Shakespeare

[Phantom of London]

The plays the thing that captures the conscious of the theatregoers, sure that is wrong though and it should read the conscious of the theatreboard posters.

This thread is driven by Romeo and Juliet at the National, with posters keen or not so keen on it.

So wondering what is your favourite Shakespeare, one would be hard, to give people a bit of wriggle room thought do a top 3.


Mine are;

Othello
Julius Caesar
Henry V

[NeilVHughes]

- Much Ado About Nothing

- Richard II

- Hamlet

[deadyankee]

Richard III
Henry V
12h Night

[oxfordsimon]

This is an almost impossible question.

I am annoyed with myself that I have yet to see 3 of the plays. So can't comment properly on H8,Timon or TNK

I have directed a fair number of them now and there is only one to which I am aching to return and that has to be Richard III. An amazing, thrilling piece of theatre. Family, politics, conflict, humour - so much to enjoy.

After that, it gets tricky.

I don't get on with the Roman plays. Not sure why they don't speak to me but they don't.

The other history plays can intrigue me. But I don't have a great love for any of them.

With the tragedies, I have yet to see a Macbeth that convinces me. Hamlet productions often tend towards the self indulgent.

Lear is the one that does stick with me. But not sure it counts as a favourite. It may be more of a reflection of the point in my life when I directed it.

Turning to the comedies...

Much Ado is the most reliably entertaining. Twelfth Night has many great qualities. LLL is underrated. Dream is overrated.

As a performer I want another crack at Malvolio. As a director, I want to see what I can make of Measure for Measure.

I would find it easier to list favourite Shakespeare productions than to talk about the plays in the abstract.

[lynette]

Hamlet - if we had only this one we would be very sad knowing we must be missing great work. And it is about the terrible waste of a younger generation.
Much Ado about Nothing because it makes me laugh at human nature, out loud every time.
Tricky to pin down a number 3 but I have a soft spot for Merry Wives because if the laundry joke and again our capacity to deceive ourselves and Pericles because I think it has that most moving moment , the reunion of father and daughter.

[theatremad]

Really hard. I dont like the 'popular' ones.

1) Henry IV and Henry VI Part 2s: all of humanity and so much more. And introduces Richard to us in Henry VI and the joys of Shallow in Henry IV. Henry VI still shocks me every time

2) Henry VIII: no idea why but this thrills me every time.

3) Troilus and Cressida and Loves Labours Lost: hard not to include these. Full of fab word play and all else

[joem]

Richard II
The Tempest
Macbeth
Henry VI (1,2,3)

[bordeaux]

Hamlet, King Lear, Much Ado about Nothing.

Though the Shakespeares I most want to see again are those I've seen least: I've seen Henry VIII, Titus Andronicus and Two Noble Kinsmen only once each, the Henry IVs only twice on stage.

Some of the plays do seem easier to stage than others (Jan Brock commented on this elsewhere). I've seen 17 Hamlets, only three of which were a wasted evening (Alan Rickman, Danny Webb, Benedict Cumberbatch, in each case because of the director - Sturua, Lyubimov, Turner), whereas I've seen only five Macbeths of which two were very good (Sher and Patrick Stewart) and three of which were poor - Jacobi for Adrian Noble, Alan Howard for Richard Eyre, a Tobacco Factory one (and I've avoided several because of bad reviews). Similarly, Much Ado seems to work pretty much every time whereas Twelfth Night has a much harder time of it. I wonder if some of the minor Shakespeares are so well done because they are done by directors who really believe in them, rather than because it's buggin's turn to direct it.

[peggs]

I think whilst I seem to have seen certain plays quite a lot (though no where near as many as some people on here) I haven't seen most enough to separate the plays from the productions so my views are quite production based. So allowing for that influence I'm going with:
Much Ado About Nothing
Hamlet
Richard II


I've seen all of the above quite a bit and feel therefore it's a fairer judgement that maybe something I've only seen once or twice so could be more production than play.
I could very easily do a second tier of my favourites with a lot of strong competition.

