the United States National Cultural Center, located on the Potom ...
. Britton played Petruchio not as a swaggering bully but as a shy and somewhat insecure individual deeply saddened by his father's death. When he first meets Katherina, she is in turmoil regarding the recent actions of her own father, and they recognise a kindred psychology in one another. Michael Billington wrote of the first meeting, "I have never seen the scene more breathtakingly played: instead of barbaric knockabout, we see a damaged couple finding mutual support ..in place of an offensive comedy about "curative" wife-taming, we see Kate trying to rescue a madman she genuinely loves." Doran himself said of the play "This is a play about love between two misfits, about their private relationship versus their public carapaces." As such, Katherina here delivered her final speech with warmth and real affection for Petruchio, who admired her throughout. When she was finished, he emptied his bag of gold onto the table and left the room with Katherina, not the gold. *
Edward Hall Edward Hall ( – ) was an English lawyer and historian, best known for his ''The Union of the Two Noble and Illustre Families of Lancastre and Yorke''—commonly known as ''Hall's Chronicle''—first published in 1548. He was also sever ...
's 2006 Propeller Company touring production, presented in the
Courtyard Theatre The Courtyard Theatre was a 1,048 seat thrust stage theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England operated by the Royal Shakespeare Company The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) is a major British theatre company, based in Stratfo ...
as part of the RSC's presentation of the
Complete Works The complete works of an artist, writer, musician, group, etc., is a collection of all of their cultural works. For example, '' Complete Works of Shakespeare'' is an edition containing all the plays and poems of William Shakespeare. A ''Complete ...
, featuring an all-male cast, and starring Simon Scardifield as Katherina and
Dugald Bruce Lockhart Dugald Bruce Lockhart is an Anglo- Scottish stage and screen actor, director and writer. Background and education A member of the Bruce Lockhart family, Lockhart was born in Fiji in 1968, the son of James Robert Bruce Lockhart (1941–2018), ...
as Petruchio. This production emphasised the physical brutality of the taming, with a macho Lockhart often aggressively lashing out at Scardifield, who began as a
punk Punk or punks may refer to: Genres, subculture, and related aspects * Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres * Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture s ...
rebel, but who became less and less assertive as the play went on. Katherina's final speech was delivered in a manner suggesting she was terrified of disagreeing with Petruchio. * Conall Morrison's 2008 RSC production at the
Novello Theatre The Novello Theatre is a West End theatre on Aldwych, in the City of Westminster. It was known as the Strand Theatre between 1913 and 2005. History The theatre was built as one of a pair with the Aldwych Theatre on either side of The Wald ...
, starring
Michelle Gomez Michelle Gomez (born 23 November 1966) is a Scottish actress. She gained recognition for her roles in the comedy series ''The Book Group'' (2002–2003), ''Green Wing'' (2004–2007), and '' Bad Education'' (2012–2013). She went on to appear ...
and
Stephen Boxer Stephen Boxer (born 19 May 1950) is an English actor who has appeared in films, on television and on stage. He is known for his role as Joe Fenton on the BBC soap opera '' Doctors''. Career Stephen Boxer was educated at New College School in ...
, which included a modern-day Induction, which begins in a strip club. Sly (played by Boxer) is ejected for being drunk and falls asleep in a trash can until a groups of "luvvies" arrive in a van and dupe him into acting out his misogynistic fantasies. The production emphasized both the farcical elements of the play and the erotic possibilities. Katherina's final speech was delivered in a robotic manner, suggesting she had been totally broken by Petruchio. The production received some extremely varied reviews, with critics arguing this interpretation of the end of the play jarred with the farcical elements preceding it which were stripped away as the play progressed.
