Top Ten Shakespeare Productions

[bordeaux]

Someone suggested we do this some time ago and I'm happy to be first off.  I've been going to the theatre since the late 80s.

1. Othello - Trevor Nunn's production with Ian McKellen and Willard White in 1989 at the Young Vic.  Extraordinary performance by McKellen. Nunn's production had all his usual virtues:  clarity, emotional intensity, trusting the playwright.  Gorgeous design too.
2. Hamlet - I've seen 17 of these and only regretted the time spent on three of them.  The Peter Hall one with Stephen Dillane (1995, West End) just wins over Adrian Noble/Branagh and Ron Daniels/Rylance.  The wittiest Hamlet I can recall, a brilliant lead performance of course.  A reminder too that Hall did a fair number of excellent things after his glory days running the big companies.
3. A Midsummer Night's Dream - I'm going for the Nicholas Hytner one at the Bridge last year, though the John Caird 1989 punky one runs  it close (and its Rude Mechanicals' play was probably the funniest 20 minutes I've ever spent in the theatre).  Partly personal reasons - it was pure delight to be there with my 12 and 14 year old daughters enjoying Shakespeare unreservedly for the first time; the sheer humour and excitement of the whole show was impossible to resist.
4. Troilus and Cressida - directed by Sam Mendes, RSC Swan 1990.  Simon Russell Beale as a pustular Thersites, hilarious, an amazing  cast (Root, Fiennes Allam, Troughton, Rodway, Jesson), my first visit to the Swan.  
5. King Lear - Ian Holm for Richard Eyre at the Cottesloe 1998.  I've been lucky with Lear (and Hamlet) but this stands out.  The intensity of the small space, the joy of seeing Ian Holm (it wasn't his first performance back after years away after stage fright but it was his biggest role), great to see Richard Eyre back on song with Shakespeare after his disappointing Macbeth.
6. The Winter's Tale - Adrian Noble, RSC 1992 - a beautiful of one of my favourite plays, another one I've been very lucky with over the years.  This is the version that has most moved me.  I've seen actors  I like a lot more than John Nettles take on the role of Leontes.  Richard McCabe as Autolycus was brilliant.
7. Measure for Measure directed by Nicholas Hytner RSC 1988.  Roger Allam as the Duke, John Shrapnel (amazing voice) as Angelo, Josette Simon as Isabella and Alex Jennngs as a hilarious Lucio.
8. As You Like It directed by Michael Grandage at the Lyric Hammersmith (after Sheffield) with Victoria Hamilton.  The Cheek by Jowl runs it close but this one just had the edge for me.  Victoria Hamilton radiant of course.
9. Merchant of Venice directed by Trevor Nunn at the National 1999.  Henry Goodman's performance is one of the greatest I've ever seen and the production rescues a play that always leaves me uneasy. Part of that amazing year at the National when Nunn did a six-play ensemble.
10. Titus Andronicus - directed by Deborah Warner at the RSC Pit 1988 with Brian Cox - extraordinary, bleak, occasionally brutally funny.

Bubbling under:  Much Ado About Nothing (Warchus/Ryance West End 1993), Cymbeline 1988 RSC Pit (Bill Alexander/Harriet Walter), Henry VI 2000 RSC (Boyd/Oyelow), Twelfth Night 2002, Donmar (Mendes/SRB), Comedy of Errors RSC 1996 dir. Tim Supple on tour in a Rochester school gymnasium, if I recall. 
Surprised  to see no Cheek by Jowl in my top ten as they have done so many great things over the years,  intrigued to see how many of my favourites were RSC productions, where I haven't been for ages.  And of course many of them are from my earliest theatre-going years.  I wonder if that is the same for everyone.

[altamont]

In no particular order - 

King Lear - 2017 - Ian McKellen at the Minerva in Chichester, edging out Glenda Jackson at the Old Vic
Hamlet - 2017 - Andrew Scott at the Almeida edging out David Tennant/Patrick Stewart at the RSC Courtyard
Henry V - 2018 - Tobacco Factory in Bristol
The Tempest - 2016 - Sam Wanamaker Playhouse with Tim McMullan
Macbeth - 2018 - Tobacco Factory in Bristol
AMND - 2019 - Bridge Theatre
Othello - 2015 - RSC with Hugh Quarshie and Lucian Msamati
Julius Caesar - 2016 - Donmar at King's Cross with Harriet Walter, edging out the Bridge Theatre production
Richard III - 2011 - Old Vic with Kevin Spacey
Richard II - 2014 - Barbican with David Tennant and Michael Pennington

