Of all Shakespeare's plays which touch on raw contemporary nerves, The Taming of the Shrew is probably the most contentious – and arguably the least acceptable, in a period of crystallizing feminist consciousness. Yet the play stubbornly remains in the repertoire, almost demanding to be reinterpreted – either against the perceived grain of the text, or by clarifying subtextual sympathy for a less chauvinist point of view than Petruchio's. Here, Geraldine Cousin, who teaches theatre studies in the University of Warwick, and contributed a study of the Footsbarn company's Hamlet and Lear to NTQ1, discusses the problems involved in staging The Taming of the Shrew at the present time, taking a closer look at two recent itinerant productions – by the Medieval Players, and by the touring group of the Royal Shakespeare Company.