Lyn Gardner Lyn Gardner is a British theatre critic, children's writer and journalist who contributes reviews and articles to ''The Stage,'' '' Stagedoor'' and has written for ''The Guardian''. Theatre critic and educator A graduate in drama and English from ...
of ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' wrote, "Morrison tries to sweeten the pill with some excruciating unfunny funny business. In undercutting the appalling bleakness of his vision of the current state of relations between men and women, he muddies his own argument to such an extent that the audience isn't necessarily appalled by Katherina's submission." Charles Spencer, writing for ''
The Telegraph ''The Telegraph'', ''Daily Telegraph'', ''Sunday Telegraph'' and other variant names are popular names for newspapers. Newspapers with these titles include: Australia * ''The Telegraph'' (Adelaide), a newspaper in Adelaide, South Australia, publ ...
'', called it "a hateful, hate-filled night of theatre." Scholar Jeremy Lopez, on the other hand, wrote that despite aspects of the play he often doesn't like in theatre, he found the production compelling, and liked it in spite of himself; "I have never been to a Shakespeare production with a group of Shakespeare scholars where there has been such forceful, decisive response—where people were actually, volubly angry or excited as opposed to equivocally, phlegmatically satisfied or disappointed." *
Lucy Bailey Lucy is an English feminine given name derived from the Latin masculine given name Lucius with the meaning ''as of light'' (''born at dawn or daylight'', maybe also ''shiny'', or ''of light complexion''). Alternative spellings are Luci, Luce, Luc ...
's 2012 RSC production at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, starring
Lisa Dillon Lisa Dillon (née Stawiarski; born 1979) is an English actress. Life and career Early life Dillon attended Bournemouth School for Girls and left in 1997. She began a degree in English Literature and Drama at Royal Holloway, University of Londo ...
and David Caves, with Nick Holder as Sly. Set in 1940's Italy, the entire set was designed to look like a giant bed, in which Sly has his dream of a tattooed Petruchio attempted to woo a drinking, smoking, irreverent Katherina. Dillon delivered Katherina's final speech with heavy irony, but the production left little doubt that there was a strong sexual chemistry between herself and Petruchio. *
Haissam Hussain Haissam Hussain is a Pakistani television and film director known for directed a number of critically acclaimed television serials such as ''Noorpur Ki Rani'' (2009), ''Akbari Asghari'' (2011), ''Durr-e-Shehwar'' (2012) and ''Aunn Zara'' (2013). H ...
's 2012 production at Shakespeare's Globe, performed in
Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
'' Globe to Globe Festival, starring Nadia Jamil as Qurat ul Aine (Katherina) and Omair Rana as Rustum (Petruchio). Relocated to
Lahore Lahore ( ; pnb, ; ur, ) is the second most populous city in Pakistan after Karachi and 26th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 13 million. It is the capital of the province of Punjab where it is the largest city ...
, the play featured a shapeshifting sprite named Ravi, who acted as a chorus throughout. * Toby Frow's 2012 production at Shakespeare's Globe, starring
Samantha Spiro Samantha Spiro (born 20 June 1968) is an English actress and singer. She is best known for portraying Barbara Windsor in the stage play '' Cleo, Camping, Emmanuelle and Dick'' and the television films ''Cor, Blimey!'' and ''Babs'', DI Vivien F ...
and
Simon Paisley Day Simon Paisley Day (born 13 April 1967), also credited as Simon Day, is an English stage and screen actor. His most recent work includes ''Timon of Athens'' (2008), ''Entertaining Mr Sloane'' (2009), ''Private Lives'' (2010), ''Twelfth Night'' ...
. On 27 July, the production was broadcast live to cinemas around the world as part of the "Globe on Screen" series. It was subsequently released on DVD and Blu-ray. This production included Sly coming up out of the audience and fighting with theatre staff, and Katherina's final speech delivered sincerely, with the impression given that she and Petruchio had genuinely fallen in love. * Caroline Byrne's 2016 production at Shakespeare's Globe, starring Aoife Duffin and
Edward MacLiam Edward MacLiam (born Edward Wilson in 1976) is an Irish actor, known for his roles as Greg Douglas in the BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I ...
. Relocated to Dublin during the 1916 Easter Rising, all references to "Italian" are changed to "Irish", and
W. B. Yeats William Butler Yeats (13 June 186528 January 1939) was an Irish poet, dramatist, writer and one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. He was a driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival and became a pillar of the Irish liter ...