If there is a theme, it is that in general, I really love Shakespeare productions in small, intimate theatres

[lynette]

Thnk you for reminding me of so many great productions, Bordeaux . I saw nearly all of them. Without climbing into the loft to check the old RSC progs ....I would add from earlier days, the 76 ?77 prod of Comedy of Errors with Judi Dench. I think there is a dvd of it. I think it was one of the first to reimagine Shakespeare without the po face. It was glorious. I would also go for Tennant’s Hamlet , his performance and the production. Yes, Henry Goodman’s Shylock, the only one to make sense of it in modern times. Ian Mc Kellern’s Lear at the big temp theatre in Stratford, with Frances Barber using a stick. Brilliant. Anyone remember those Almeida jobs in a bus station? Or where was it, that luminous Richard II?
But I have to hand it to Hytner- the Othello he did as his NT swan song was magnificent. He brought the play right into our contemporary lives, helped of course by some terrific performances. And just the other day, as it were, the Jermyn St theatre’s All’s Well that Ends Well was special.

[alnoor]

Lynette, the Almeida Richard II was at the Gainsborough studios.
I saw both Richard II and Coriolanus and they were fantastic

[Jan]

In order of date:

1) All's Well That Ends Well (1982) RSC Trevor Nunn, Peggy Ashcroft, Roger Allam, Harriet Walter

2) Midsummer Nights Dream (1982) NT Cottesloe Bill Bryden / Paul Scofield

3) Much Ado About Nothing (1983) RSC Terry Hands, Derek Jacobi, Sinead Cusack

4) Romeo & Juliet (1983) RSC John Caird, Daniel Day Lewis

5) Othello (1989) RSC Young Vic, Trevor Nunn, Ian McKellen

6) Troilus & Cressida (1998) RSC Pit, Michael Boyd

7) The Tempest (2007) RSC Rupert Goold, Patrick Stewart

8) Macbeth (2007) Chichester Rupert Goold, Patrick Stewart

9) Hamlet (2011) Young Vic, Ian Rickson, Michael Sheen

10) All's Well That Ends Well (2019) Jermyn Street, Tom Littler

[tonyloco]

Here comes the tonyloco anecdote, just a quickie in this case.

My oldest memory of a Shakespeare play in London is a strong if rather general recollection of the Zeffirelli Romeo and Juliet at the Old Vic in 1960 with Judi Dench and John Stride.  I remember the production being full of life, the crowd scenes being particularly vivid, and the young principals giving superb performances.

The funniest play I ever saw was the Old Vic's A Flea in Her Ear in 1966 with Geraldine McEwan and Albert Finney where the audience was literally rolling in the aisles. Finney was a particularly effective stage actor although over the years I also saw some amazing performances by top class actors like John Gielgud, Ralph Richardson, Laurence Olivier, Alec Guinness and other great thespians.

And I have to give a special shout to the Open Air Theatre in Regent's Park for a succession of magical productions of A Midsummer Night's Dream over more than half-a-century which have never disappointed, despite the vagaries of the weather!

[tonyloco]

Sorry...I forgot the thread was about Shakespeare productions when I got side-tracked with A Flea in Her Ear.

And I will take this opportunity to say that I saw Gielgud doing his readings from Shakespeare called The Ages of Man which was brilliant.

[Jan]

Apr 2, 2020 16:01:48 GMT Jan said:

In order of date:

1) All's Well That Ends Well (1982) RSC Trevor Nunn, Peggy Ashcroft, Roger Allam, Harriet Walter

2) Midsummer Nights Dream (1982) NT Cottesloe Bill Bryden / Paul Scofield

3) Much Ado About Nothing (1983) RSC Terry Hands, Derek Jacobi, Sinead Cusack

4) Romeo & Juliet (1983) RSC John Caird, Daniel Day Lewis

5) Othello (1989) RSC Young Vic, Trevor Nunn, Ian McKellen

6) Troilus & Cressida (1998) RSC Pit, Michael Boyd

7) The Tempest (2007) RSC Rupert Goold, Patrick Stewart

8) Macbeth (2007) Chichester Rupert Goold, Patrick Stewart

9) Hamlet (2011) Young Vic, Ian Rickson, Michael Sheen

10) All's Well That Ends Well (2019) Jermyn Street, Tom Littler

Oh wait ... I changed my mind ......

