Taming of the Shrew has a great premise. This had a silly one – the King of Navarre and his mates agree to take a couple of years off so they can study. Of course this is harder than it proves to be, especially when the princess of France and her mates rock into town. That’s about it, really – there’s not much story, which is really weird for Shakespeare. He throws in “subplots” about a flighty Spaniard, a clown, a uni tutor and a play-within-a-play – but they’re just extra things, really.
I think the main reason Shakespeare wrote this was he wanted to have characters engage in verbal duels and wordplay – there are some charming dialogues on the nature of love, for instance - and the play is just something he thought up to go along with it. (This is one of the few Shakespeare’s without a known original story source.) It shows – this was boring to read. Why did Ken Branaugh decide to adapt this? Didn’t he realise there was no story or interesting characters?
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