' poem " Easter, 1916" is adapted into a refrain repeated several times during the narrative. Renamed "Numbered in Song", the refrain is used to celebrate the lives of women unsung throughout Irish history. Kate's behaviour is portrayed as a rebellion against church, state and family, and although she is wed against her will, her final speech is presented as condemnation of a misogynist society. * Barbara Gaines' 2017 production at the
Chicago Shakespeare Theater Chicago Shakespeare Theater (CST) is a non-profit, professional theater company located at Navy Pier in Chicago, Illinois. Its more than six hundred annual performances performed 48 weeks of the year include its critically acclaimed Shakespeare s ...
, with an all-female cast, starring Alexandra Henrikson as Katherina and Crystal Lucas-Perry as Petruchio. Set against the backdrop of the Suffragette Movement, specifically the 1919 Congressional debates regarding the 19th Amendment, a
Women's Club The woman's club movement was a social movement that took place throughout the United States that established the idea that women had a moral duty and responsibility to transform public policy. While women's organizations had always been a part ...
is preparing a production of ''The Taming of the Shrew'', with the divisive political situation in the country at large finding its way into rehearsals, with some of the company in favour of the amendment, and others opposed. *
Michael Fentiman Michael Fentiman (born 1 June 1982 at Harlow, Essex, England) is a British theatre director. Fentiman attended Bretton Hall for three years, where he trained to be an actor, followed by a postgraduate course at Mountview Academy for one year ...
's 2019 production at the
Sherman Theatre The Sherman Theatre ( cy, Theatr y Sherman) is a venue in the Cathays district of Cardiff. It was built as a twin-auditorium venue in 1973 with financial support from Cardiff University. Sherman Cymru was the name of the Sherman Theatre between 2 ...
and Justin Audibert's 2019 Royal Shakespeare Theater production. Both productions swapped the gender of every cast member. Fentiman's production starred Scarlett Brookes as Petruchio and Matt Gavan as Katherina; Audibert's starred
Claire Price Claire Louise Price (born 4 July 1972) is an English actress. Life and career Price was born in Chesterfield, Derbyshire. Her parents, John Price and Andree Evans, also acted. Her grandfather was the Worcestershire cricketer John Price. Her n ...
as Petruchia and Joseph Arkley as Katherina.


Theatrical adaptations

The first known adaptation of ''The Taming of the Shrew'' was '' The Woman's Prize, or The Tamer Tamed'', a sequel written by John Fletcher ''c.''1611. In Fletcher's play, Katherina has died, and Petruchio has remarried, to an equally fiery woman named Maria. Attempting to tame her in a similar manner to Katherina, Petruchio finds his tactics failing, and Maria refusing to consummate their marriage until Petruchio changes his ways. She bands together with other women who are also refusing to consummate their marriages. In an effort to elicit her sympathy, Petruchio pretends to be sick, but his plan backfires when Maria has him walled up in his own bedroom, telling everyone he has the plague. Upon breaking out, he finds her dressed like a prostitute and flirting with his friends. Vowing the marriage is over, he announces he is going to travel abroad, but Maria responds by wishing him well. Eventually, Petruchio decides to pretend to be dead. Maria begins to cry, but reveals she is doing so not because she is sad at her loss , but because it upsets her that Petruchio was such a pathetic person who wasted his life. He reveals he is not dead, and, impressed with the ruse, Maria decides to end her "taming". The play ends with them agreeing to live a life of mutual respect. When the two plays were performed at court in November 1633,
Master of the Revels The Master of the Revels was the holder of a position within the English, and later the British, royal household, heading the "Revels Office" or "Office of the Revels". The Master of the Revels was an executive officer under the Lord Chamberlain ...
