Your favourite Shakespeare

[Dave]

I studied Twelfth Night for my 'o' level. I've seen a few different versions. The production I saw at The Globe had a cast of Asian origin and was done in a Bollywood style with some lines changed to great effect - very odd though.

I would say that the Globe is the most uncomfortable Theatre in London and to see a Shakespeare play in its original form, a bit on the dull side.

The standing is uncomfortable, but they had platforms within the audience and the actors jumped around from platform to platform, so that wasn't so dull. Maybe that was the "original form"? Who can say?
I've probably seen all the Comedies on stage, but there is a lot of cross-dressing going on, together with a lot of farcical mis-identity and unlikely co-incidences that would seem totally contrived if in more modern plays. I haven't seen so many of the Tragedies. I do like The Tempest. If pushed, then I would probably agree with the previous posts on A Midsummer Night's Dream. I've seen that a few times too but when I saw it at Regent's Park Open Air Theatre, the heavens opened up half-way through and it had to be abandoned after everyone got thoroughly soaked. That's the problem with open air theatre during the British summer.

Add a poll to thread?

 

[Pyan]

Sounds like a good idea...

 

[CupofJoe]

Kurosawa's Ran [King Lear]. One of the best films ever made and a great [admittedly loose] adaptation of Shakespeare. I don't think Shakespeare has looked better. It even gives Laurence Olivier's Henry V a run for its money.
Like others I did Twelfth Night for an English exam. I hated it in class. Bored teenagers stumbling over the words would kill any writing. Then we got to see it performed. It was in-the-round so you got to see the play from all angles and you could see the sets being moved around and the actors off stage.. The play was electric. I can't remember laughing so hard in a theatre before or since.

 

[Foxbat]

Henry IV, Part 1. First Shakespeare studied in school, then saw a version at the theatre by the English Shakespeare Company. Was brilliant, a mix of mediaeval fighting, political tension, and character humor.

Saw Henry IV in the late nineties at the Edinburgh Festival Theatre. It was over two nights. The first night was part 1 and second was part two. Simon West played the prince and his father, Timothy West played Falstaff. It was superb

 

[Ian Fortytwo]

I have watched King Lear, Hamlet, A Midsummer's Night Dream and Macbeth. All of them I watched live. I can't separate them as they were all top performances.

 

[Dave]

Poll added, tried to include all mentioned so far. Obviously not a complete list.

 

[Edoc'sil]

My most hated play is taming of the shrew. I think I hate all the characters and the premise. There's not even any memorable lines.

 

[Foxbat]

There’s a movie version of Much Ado About Nothing done kind of in the style of a 1930s musical. It’s directed by Branagh and, although I’m not too keen on musicals, I found myself really enjoying this one.

About five or six years ago, I saw one man performance of Hamlet. The theatre was just a room that held eight people. The play was heavily edited but still carried the basic story. The spanish actor played about seven different parts and used very few props. The character changes relied heavily on changes in lighting (the only other member of the troupe - a german woman - controlled the lights).

I was very surprised at how effective this was and it’s this kind of experimental Shakespeare that you often find at the Edinburgh Fringe.

 

[CupofJoe]

My most hated play is taming of the shrew. I think I hate all the characters and the premise. There's not even any memorable lines.

But the film Kiss Me Kate does have the song Brush Up Your Shakespeare. Which I think is a wonderful internal reality loop.

 

[Ian Fortytwo]

Voted for King Lear, as that was the last one I saw.

 

[彐ildHunter]

Read all his works in Chinese version, I'll vote Tempest. Unlike the vengeance in Hamlet which is desperate and tragic, the revenge of Prospero is more mild. And I like the stories with a wizard or mage.
And I think some of his works concerning the kings are rather boring, no offence, I just not fond of the royal themes.

 

[mosaix]

My most hated play is taming of the shrew. I think I hate all the characters and the premise. There's not even any memorable lines.

Agree with you on this. My daughter had to do this for her 'O' level English Lit. and spent a lot of effort arguing with her teacher about it. She was told that it had to be looked at for its 'literary merit'.

 

[Dan Jones]

My ‘Complete Works’ says ‘sun’, @pyan even though for years I thought it was son.

The First Folio says “Sonne”, which is usually ‘son’.

The 1597 Quarto version also says, "Sonne" so I think the Complete Works must be incorrect here, or working from some other version. In any case, the pun works better with sonne / son.

Titus Andronicus. A great play with fabulous characters. Aaron, I think, is a more villainous character than Iago.

TA was the play that really turned me onto Shakespeare when I was around 17. Up to then I'd read a couple for GCSE and thought it was ok, but the sheer bloodthirstiness of Titus that caught my eye.

