Daniel José Molina, Alejandra Escalante & Colleen Madden. Photo by Hannah Jo Anderson.
Lucentio, a student and son to the famous and powerful Vincentio of Pisa, has arrived in Padua with his servant, Tranio. Lucentio wishes only to study virtue during his visit, but immediately sees and falls in love with the fair Bianca. He decides that he must woo her to be his wife, but this will not be easy. First, her father, Baptista Minola, has two daughters, Bianca being the youngest. Baptista refuses to allow anyone to court Bianca until his oldest daughter, Katherine, is married. This seems unlikely to happen because, even though Baptista is a wealthy merchant and anyone who marries his daughters will one day inherit half of his fortune, Katherine is known to be a headstrong woman with a hot temper and a sharp tongue. Who would want to marry such a shrew? The second problem for Lucentio is that Bianca already has two suitors, Gremio and Hortensio, although she cares for neither.
Lucentio hears that Baptista Minola is going to hire tutors for Bianca, and disguises himself as a Latin tutor in order to woo her. The elderly Gremio hires the disguised Lucentio to woo Bianca on his behalf. Hortensio also disguises himself as a musician to obtain access to her. While Lucentio attempts to woo Bianca, Tranio, Lucentio's servant, dresses as Lucentio to convince Baptista to let Lucentio marry Bianca.
At the same time, Petruchio, a young and confident man from Verona, arrives to visit Hortensio, his friend. Petruchio’s father has recently passed and Petruchio is now in the market for a wife. Hortensio, hearing this, tells Petruchio about Katherina, because if he can convince him to marry her, that frees Bianca to be married. Petruchio, hearing of Baptista’s wealth and not perturbed in any way by her reputation as a shrew, resolves to court her, aided by both Gremio and Hortensio. Baptista is enthusiastic about Petruchio’s suit. Although he loves his daughter and wants her to be happy, Katherine is a burden to him. She continually quarrels with her sister and father, and refuses to conform to society’s standards of how a woman should behave.
Katherine wants no husband and upon meeting Petruchio, even though there is a mutual attraction, refuses his advances. However, she is not prepared for Petruchio’s own headstrong nature. He will not be deterred and fixes their wedding day. With Bianca now available, Gremio and Tranio (disguised as Lucentio) now bid, auction style, for the right to marry her. Whomever will offer the most for her dowry will win the right to her hand. Tranio outbids the wealthy Gremio by offering more of Vincentio’s fortune than Vincentio would ever agree to. Tranio must now find an imposter to present himself as Vincentio and give Baptista his assurance that, should Lucentio die before his father, Bianca would still inherent his fortune.
While everyone prepares for Kate and Petruchio’s wedding, the disguised tutors Hortensio and Lucentio compete for Bianca's affections. They don’t yet know of the results of the auction and are desperate for her affection. At the church the next day, Katherina has come around to the idea of being married and awaits her bridegroom. However, there is no sign of Petruchio. Humiliated, she storms away, only to have Petruchio finally arrive late, dressed in outlandish clothes. He causes a scene at the wedding and after the ceremony, he immediately leaves for Verona with his new wife, leaving the guests to celebrate without them.
On reaching her new home, Katherina observes Petruchio behaving bizarrely. He’s cruel to his servants, he keeps her from eating or sleeping for days, all in the name of “protecting” her. His secret hope is to wear down her defenses and get her to meet him halfway, making them not "husband and wife" but true partner.s After much struggle, she eventually begins to see things from his point of view.
Now with a new understanding between them, Kate and Petruchio set out on a trip to visit her father in Padua, and along the way they begin to fall deeply in love. On the journey, they meet Vincentio, Lucentio’s powerful father. Petruchio and Kate play a game in which they mistake the man for a young girl, demonstrating just how much they have come to understand each other. They apologize to Vincentio and learn his identity, telling him of Lucentio’s reported marriage to Bianca. The three then travel together to Padua.
Arriving in Padua, they find that Hortensio, rejected by Bianca, has married a wealthy widow. They also find that Tranio, still dressed as Lucentio, has succeeded in convincing Baptista to let Lucentio marry Bianca. A drunken merchant has posed as Vincentio in order to give his blessing to the match. Meanwhile, the real Lucentio has organised a secret wedding with Bianca, which they carry out. When the real Vincentio arrives and discovers the drunken merchant posing as him and Tranio in his son's clothes, Lucentio is forced to confess to the whole plan. He tells them about his new marriage to Bianca.
Dismayed, but nonetheless happy that his daughter has married into such a wealthy family, Baptista holds a wedding feast for both his daughters. As they all relax after their meal, we see that Hortensio is quite unhappy in his marriage to the widow. Bianca is still angry with Lucentio about the nature of their nuptial. Petruchio is goaded by the other men at the table into defending Kate when they claim she is the most notorious shrew of them all. He makes a wager with both Lucentio and Hortensio that his wife will prove the most obedient.
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Tranio is sent to command the women come to their husbands. Both Bianca and the widow refuse to be ordered around. To everyone’s shock, Kate comes immediately to her husband’s side. Petruchio then tells Kate to explain to everyone at the party what duty a woman owes her husband. Understanding his true intent, she begins by explaining the extreme length in which every woman must go in order to please her lord and husband, but then makes the point that he must, in turn, be willing to meet her halfway.
Moved by his wife’s words, Petruchio stops her from kneeling before him, and they embrace. The two of them leave the wedding and head for home, leaving the rest of the party to ponder at the nature of their true partnership.