Henry Herbert recorded ''Shrew'' was "likt" but ''Tamer Tamed'' was "very well likt". During the 1660s, ''Shrew'' was adapted by John Lacy as ''Sauny the Scot'', to make it better match with Fletcher's sequel. Originally performed under the ''Taming of the Shrew'' title, the play was published in 1698 as ''Sauny the Scot: or, The Taming of the Shrew: A Comedy''. This version inconsistently anglicised the character names and recast the play in prose. Lacy also expanded the part of Grumio into the title role Sauny (who speaks in a heavy Scottish brogue), which he played himself. Sauny is an irreverent, cynical companion to Petruchio, and is comically terrified of his master's new bride. Lucentio was renamed Winlove, Baptista became Lord Beaufoy and Katherina was renamed Meg. In ''Sauny'', Petruchio is much more vicious, threatening to whip Meg if she doesn't marry him, then telling everyone she is dead, and tying her to a
bier A bier is a stand on which a corpse, coffin, or casket containing a corpse is placed to lie in state or to be carried to the grave.''The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language'' (American Heritage Publishing Co., Inc., New York, ...
. The play ends with her thoroughly tamed. Lacy's work premiered at Drury Lane in 1667, starring
Susanna Verbruggen Susanna Verbruggen (née Percival) (c. 1667–1703), aka Susanna Mountfort, was an English actress working in London. Life She was the daughter of Thomas Percival, a member of the Duke's Company for more than a decade. Her first recorded stage a ...
and George Powell. Samuel Pepys saw it on 9 April and again on 1 November, enjoying it on both occasions. The play was popular enough that it was still being performed as late as 1732, when it was staged at
Goodman's Fields Theatre Two 18th century theatres bearing the name Goodman's Fields Theatre were located on Alie Street, Whitechapel, London. The first opened on 31 October 1727 in a small shop by Thomas Odell, deputy Licenser of Plays. The first play performed was G ...
, and it seems to have supplanted ''Shrew''s place on the English stage for the rest of the seventeenth century and the first half of the eighteenth. In 1716, two rival adaptations, both named '' The Cobbler of Preston'', opened in London. One, by
Christopher Bullock Sir Christopher Llewellyn Bullock, KCB, CBE (10 November 1891 – 16 May 1972), a prominent member of the Bullock family, was Permanent Under-Secretary at the British Air Ministry from 1931 to 1936. Appointed at the age of 38, he remains one o ...
, opened at
Lincoln's Inn Fields Lincoln's Inn Fields is the largest public square in London. It was laid out in the 1630s under the initiative of the speculative builder and contractor William Newton, "the first in a long series of entrepreneurs who took a hand in develo ...
in January 1716, and the other, by Charles Johnson, opened at Drury Lane the following month. Both concentrated on the practical joke element of the Induction and omitted entirely the Petruchio/Katherina story. Bullock renamed the character Sir Toby Guzzle, and Johnson called him Kit Sly. Both plays were short farces, designed to fill one half of a play bill. Bullock's play proved more popular, being printed four times, and performed as late as 1759. The most successful adaptation was David Garrick's '' Catharine and Petruchio'', which was first performed at Drury Lane in March 1754, starring
Hannah Pritchard Hannah Pritchard (née Vaughan, 1711–1768) was an English actress who regularly played opposite David Garrick. She performed many significant Shakespearean roles and created on stage many important female roles by contemporary playwrights. Lif ...
and Henry Woodward, although Pritchard was replaced by
Kitty Clive Catherine Clive (née Raftor; 5 November 1711 – 6 December 1785) Catherine ‘Kitty’ Clive (1711-1785, active 1728-1769) was a first songster and star comedienne of British playhouse entertainment. Clive led and created new forms of English ...
in 1756. This adaptation dominated the stage for almost a century, with Shakespeare's play not returning to the English stage until 1844, although Garrick's version was still being performed as late as 1879, when
Herbert Beerbohm Tree Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree (17 December 1852 – 2 July 1917) was an English actor and theatre manager. Tree began performing in the 1870s. By 1887, he was managing the Haymarket Theatre in the West End, winning praise for adventurous progr ...
staged it. In ''Catharine and Petruchio'', the subplot is entirely omitted; Bianca is married to Hortensio when the play opens. Consequently, it is not a full-length play, and was often performed with Garrick's shorter version of ''
The Winter's Tale ''The Winter's Tale'' is a play by William Shakespeare originally published in the First Folio of 1623. Although it was grouped among the comedies, many modern editors have relabelled the play as one of Shakespeare's late romances. Some crit ...
