Comments | lareinenoire: 30 Days of Shakespeare, Day 11

lareinenoire

30 Days of Shakespeare, Day 11

Jul 30, 2010 14:54

Day #11: Your least favourite play - The Taming of the Shrew

This is in spite of the fact that the first time I ever performed Shakespeare was in my tenth-grade English class, doing Shrew, Act IV, Scene I. The more problematic aspects of the scene -- like the fact that Petruchio was literally starving Kate -- completely passed me by, so happy was ( Read more... )

shakespeare, shakespeare: the taming of the shrew, 30 days of shakespeare

Comments 5

(The comment has been removed)

lareinenoire July 30 2010, 23:52:53 UTC

Yes, it's a really hard play, tone-wise. You've got to be funny, but at the same time, in this day and age, you really can't make jokes about spousal abuse. But it can work if there's chemistry between the leads, as you said.

bewarethespork July 30 2010, 23:44:59 UTC

The only version of Taming of the Shrew that I've seen was the BBC adaptation starring...I think her name is Shirley Henderson? as Kat, who in this incarnation was a Srs Bizness politician who needed to find a husband in order to improve her image with the voters, and Rufus Sewell as a down-on-his-luck aristocrat. I found it hilarious and really well done, though it helped that both the leads were amazing.

lareinenoire July 30 2010, 23:51:31 UTC

Oh, the Shakespeare Retold version! I really want to see that, just because of those two. Also, the Macbeth with James MacAvoy as an ambitious chef! Because Macbeth + Kitchen Implements = WIN.

bewarethespork July 31 2010, 00:10:51 UTC

Yes, Shakespeare Retold, that was it! I really enjoyed it. And the bit at the end where it's all "women are supposed to be subservient and stuff" is very neatly subverted by the way the couple are acting, so that it reads as tongue-in-cheek rather than as something to be taken seriously. I liked that a lot.

cheerybeggar August 12 2010, 13:15:31 UTC

So you may recall from a previous LJ entry of mine, but I never really encountered Taming of the Shrew until I saw it performed last summer. I kept waiting for some witty, well-written riposte of feminism within the play, but no. He starves the wife he buys into submission, and she seems almost gleeful of it at the end of the play. I was just totally appalled - not that the play itself exists, but that people continue to perform it. Surely there are better.