[Deleted]

I started off thinking I can do this but had to give up. For pretty much each play I came up with a production that I very much liked, even the least well known ones.

[learfan]

I have seen the entire canon. Its always Lear at the top for me, ive seen 30 odd productions since 1987. I also favour Julius Caesar, Titus, Twelfth Night, Much Ado, Tempest and the Henry 4s. Im not too keen on As you like it, Merchant or R&J.

[Someone in a tree]

West Side Story is my fave!

I'm not a fan of the histories.

Measure, Twelfth Night, All well that ends well, Tempest & Winters Tale - I find them all to my taste but I struggle to put them 'top 3'

[theatremad]

I've seen the entire canon at least twice. Deffo makes the choice more difficult.

Interestingly if I was to do favourite productions would be slightly different.

1) Henry VIII at Holy Trinity and Indian Dream at Swan

2) Ian Judge Troilus and Cressida

3) Michael Boyd Henry VIs original run and The Winters Tale in the Swan 2006

[tonyloco]

Very difficult question. But without a detailed knowledge of the whole canon, and trying to evaluate the merit of the plays not just from the staged performances I have seen, but also from movies and from the written texts, I propose:

1. Hamlet
2. Henry IVs
3. Macbeth

[Fleance]

Of the histories, I love the Henry VI plays, having seen Michael Boyd's productions as well the English Shakespeare Company's Wars of the Roses, both excellent. However, I think Adrian Noble's RSC The Plantagents is my favorite. I like Richard II and particularly enjoyed the RSC Stratford production with Jeremy Irons (Barry Kyle directed). I've seen many good productions of Henry V; a favorite was Iain Glen's, directed by Matthew Warchus.

Twelfth Night is a favorite. I have very fond memories of John Caird's production with Emrys James as Malvolio and the dirge-like rendition of "The Wind and the Rain" by the entire cast at the end.

Of the many productions of King Lear, I have the fondest memories of Anthony Hopkins in the role at the NT (David Hare directed).  Of Hamlets, I'm partial to Daniel Day Lewis and Andrew Scott. 

I love the late plays. Dominic Drumgoole's production of Pericles at the Wanamaker was brilliant. Peter Hall's The Tempest and The Winter's Tale were great swan songs for him at the NT. I've always enjoyed The Tempest, including the production with Ralph Fiennes a few years ago, which was a sort of throwback to 19th century style.

I like updated Shakespeare and tinkering, particularly The Merchant of Venice with Henry Goodman; The Merry Wives of Windsor, set in the 1950s, directed by Bill Alexander; and the more recent production of Timon with SRB, which I thought was one of the most brilliant updatings ever. I'm tired of R&J but really liked Matthew Bourne's recent balletic take on the work.

A Midsummer Night's Dream is one of my favorites, from the RSC's production with Patrick Stewart as Oberon, to Toby Robertson's Regents park production, to the enchanting recent version at the Bridge, directed by Nicholas Hytner.

I like Troilus and Cressida. I think my favorite production was directed by Sam Mendes (Ralph Fiennes, Amanda Root, SRB). I did find Trevor Nunn's NT production a bit of a bore, though. However I found Nunn's Measure for Measure at the RSC/Young Vic very powerful.

[maggiem]

1. Coriolanus, ever since I first read it for A level at 17. He isn't able to compromise as his mother and Menenius (among others) do, but there's a purity to his beliefs that is almost admirable in the middle of all the political shenanigans. The right and wrongs of this I still wonder about to this day.

2. Love's Labours Lost, especially the eve-of-WW1 staging a few years ago at Stratford. If you modernise this play by choosing your time period with care, the ending can be very moving indeed.

3. Julius Caesar - I was thrilled the first time a saw this play, as it had so much that I wasn't aware of, never having read it beforehand: the way someone new coming into the plot derails the existing plotters (Brutus and Cassius), the consequences for the innocent of being in the wrong place at the wrong time (Cinna the poet), Mark Antony's grieving determination to avenge Caesar's death and then the brilliant way he does it at the funeral. All wonderful stuff!

