INSPIRED PAIRING

Gregory Doran's pairing of The Taming of the Shrew with John Fletcher's The Woman's Prize or The Tamer Tamed provided a novel framework which replaced the Induction. Fletcher's play was the 'antidote'  to Shakespeare's tale of female subjugation as the tables were turned and Petruchio was tamed by his second wife Maria. Both productions employed the same abstract sets and cast.

FRESH APPROACH

Critics were particularly impressed with Doran's innovative approach: the 'production blows like a fresh, restorative breeze through the play, drawing your attention to the unexpected layers of humanity in its subtext...This Shrew dramatises a genuine love-match... it convinces you that this pair of misfits become fellow-conspirators who manage to outwit the system.' Paul Taylor, Independent, 19 January 2004.

FROM WASHINGTON TO WEST END

Having opened at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in April 2003, Doran's double-bill travelled to the Eisenhower Theater in Washington DC's John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, before enjoying a West End run at the Queen's Theatre, London, in early 2004.