1) Pericles (1983) Stratford East David Ultz, Gerard Murphy

2) Coriolanus (1984) NT Peter Hall, Ian McKellen

3)  Henry V (1985) RSC Adrian Noble, Kenneth Branagh

4) Troilus & Cressida (1986) RSC Howard Davies

5) Henry IV (1987) ESC Michael Bogdanov, Michael Pennington

6) Titus Andronicus (1987) RSC Deborah Warner, Brian Cox

7) Twelfth Night (1987) Riverside Studios, Kenneth Branagh

8) Richard III (1990) NT Richard Eyre, Ian McKellen 

9) Merchant of Venice (1999) NT Trevor Nunn, Henry Goodman

10) Love's Labours Lost (2003) NT Trevor Nunn

[crabtree]

some random suggestions -
The RSC Roman season in the 70s - Janet Suzman as Cleopatra
The RSC Hamlet with Roger Rees, and in the same season and same cast, Love's Labours Lost
Mark Rylance in twelfth Night (and his Cleopatra) Globe
Mark Rylance as Prospero on the Rollright stones at midnight in a field!
The RSC Titus Andronicus from about five years ago
The Royal exchange dream from 15 years ago, with Titania's bower as a caravan.
The McKellen /Willard White Othello - RSC Other place
The RSC Macbeth with Anthony Sher and Harriet Walter
The rSC Merry wives with Lindsay Duncan

A lot of RSC, I'm afraid, but they generally get it right with exciting lively intelligent productions.

so many, so many, but probably the worst was the Royal exchange's concentration camp Macbeth, and the RSC Macbeth with Nicol Williamson

[Someone in a tree]

I'm not sure I can list 10. However I did love NT & Complicite Measure for Measure.


At the time I remember loving the RSC Richard Jones production of Dream. It got quite slated in the press and on here. I'm no longer a Jones fan so I wonder if it would hold up for me today.

Perhaps this is for another thread but the Adrian Noble, RSC Dream film version is brilliant. I would of have loved to have seen it on stage.

[Mr Crummles]

I think my favourite productions are:

All's Well that Ends Well - National Theatre - 2009 - Marianne Elliott
Othello - Donmar Warehouse - 2007 - Michael Grandage
King Lear - New London Theatre - 2007 - Trevor Nunn
The Wars of the Roses - Rose Theatre - 2025 - Trevor Nunn
Hamlet - Almeida Theatre - 2017 - Robert Icke
Othello - 2004 - (Cheek by Jowl) - Declan Donnellan
Julius Caesar - Bridge Theatre - 2018 - Nicholas Hytner
Antony and Cleopatra - National Theatre - 1987 - Peter Hall
Richard II - Globe Theatre - 2015 - Simon Godwin
The Winter's Tale - Garrick Theatre - 2015 - Kenneth Branagh

[David J]

1. King Lear (2011, Donmar) - Michael Grandage and Derek Jacobi
2. Henry VI (2006, RSC) - Michael Boyd
3. As You Like It (2013, RSC) - Maria Aberg, Pippa Nixon, Alex Waldmann, music by Lara Marling
4. Henry IV (2010, Globe) - Dominic Drongoole, Roger Allam, Jamie Parker
5. Love's Labours Lost (2008, RSC) - Gregory Doran, David Tennant, Edward Bennett, Maria Gale, Oliver Ford Davies, Joe Dixon, Sam Alexander
6. Twelfth Night (2017, NT) - Simon Godwin, Tasmin Greig, Phoebe Fox, Tim McMullan, Oliver Chris, Tamara Lawrence
7. A Midsummer Night's Dream (2008, RSC) - Gregory Doran, Edward Bennett, Joe Dixon
8. The Merchant of Venice (2011 RSC/2014 Almeida) - Ruper Gould, Patrick Stewart/Ian McDiarmid, Susannah Fielding, Scott Handy
9. Julius Caesar (2012, RSC) - Gregory Doran, Ray Fearon, Paterson Joseph
10. Hamlet (2017, Almeida) - Robert Icke, Andrew Scott, Juliet Stevenson, Jessica Brown Findlay

[crabtree]

I wonder if there is a single play that has slipped through the net. anyone mentioned king John? or Henry VIII?

[oxfordsimon]

Not sure I can get to 10...

But here goes:

Richard III - Mckellen/NT
King John - Aberg/Waldmann/RSC
Merchant - Gould/Stewart/RSC

These are the three that really stand out for me.

Shrew - Creation Theatre, Oxford. Only time I have been convinced by Kate at the end
Much Ado - SRB/ZW/NT joint with same play at the Barbican with Jacobi in the mid 80s
All's Well - Dench at the RSC joint with same play but the fairy tale production at the NT

The only time I have enjoyed The Tempest was the Cheek by Jowl Russian production

And one final one is the Propeller Dream which was packed with energy and invention. Though this could be pushed out by their Rose Rage...