[Jon]

I do prefer the comedies to the tragedies, I do find that when a main character is going to die, they take a bloomin' long time to do so as was the case in Antony and Cleopatra and also Romeo and Juliet.

[Jan]

1) Winters Tale
2) Midsummer Nights Dream
3) Henry V

I’ve seen 15 different production of (1), 15 of (2), 8 of (3).

I would have liked to have listed Pericles too - very underrated.

[David J]

Again this is difficult. I could say Richard iii is a personal favourite because of the role but the play as a whole feels clunky to me. It’s why this years tom motherland production is now my favourite version because it cut out bits that brought the pacing to a halt

I’d say the plays i most like to see again are

Henry IV Part 1
Twelfth Night
King Lear

[Jan]

Nov 17, 2019 16:38:34 GMT maggiem said:

2. Love's Labours Lost, especially the eve-of-WW1 staging a few years ago at Stratford. If you modernise this play by choosing your time period with care, the ending can be very moving indeed.

I've seen it a few times and I'm struggling to think of a production that *wasn't* set just before WW1. Best of those was the Trevor Nunn NT one where he explicitly framed it with scenes of battle in the trenches at the start and end and it was presented as a memory of Berowne. 

[learfan]

Nov 18, 2019 10:09:17 GMT Jan said:

Nov 17, 2019 16:38:34 GMT maggiem said:

2. Love's Labours Lost, especially the eve-of-WW1 staging a few years ago at Stratford. If you modernise this play by choosing your time period with care, the ending can be very moving indeed.

I've seen it a few times and I'm struggling to think of a production that *wasn't* set just before WW1. Best of those was the Trevor Nunn NT one where he explicitly framed it with scenes of battle in the trenches at the start and end and it was presented as a memory of Berowne. 

The Washington DC production that came over to the RSC complete works in 2006 was set in the 1960s Beatles era and worked pretty well. But yes that Edwardian age does seem to be popular with LLL productions.

[learfan]

Nov 18, 2019 6:45:21 GMT Jan said:

1) Winters Tale
2) Midsummer Nights Dream
3) Henry V

I’ve seen 15 different production of (1), 15 of (2), 8 of (3).

I would have liked to have listed Pericles too - very underrated.

Do you have a spreadsheet?

[Fleance]

Nov 18, 2019 10:09:17 GMT Jan said:

Nov 17, 2019 16:38:34 GMT maggiem said:

2. Love's Labours Lost, especially the eve-of-WW1 staging a few years ago at Stratford. If you modernise this play by choosing your time period with care, the ending can be very moving indeed.

I've seen it a few times and I'm struggling to think of a production that *wasn't* set just before WW1. Best of those was the Trevor Nunn NT one where he explicitly framed it with scenes of battle in the trenches at the start and end and it was presented as a memory of Berowne. 

If I am remembering correctly, John Barton's 1979 (Aldwych) production of Love's Labours Lost was not updated to the WWI era. 

[joem]

Nov 18, 2019 10:37:12 GMT learfan said:

Nov 18, 2019 10:09:17 GMT Jan said:

I've seen it a few times and I'm struggling to think of a production that *wasn't* set just before WW1. Best of those was the Trevor Nunn NT one where he explicitly framed it with scenes of battle in the trenches at the start and end and it was presented as a memory of Berowne. 

The Washington DC production that came over to the RSC complete works in 2006 was set in the 1960s Beatles era and worked pretty well. But yes that Edwardian age does seem to be popular with LLL productions.

I saw that one. LLL not one of my faves, it's a bit of a "problem play" for me. Must say I loved the Branagh film with Adrian Lester in it though.

[Jan]

The thread is about Shakespeare plays rather than productions which would be different. The best production I’ve seen was Trevor Nunn’s All’s Well That Ends Well. It was so good it transferred to Broadway.