This may be Shakespeare's funniest play; it's certainly one of his liveliest. Petruchio wants a wealthy wife, and nothing else matters—she can be ugly as sin and a holy terror. He meets Kate. She's beautiful. But she's a holy terror. And Petruchio spends the rest of the play trying to tame her.

Charlotte Brown is one of those gifted people who can cut a play without butchering it. This adaptation of The Taming of the Shrew retains the most cherished parts of Shakespeare's comedy; yet the action flows smoothly from scene to scene. Ms. Brown has been faithful in using Shakespeare's language, even strange spellings like "politicly" and obsolete words like "amort" (dispirited). The publisher chose not to put the lines in poetry form except for rhyming couplets.

This is the kind of adaptation that will tempt the cast and the audience to read—and watch, if possible—the full-length version. Every director of miniature classics should require his/her cast and crew members to read and study the full-length play before beginning rehearsals of the short version.

Our miniature classics have been popular in play contests and festivals throughout the U. S. and Canada, and all those listed on our website have been contest winners. This version of The Taming of the Shrew won the Texas statewide one-act play contest for Gregory-Portland High School in Conference AAA. The students playing Petruchio and Katharina were chosen best actor and best actress.

One act; Set, platforms, step units, and columns or pylons rearranged for each scene; Costumes, Traditional Elizabethan.

Additional Shakespeare: As You Like It, The Comedy of Errors, Macbeth, Midsummer Night's Dream, Twelfth Night

See also: Makbeth, Mossy Cape, Shakespeare Unbound, William's Window