Page 11 - Taming Of the Shrew demo

reality she shows signs of being self-centered and willful.
Since it was first produced, The Taming of the Shrew has largely faced criticism for
its portrayal of abusive behaviour and misogynistic attitudes towards women. There is
ample proof that The Taming of the Shrew gave Shakespeare’s time audiences more
than a little squeamishness. The playwright John Fletcher was particularly keyed
to potential objections to Petruchio’s behavior – so much so that he wrote a play in
response called The Woman’s Prize or, The Tamer Tamed (c. 1616). Fletcher’s play
fast-forwards many years from the end of Shrew, when Petruchio is a widower and
has remarried the shrewish Maria, who gives him a dose of his own medicine.

For all its controversy, Shrew remains one of the most performed and adapted plays
in Shakespeare’s body of work. (The most popular adaptations include Cole Porter’s
1948 Broadway musical song, the 1999 teen flick 10 Things I Hate About You, and
the popular BBC production Shakespeare-Told: The Taming of the Shrew, 2005. One
of the most famous film versions of the play is Franco Zeffirelli’s 1967 production
starring Elizabeth Taylor.) Given that the text is subject to so many interpretive
possibilities, it’s pretty common for one performance of the play to look completely
different from the next. (This is why you shouldn’t watch the movie as a mere
replacement for reading the play. You should do both.) One director might play up the
text’s farcical elements – lots of silly, slapstick humor that undermines any seriousness
in the play. Another director might emphasize the play’s darker elements to highlight
Petruchio’s abusive behavior. Really, the staging possibilities are endless.

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