Taming Of The Shrew Adaptations

All The World's A Laugh...

Shakespeare's Comedies On Screen – Part I

We marked the 400th death anniversary of The Bard by featuring some of the best screen adaptations of his tragedies in “To Weep Or Not To Weep... Shakespeare's Tragedies On Screen” (Part I and Part II).

And in this and the next post we will look at screen adaptations of some of his finest comedies.

“Sit by my side, and let the world slip: we shall ne'er be younger.”

The Taming Of The Shrew (written between 1590 and 1592)

The story is about an obstinate and hot headed girl (Katherina) who nobody wishes to marry, and her younger sister (Bianca) with numerous suitors who conspire to get the elder sister married off to Petruchio so that they can then try and win Bianca along

A contemporary version of the play, the movie was widely acclaimed for not being yet another teen romance.

“The course of true love never did run smooth.”

A Midsummer Night's Dream (written between 1590 and 1597)

One of his most popular works and performed widely, the play is set in the woodlands as well as the domain of the fairies and is based around the wedding of the Duke of Athens to to the Queen of Amazon. The story is about four young Athenians as well as six actors who are manipulated by the fairies.

One of the earliest full length adaptations is “Wood Love” (1925) by German film-maker Hans Neumann while an American version named “A Midsummer Night's Dream” (1935) by Max Reinhardt and William Dieterle won two Academy Awards (Best Cinematography and Film Editing) and was also nominated for Best Picture.

Yet another adaptation was in 1999 which was written and directed by Michael Hoffman and starred Kevin Kline, Michelle Pfeiffer, Christian Bale, Calista Flockhart etc. While a surreal interpretation in the same year by James Kerwin was set against the background of dance clubs and ancient

And “Strange Magic” (2015) is a computer-animated 3D movie by Gary Rydstrom and has goblins, elves, fairies and imps, fighting over a powerful potion.

“We came into the world like brother and brother,

And now let's go hand in hand, not one before another.”

Comedy of Errors (written around 1594)

One of Shakespeare's earliest plays, it is the shortest and filled with slapstick humour and word play. The story is about two identical twins separated at birth and the hilarity through the confusion that results out of the mistaken identities, as well as charges of infidelity, thievery, lunacy, etc.

This is perhaps the only play that has no known adaptations in the first few decades, the earliest recorded version is “The Boys from Syracuse” (1940) which is a musical by Edward Sutherland director.

The first Indian film on the play is said to be a Bengali film “Bhrantibilas” (1963) by Manu Sen and starring Uttam Kumar. It is based on an old play of the same name by Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, which in turn is based on Comedy of Errors. The story is about a merchant and his servant who go to a small town and are mistaken for a pair of