Taming of the Shrew

  To prepare for Prof. Eckert's talk on Monday March 24, "'Our lances are like straws':  Irony, Rhetoric, and The Taming of the Shrew," I'd like to post a little information about The Taming of the Shrew.  Otherwise, as much as it would be interesting to have another perspective on drama, we won't get as much as we should out of the talk.

The picture above is from a recent local production of Taming at the Shakespeare Theater.  Here is a link to the web site for that production.  As you'll see, it is a very full website with not only a synopsis and reviews but also interviews, a photo gallery, scholarly articles, and even a video trailer!

http://www.shakespearetheatre.org/plays/details.aspx?id=110&source=l

See this link for an audience member's response:

http://twohourstraffic.blogspot.com/2007/10/shakespeare-theatres-taming-of-shrew.html

Or this summer we could go to Utah to see Taming.    Actually, you may find the articles on this site useful.

http://www.bard.org/plays/shrew.html

Here are pictures from other recent productions all over the world:

http://www.cambridgeshakespeare.com/

http://www.chicagoshakes.com/main.taf?p=2,17,5

Even better, the University of Victoria, a Canadian univiersity, has a series of links to performances from 1908 to just last year!  Most are in English, but there are some in German!

http://internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/Theater/sip/play/Shr/main.html

In the late 19th and early 20th century, The Taming of the Shrew was quite popular as this page from Emory University shows:

http://shakespeare.emory.edu/playdisplay.cfm?playid=27

A professor at Virginia Military Institute has put together a number of links on the play's performance history:

http://academics.vmi.edu/english/shrew.html#Performance

But here are some videos from You Tube.  The first contains scenes from a 1960s version of Taming of the Shrew starring Liz Taylor and Richard Burton.  I showed this movie to my Shakespeare on Film class at Purdue University, and they really enjoyed it--even though it was "old."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmOQh5RNveQ

This video shows Kate and Petruchio's wedding:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_K2gb9BZcSE

I think that my EN 102 students at Purdue would have preferred this version done by high school students a la Jerry Springer (do you remember him?):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ej4ojXbxy2g

Or would you prefer John Cleese's Petruchio?  (Hmm...how would Steve Carrell be in this role!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2NnhBNq6h8

In the UK, The Royal Shakespeare Theater staged both The Taming of the Shrew *and* John Fletcher's sequel (in which Petruchio is tamed!):

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre/reviews/the-taming-of-the-shrew-royal-shakespeare-theatrebr-the-tamer-tamed-swan-theatre-stratforduponavon-594449.html

Here Professors Lisa Jardine (an expert on Shakespeare) and Gordon McMullan (an expert on John Fletcher) and actor Alexandra Gilbraith discuss the two plays and Shakespeare's attitude towards women:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/womanshour/2003_23_sat_01.shtml

To see what The Tamer Tamed looks like, here is Shakespeare and Company's collection of pictures from its 2005 production:

http://www.shakespeare.org/gallery/tamer

Before Watching Kurosawa's Ran

I just like this Polish poster. It depicts Hidetora (the old warlord in Ran & Kurosawa's revision of King Lear) so well!

Here is a link to a 2000 review of Kurosawa's film. This site also includes some stills from the film, but they may be difficult to load.

http://www.imagesjournal.com/issue09/reviews/ran/text.htm

Here is another 2000 review of Ran; this one is from Salon:

http://archive.salon.com/ent/col/srag/2000/09/21/kurosawa/index.html

Ran itself came out in 1985. Here is Roger Ebert's review from that time:
http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19851225/REVIEWS/51...

Also, here is the NY Times review from 1985:

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0CE5D7153BF933A15751C1A96394...

Here is the British Film Institutes's site on Kurosawa:

http://www.bfi.org.uk/features/kurosawa/

PBS also did a documentary on Kurosawa and his films:

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/shows/kurosawa/kurosawa.html

For more information about King Lear (the play that Kurosawa is reworking), first go to this summary with explanation:

http://www.pathguy.com/kinglear.htm

Here are various eighteenth & nineteenth Western artists' depictions of scenes from King Lear:

http://www.english.emory.edu/classes/Shakespeare_Illustrated/LearPaintings.html

These sites link to recent performances of King Lear. The first is in Chicago and stars Stacy Keach:

http://www.goodmantheatre.org/season/Production.aspx?tess=906

Ian McKellen is now performing King Lear:
http://www.mckellen.com/stage/lear07/index.htm

Enjoy!