But my favourite was and remains The Tempest, which IMHO is the greatest achievement in all of literature. It seems to have infinite depth, and just when you think you've reached the bottom of what it all means, another unknowably vast chasm of profundity reveals itself. It also seems to have lent itself to some of the most interesting adaptations in the whole canon - Une Tempete, Propsero's Books, Hag-Seed, Forbidden Planet, and more. Along with Moby Dick, Middlemarch and Crime and Punishment I reckon it's the closest thing to perfection that's ever been managed in fiction.

A quick mention for Macbeth: when I was at school I went to see a production of the Scottish Play at the Tricycle theatre (now known as The Kiln, bleurgh) in London. Duncan was played by a disabled actor in a wheelchair. The aftermath of the first battle was depicted on stage by a few small fake rocks and arrows lit with fire. In Act 1 scene 4 Duncan enters and makes Macbeth Thane of Cawbor. As they're talking Duncan's wheelchair has parked up a little too close to one of the flaming props... at this point my mates and I can see the flames start to lick at Duncan's wheelchair, and we start to titter and stifle a few laughs, and then

BANG!

The tyre on the right side of poor King Duncan's wheelchair actually explodes! Cue Duncan shrieking in fright and falling out of his wheelchair, whilst still trying to deliver his lines. "Welcome... hither! Oh sh*t! I have begun to plant thee - get me out! – and will labor... bloody hell! To make thee full of growing..." After that, every time Duncan had to come onto the stage he had to be supported by two extras holding him up under his shoulders. What a trouper. And there was much guffawing and mirth in the aisles from me and my merciless school chums. Great times.

 

[AnyaKimlin]

Macbeth I struggle with on multiple levels. It was slightly strange studying it from a classroom with a view of the castle where King Duncan is supposed to have died of his battle wounds. And why is it classed as a tragedy and not an historical lol? I mean I know the history in it sucks but it does in the other plays.

My favourite is probably Henry IV I can't remember if it's part one or two but the interactions between Prince Hal and Falstaff are wonderful.

 

[Foxbat]

I think part one is by far the stronger and has wonderful Hal and Falstaff moments. One line I always liked was Hal, mocking Falstaff’s size says something like ‘see how he lards the earth as he runs’

To be frank, I find part two a bit of a grind.

 

[paranoid marvin]

In my opinion Hamlet is his greatest play; so full of memorable idioms and many, many phrases that are used to this day. But Richard III is my favourite because of how brilliant are the lead character's speeches. He also (literally) changed people's perspective of history in his depiction of the king. Likely he would have been a minor footnote in history without Shakespeare's play.

 

[Bick]

But Richard III is my favourite because of how brilliant are the lead character's speeches. He also (literally) changed people's perspective of history in his depiction of the king. Likely he would have been a minor footnote in history without Shakespeare's play.

Well, he instilled a biased view on the public which persevered - I guess that is changing people's perspective. As a king, Richard III was never in danger of being forgotten though. His reputation was doubtless ruined in a moral sense by the Tudors, but history is written by the winners, right? In this case, by Shakespeare on behalf of the winners... Had he not had the play written about him, he'd be remembered in the general consciousness as a much better king, I expect.

Bottom line - Shakespeare isn't history, a lot of it was propaganda and reflected simply what was politic at the time.

 

[Bick]

I voted Henry V, just cause I always liked this:

We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition;
And gentlemen in England now a-bed
Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.

It's old war-mongering stuff, but powerful nonetheless.

 

[Danny McG]

Compulsory reading as a schoolboy really put me off Shakespeare.
I occasionally nowadays look at stuff by him and it's "yeah, big deal, load of dull tripe"

I did enjoy the film with Laurence Olivier as Richard III, one rainy afternoon many years ago.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

To answer this at all, I have to split his plays up into various categories.

Among the comedies, A Midsummer Night's Dream for its fantasy and airy lightness

Among the histories, Richard II for a very interesting title character, neither completely good or bad, compared to the heroic Henry V or wicked Richard III.

Among the Greek and Roman plays, Julius Caesar for its bold, simple language and strong story.

Among what I'm going to call his early or apprentice plays, although that's almost completely arbitrary, Romeo and Juliet for perfectly capturing youthful fantasies of love and death. (I can't really call it a tragedy, compared to the later, famous ones, since the fate of the two star-crossed lovers is more romantic, to the adolescent who can't really imagine dying, than tragic.)

Among the so-called problem plays or dark comedies, Measure for Measure, for its sharp examination of hypocrisy and moral standards.

Among the tragedies, wow, that's a tough choice, when there's general agreement that there are at least four truly great ones. What can I say? Hamlet is the most quotable, Othello has the most fascinating character (Iago), Macbeth is the most viscerally powerful, and King Lear is the most profound. I might have to go with Macbeth for its raw emotion.

Among the late plays, or romances, as they are sometimes called, I'd go with The Tempest, again for its fantasy, as well as for the wistful mood.