Silly hilarious. I read this in high school and remember how crazy it was. ( )

One of my favorite Shakespeare plays to be watched on the stage. Not as much fun reading as watching, but still entertaining.

Tells the story of two sisters, one evil (Kat) and one nice (Bianca). Their father refuses to let Bianca marry until her evil sister is married off first. Of course humor and chaos ensue as their suitors try to win their hearts and succeed in marriage.

Thinking about this play always reminds me of the film 10 Things I Hate About You, which is a modern-day version of the story. ( )

Absolutely the best version to date. ( )

FFYAA

http://nhw.livejournal.com/1097781.ht...

Well, I knew there would be at least one of these: I really didn't like The Taming of the Shrew. The basic storyline is simply too unpleasant: Katherina, obviously a very unhappy person, is intimidated into submission by a bloke called Petruchio who appears out of nowhere and for no apparent reason decides to marry her. There is lots of beating of servants; how hilarious.

It's not totally awful. The suitors trying to court Katherina's sister Bianca are moderately funny, and the Katherina / Petruchio relationship, though generally very dodgy, is almost sweet in the penultimate scene. But it's not really enough to mask the general nastiness of the plot. I did wonder a bit to what extent the complex father-child relationships, and the difficulties of managing households in two different cities, were drawn from Shakespeare's own experience.

The Arkangel version is lifted a bit by Frances Barber as Katherina and especially Roger Allam, of whom I don't think I had previously heard, as Petruchio. But the rest I'm afraid tried to get by with comic accents and speech defects. My advice is to give this one a miss. ( )