'' or as an
afterpiece An afterpiece is a short, usually humorous one-act playlet or musical work following the main attraction, the full-length play, and concluding the theatrical evening.p24 "The Chambers Dictionary"Edinburgh, Chambers,2003 This short comedy, farce, ...
. Indeed, the play only began to dwindle in popularity when afterpieces became less fashionable in the mid-eighteenth century. Prior to that, however, it was a huge success on both sides of the Atlantic; it was first staged in North America in 1768 at the
John Street Theatre John Street Theatre, situated at 15–21 John Street, sometimes called "The Birthplace of American Theatre", was the first permanent theatre in the Financial District of Manhattan, New York.''The Oxford Companion to the Theatre'' (Fourth Editio ...
, starring Margaret Cheer and
Lewis Hallam Lewis Hallam (circa 1714–1756) was an English-born actor and theatre director in the colonial United States. Career Hallam is thought to have been born in about 1714 and possibly in Dublin. His father Thomas Hallam was also an actor who was ...
. It was performed at
John Philip Kemble John Philip Kemble (1 February 1757 – 26 February 1823) was a British actor. He was born into a theatrical family as the eldest son of Roger Kemble, actor-manager of a touring troupe. His elder sister Sarah Siddons achieved fame with him o ...
's benefit in 1788, with a text he had prepared himself, which deviated slightly from Garrick's, starring
Sarah Siddons Sarah Siddons (''née'' Kemble; 5 July 1755 – 8 June 1831) was a Welsh actress, the best-known tragedienne of the 18th century. Contemporaneous critic William Hazlitt dubbed Siddons as "tragedy personified". She was the elder sister of Joh ...
and Kemble himself. Kemble continued to play the role for many years, including a run opposite his wife,
Priscilla Kemble Priscilla Kemble (née Hopkins; 1756 – May 1845) was an English actress. The English actor John Philip Kemble was her third and last husband. Family Kemble was born Priscilla Hopkins in 1756, the daughter of a prompter named Hopkins, who was e ...
, in 1810. Previously, Kemble's brother,
Charles Kemble Charles Kemble (25 November 1775 – 12 November 1854) was a Welsh-born English actor of a prominent theatre family. Life Charles Kemble was one of 13 siblings and the youngest son of English Roman Catholic theatre manager/actor Roger Kemble ...
had also staged the play, acting alongside his own wife, Marie Thérèse Kemble, in 1802. Much of Shakespeare's dialogue is reproduced ''verbatim''. Much of the plot is also similar; Petruchio vows to marry Catharine before he has met her, she smashes a lute over the music tutor's head, Baptista fears no one will ever want to marry her; the wedding scene is identical, as is the scene where Grumio teases her with food; the haberdasher and tailor scene is very similar. At the end, however, there is no wager. Catharine makes her speech to Bianca, and Petruchio tells her, The play ends with Catharine stating "Nay, then I'm unworthy of thy Love,/And look with Blushes on my former self." Petruchio then directly addresses the audience, using some of the unused lines from Katherina's final speech. Michael Dobson argues that Garrick's changes to ''Shrew'' in writing ''Catharine and Petruchio'' "mute the outright feudal masculinism in favour of guardedly egalitarian, and specifically private, contemporary versions of sympathy and domestic virtue." In 1973,
Charles Marowitz Charles Marowitz (26 January 1934 – 2 May 2014) was an American critic, theatre director, and playwright, regular columnist on Swans Commentary. He collaborated with Peter Brook at the Royal Shakespeare Company, and later founded and direct ...
adapted the play as ''The Shrew''. Previewed at the Hot Theatre in
The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital o ...
