Laughing Through a Questionable Comedy:An analysis of the American Conservatory Theatre’s 1976 The Taming of the Shrew

Love or hate The Taming of the Shrew, one must admit that this particular Shakespearean tale has been told, retold, remastered, and adapted a staggering amount of times. One particularly notable production is the American Conservatory Theatre’s 1976 version. While a stage play through-and-through, this specific show was filmed and packaged as a TV movie (meaning that it did not appear in cinemas). The directors, William Ball (film) and Kirk Browning (stage) blended together perfectly in order to craft a tear-sheddingly hilarious rendition of The Taming of the Shrew.

Now, the ethics of this play has long been a hot button topic, and when taken in a vacuum this piece is certainly troubling. The ways in which Petruchio “tames” Kate are appalling. But, though it pains me to say this, one must remember the context in which this play was written. To Shakespeare’s audiences, Kate was doomed to a spinster’s life. Instead, she now has a rich husband and is the mistress of a fine manor; a step up in social status. Still, navigating these dangerous waters is something that every adaptation of this play has had to deal with. Luckily for Ball and Browning, they managed to insert some subtleties that fundamentally alter this dilemma.

But before I get into the character beats that make this play “acceptable” I first want to talk about the tonality and style that Browning went for. The whole play is done in a Commedia dell’arte style, and that choice serves the show beautifully. The characters are done up in classic commedia form, with the chorus wearing white Harlequin outfits and masks, they themselves draped languidly around the stage and set in order to add comic beats whenever necessary (boos, cheers, rousing cries of “PADUA!”). The main cast is similarly fashioned, but they fit into more diverse commedia roles (Gremio, the cantankerous old suitor fits nicely into the role of Pantalone). The whole color scheme is white with accents of red, with more feisty characters (like Kate and Petruchio) wearing the most pops of this vibrant accent color, while more timid characters (like Bianca) wear all white.

But I briefly mentioned the set, and it truly deserves some praise. The majority of the stage is left bare, which allows the cast to tumble about it like acrobats. But all around the stage are, what appear to be, trellises. These act as anything the cast needs: balconies for the citizens of Padua, a ship’s rigging for Petruchio’s vessel, halls and gates and many things that can be leapt on or over. Petruchio (played by Marc Singer) is notorious for this. While all of the servant characters tumble (or get tossed) around, Petruchio shows off his athleticism by galivanting all over the set, even bracing himself so that he, somehow, appears to be standing on a wall.

This leads me into those character beats I teased at the beginning of this essay. We all know the basic premise of The Taming of the Shrew; a beautiful girl is sought after by many suitors, but her elder sister is a headstrong, violent woman. Their father states that to marry “sweet Bianca” Kate first needs to be wed. In comes Petruchio, a young bachelor who is looking for a wife with a substantial dowry, and he is not squeamish about what it takes to get one. He sets out to tame Kate by starving her, depriving her of sleep and clothes, and acting like such a lunatic that she will do whatever he says in order to make him stop his antics. At the end of the play they are, somehow, happily married.

There are a few key moments that make this plot tolerable, and the first one is when Kate and Petruchio first clap eyes on each other. All Petruchio knows is that he is about to face off against a terrifying woman. All Kate knows is that she is about to see a suitor (who she dislikes on principal). Yet when Petruchio first sees her, he is literally struck speechless for a few moments. He stares at her, stunned. Meanwhile, she gazes at him, and when he is not looking, she casts her eyes out at the audience and makes a face as if to say “Oh, isn’t he pretty”. And then the game begins.

They fight, both verbally and physically, and they seem to be thoroughly enjoying the challenge. This reminded me of the banter between Benedick and Beatrice from Much Ado About Nothing, my personal favorite Shakespeare play (solely for these two characters and their interactions). Now I am sure that throughout the “taming” both Kate and Petruchio got very upset with each other, but at various moments we see little hints of tenderness between them. It becomes clear that Petruchio starts to develop feelings for Kate, and it even appears at times that he feels guilty for what he is doing to her. All this is capped off nicely at the very end when, after Kate’s final speech and a passionate kiss between her and Petruchio, she looks out at the audience and winks. She winks! Does that mean she was “in” on this the whole time? In the end, did Kate allow herself to be tamed in order to catch this fascinating man?

The boisterous activities of the rest of the show are what allows these quite, tender moments to carry such weight (the film directing of Ball also lets these moments shine through). The joy about this being a filmed stage play, instead of a film, is that we get all the attention to detail that a theatre company would afford to a Shakespeare play, while getting closeups and shots that would have been impossible to see if you were simply sitting in the audience (or watching a tape from the mezzanine’s POV). The camera sweeps in to catch facial expressions and cues that really expand on the comedy and plot. We can see the acrobatics and physicality much clearer due to the thoughtful camera placement and shots. This elevates the comedy, clarity, and tender moments. Without this, there would be so much that would be lost.

I want to briefly mention the music, which has all the comedic timing of a Looney Tunes cartoon. There are drumbeats, and gongs, and slide whistles, and maracas, and various other instrument that punctuate comedic moments (every time Petruchio’s dead father is mentioned, gongs sound while everyone puts their hats over their hearts and strikes a pose).

All of this is to underline that the vibrant, boisterous, commedia tone makes the quiet, tender moments stand out; and these moments need to stand out in order to make this questionable comedy “alright”. All of the violence is treated like a circus act; when people get hit, they go tumbling into the rafters while cartoonish sound effects play. When Kate and Petruchio bandy words at each other, we see that they are intrigued by the challenge that each other represents. And through these small, tender moments, we see that they are falling for each other. This whole thing is meant to be in good fun, and if you believe that Kate let herself be “tamed” in order to catch the catch that is Petruchio, then this questionable play is allowed to be a hilarious comedy.