The Taming of the Shrew
Photos by Jeff and Heather Morris
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Lucentio, with Tranio his servant, arrives to study in Padua, but “See, while idly I stood looking on, I found the effect of love in idleness.”.
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The Taming of the Shrew
Photos by Jeff and Heather Morris Return |
Lucentio, with Tranio his servant, arrives to study in Padua, but “See, while idly I stood looking on, I found the effect of love in idleness.”. |
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Alas, Baptista, the father of Lucentio's new love, has resolved “. . . not to bestow my youngest daughter before I have a husband for the elder.” |
Baptista (Ruth Borovicka/Carol Ault) Vincentio (Cecilia Rinaldi) Lucentio (Bethany Francis) Petrucio (James Euto) Gremio (Joe Balding) Hortensio (Ken Bowald) Tranio (David Potts) Grumio (Karen M. Chan) Curtis (Christine Brady) Pedant (Marlo Tinkham) Katharina (Arielle Giselle Rogers) Bianca (Jessica Cadle) Widow (Kaylla Steadman) Nathaniel/Servant (Terry Smith) |
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| Meanwhile, Petruchio, accompanied by his servant Grumio, comes to visit his friend Hortensio and to “wive it wealthily in Padua.” | Lucentio, disguised as a Latin teacher, promises elderly, love-stricken Gremio “Whate're I read to her, I'll plead for you.” |
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| Bianca, the object of everyone's affections, pleads “I prithee, sister Kate, untie my hands.” | Hortensio, disguised as a music teacher for the girls, finds Kate unteachable: “She struck me on the head, and through the instrument my pate made way.” |
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| Petruchio, meeting Kate for the first time, invites her to “Come, sit on me,” but she responds “Asses are made to bear, and so are you.” | Petruchio perseveres: “Your father hath consented that you shall be my wife; your dowry 'greed on; and, will you, nill you, I will marry you.” |
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| With a match found for Kate, Gremio and Tranio (pretending to be Lucentio) compete to provide Bianca the greater dowery. | Bianca, however, has fallen for Lucentio, and discourages Hortensio's attempts to play for her: “O fie! the treble jars.” |
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| On Katharine's wedding day, Petruchio is nowhere to be found, and Katharine cries “Would Katharine had never seen him!” | Petruchio finally arrives, but in ragged, fantastic clothing. When Baptista begs him to put on other garments, he responds, “To me she's married, not unto my clothes.” |
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| Now wedded, Petruchio explains that he and Kate must leave before the wedding dinner. When urged to remain, he pretends to believe they want to attack and rob him: “Fear not, sweet wench, they shall not touch thee, Kate: I'll buckler thee against a million.“ | Later that evening, Grumio tells Petruchio's servant Curtis about the cold, wet journey of the newlyweds. |
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| When supper is served, Petruchio throws turkey and dishes on the floor: “There, take it to you, trenchers, cups, and all.” | Seeing how lovingly Bianca and Tranio act with each other, Hortensio abandons his courtship. “See how they kiss and court! Signior Lucentio, here is my hand, and here I firmly vow never to woo her more.” |
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| Tranio persuades a pedant Nathaniel has found to impersonate Lucentio's father and guarantee the dowery he has promised for Bianca. | When Grumio models the new gown ordered for Kate, Petruchio can only find faults: “What's this? a sleeve? 'tis like a demi-cannon.” |
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| The pedant assures Baptista that “Me shall you find ready and willing with one consent to have her so bestowed.” | During the journey back to Padua for Bianca's wedding, Kate decides to play along with Petruchio's strange games. When they meet the elderly Vincentio, he encourages her to greet him as a young woman: “Young budding virgin, fair and fresh and sweet, whither away, and where is thy abode?” |
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| In Padua, Vincentio believes Tranio has murdered Lucentio and stolen his clothes. Tranio desperately continues to maintain that the pedant is his (Lucentio's) father, but Lucentio and Bianca, newly married, arrive in time to put matters straight. | At the wedding feast, Petruchio, Lucentio, and Hortensio (just married to a wealthy widow) make a bet on whose wife will prove more obedient. Katharine wins the chance to give a lecture on womanly behavior: ‘Dart not scornful glances from those eyes, to wound thy lord, thy king, thy governor.” |
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| Katherine ends her lecture: “In token of which duty, if he please, my hand is ready: may it do him ease.“ | The cast salutes the Bard of Avon. |