, it premiered in the
Open Space Theatre The Open Space Theatre was created by Charles Marowitz and Thelma Holt in 1968. It began in a basement on Tottenham Court Road in London, then transferred to an art deco post office on the Euston Road in 1976. Thelma attracted a team of voluntee ...
later in the year, starring
Thelma Holt Thelma Holt (born 4 January 1932) is a British theatre producer and former actress. After a successful career as an actress, in partnership with Charles Marowitz, Thelma founded the Open Space Theatre in Tottenham Court Road, London, which b ...
and Nikolas Simmonds. The play then went on international tour before a revival at the Open Space in 1975. Holt portrayed Katherina for the duration of the tour, but five separate actors portrayed Petruchio, with the last,
Malcolm Tierney Malcolm Tierney (25 February 1938 – 18 February 2013) was an English actor who appeared in many film and television roles. Early life Tierney's father, Ernest, was a boilermaker and trained draughtsman, from Warrington, who worked at Blackpoo ...
, considered the most successful. Refashioned as a
Brothers Grimm The Brothers Grimm ( or ), Jacob (1785–1863) and Wilhelm (1786–1859), were a brother duo of German academics, philologists, cultural researchers, lexicographers, and authors who together collected and published folklore. They are among the ...
-style gothic tragedy, the Induction was omitted, the characters of Gremio and Hortensio were removed, and the Bianca/Lucentio subplot featured as a modern-day parallel story, with both characters having their names removed, instead being simply male and female representatives. Marowitz also removed all aspects of comedy, and although he maintained a great deal of Shakespeare's original dialogue, he rearranged much of it. One example of this rearrangement was Marowitz' use of Bartholomew's lines in the Induction when he is trying to shun Sly's amorous advances; In ''The Shrew'', these lines are spoken by Katherina near the end of the play. Petruchio's response is to beat her and anally rape her as his "gang" hold her down. As she is being raped, a high-pitched whistle sounds, with Katherina's mouth open as if the noise is her scream. At this point, the lights go down, and when they come back up, Katherina is dressed in an institutional gown. She delivers her final speech as if she has learned it, without any emotion or
inflection In linguistic morphology, inflection (or inflexion) is a process of word formation in which a word is modified to express different grammatical categories such as tense, case, voice, aspect, person, number, gender, mood, animacy, and ...
, and requiring frequent prompting by Petruchio. As she finishes, she is flanked by the modern day couple, one on each side of her, both in wedding attire, posing for imaginary photographers, "a juxtaposition suggesting that marriage legitimates psycho-social and psycho-sexual abuse." The final image of the play is Katherina in a wedding gown, chained to the ground, as a funeral bell tolls. Foregrounding the themes of
sadism Sadism may refer to: * Sadomasochism, the giving or receiving of pleasure from acts involving the receipt or infliction of pain or humiliation * Sadistic personality disorder, an obsolete term proposed for individuals who derive pleasure from the s ...
and brain washing, in this version, the happy ending of Shakespeare's play thus takes on a disturbing irony. Marowitz described his intention in ''The Shrew'' as "a head-on confrontation with the intellectual substructure of the play, an attempt to test or challenge, revoke or destroy the intellectual foundation which makes a classic the formidable thing it has become nd tocombat the assumptions of a classic with a series of new assumptions, and force it to bend under the power of a new
polemic Polemic () is contentious rhetoric intended to support a specific position by forthright claims and to undermine the opposing position. The practice of such argumentation is called ''polemics'', which are seen in arguments on controversial topic ...
." Due to the extreme nature of the production, the play divided critics and audiences, but it was a huge box office success.


References


External links


''The Taming of the Shrew'' at the RSC

''The Taming of the Shrew'' in performance
at Internet Shakespeare Editions {{DEFAULTSORT:Taming of the Shrew in performance, The Stage productions of plays by William Shakespeare The Taming of the Shrew Works based on The Taming of the Shrew