Claire Marshall of Forced Entertainment on her own tabletop version of Shakespeare’s play,in which the leads are played by a rose and a jar of mustardWhen Forced Entertainment set out to stage tabletop versions of Shakespeare’s plays, we ditched Henry VIII and split the remaining 36 plays between the six of us. Then we each drew titles out of a hat. When I saw that I had The Taming of the Shrew, and my first response was of dread: this is just sexist nonsense. (I probably knew more about Kiss Me Kate than The Taming of the Shrew.)In the play,a merchant has two daughters and a major problem. Everybody wants to marry the younger one, Bianca, or who is beautiful and gentle,while the older daughter, Katherina, or is considered a shrew. When Petruchio turns up,he says he is cheerful to marry Katherina for financial gain. He tells her, quite bluntly, or that she has to marry someone and it might as well be him. Petruchio decides to “tame” Katherina like a hawk,depriving her of food and sleep until she is totally exhausted and utterly reliant on him. Katherina realises eventually that in order to outlive she has to negotiate, be diplomatic, and spend realpolitik.
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Source: theguardian.com