A quick synopsis: A nobleman happens upon a drunkard passed out in the middle of the road, and decides to play a trick on him. He has him bathed and dressed in finery, and arranges it so he wakes up in the Lord's finest chambers. He gets his page to dress in drag and pretend to be the 'Lord's' wife, and he gets a troupe of players to perform a play for him. That play is The Taming of the Shrew: Katharina and Bianca are two daughters of a weathy nobleman in Padua. Bianca is beautiful and saintly and quiet, and so everyone wants to marry her. Kate is the shrew of the title, argumentative and violent, and so nobody wants to marry her, but their father refuses to match Bianca up until somebody weds Kate. Bianca's several suitors try to get an in with her by posing as tutors, and Lucentio ends up winning her heart (while his servant Tranio woos her father in his master's guise). Meanwhile, Petruchio, a brash young man in town looking for a rich wife, sets his heart on Kate's dowery (and, when he meets her, on Kate, too). Petruchio uses CIA-style interrogation techniques to 'tame' Kate, Lucentio wins Bianca, and, at the end, Kate proves to be entirely tamed while Lucentio discovers that Bianca has shrewish capabilities of her own.
Truth be told, it's not my favorite work, but it did inspire a couple of fun movies, and it's always interesting to see what a great actor does with the part of Katharina.
Meanwhile, on Tumblr: Month 2