I have seen many productions but very few have stayed with me.

[David J]

Only seen the globe theatre Henry VIII recording from 2010. It's good and the best way you can catch the play

King John...well I could mention a certain production the RSC put on about 7 years ago. Directed by someone who did another production that's on my top 10 list above. Bit of a controversial one around there. Personally I liked it for how out of left field it was

Otherwise for a traditional production the 2015 Globe Theatre production was very good. Thrilling at times.

[lynette]

Saw Henry VIII in the Church in Stratford. Memorable. No lighting so it just went darker and darker but the very sentimental speech about the baby Elizabeth worked like a dream. Clever little sod, Shakespeare.

As for King John, never seen a good one. Am amazed the Aberg one it is on a list above - 😂😂😂

[NeilVHughes]

Have fond memories of the Nunn King John at Kingston a few years ago.

Henry VIII I have only seen once and is definitely one I want to see revived in the near future. a promenade version in a historic house in York.

[theatremad]

Horrendously difficult. In no particular order:

Roman Tragedies at the Barbican

Indian Dream at the RSC and Roundhouse

Henry VIII (cannot decide between the Doran RSC one and the Complete Works in the church)

Much Ado,RSC Swan 2006

The Winters Tale, Swan 2006

Macbeth, RSC Swan 1999

Troilus and Cressida, RSC 1996

Loves Labours Lost, RSC 1993

Timon of Athens, RSC 1999

Cymbeline, RSC 1997

[theglenbucklaird]

Apr 3, 2020 6:32:45 GMT Jan said:

Apr 2, 2020 16:01:48 GMT Jan said:

In order of date:

1) All's Well That Ends Well (1982) RSC Trevor Nunn, Peggy Ashcroft, Roger Allam, Harriet Walter

2) Midsummer Nights Dream (1982) NT Cottesloe Bill Bryden / Paul Scofield

3) Much Ado About Nothing (1983) RSC Terry Hands, Derek Jacobi, Sinead Cusack

4) Romeo & Juliet (1983) RSC John Caird, Daniel Day Lewis

5) Othello (1989) RSC Young Vic, Trevor Nunn, Ian McKellen

6) Troilus & Cressida (1998) RSC Pit, Michael Boyd

7) The Tempest (2007) RSC Rupert Goold, Patrick Stewart

8) Macbeth (2007) Chichester Rupert Goold, Patrick Stewart

9) Hamlet (2011) Young Vic, Ian Rickson, Michael Sheen

10) All's Well That Ends Well (2019) Jermyn Street, Tom Littler

Oh wait ... I changed my mind ......

1) Pericles (1983) Stratford East David Ultz, Gerard Murphy

2) Coriolanus (1984) NT Peter Hall, Ian McKellen

3)  Henry V (1985) RSC Adrian Noble, Kenneth Branagh

4) Troilus & Cressida (1986) RSC Howard Davies

5) Henry IV (1987) ESC Michael Bogdanov, Michael Pennington

6) Titus Andronicus (1987) RSC Deborah Warner, Brian Cox

7) Twelfth Night (1987) Riverside Studios, Kenneth Branagh

8) Richard III (1990) NT Richard Eyre, Ian McKellen 

9) Merchant of Venice (1999) NT Trevor Nunn, Henry Goodman

10) Love's Labours Lost (2003) NT Trevor Nunn

Early to mid-eighties productions make up a large percentage of your peak Shakespeare lists

[altamont]

Apr 5, 2020 7:54:38 GMT theatremad said:

Roman Tragedies at the Barbican

Thanks for reminding me of that one - featuring the most electrifying moment I can remember in the theatre - Hans Kesting doing Mark Antony's big speech 

[Jan]

Apr 4, 2020 13:04:11 GMT crabtree said:

I wonder if there is a single play that has slipped through the net. anyone mentioned king John? or Henry VIII?

The Howard Davies RSC Henry VIII would have been in my next group of 10. Richard Griffiths and John Thaw. I saw it at the RST on a virtually bare stage - very Brechtian, focussing only on the politics of the play. Later I saw the same production again at the Barbican but this time it had a set - turned out the stagehands had been on strike the first time I saw it, but it was more in keeping with the concept without one. I think Lynette liked the one done in the Stratford church during the RSC complete works season. The Doran one in the Swan was praised but for me there was too much empty processional stuff.  

[Jan]

Apr 5, 2020 8:44:26 GMT theglenbucklaird said:

Apr 3, 2020 6:32:45 GMT Jan said:

Early to mid-eighties productions make up a large percentage of your peak Shakespeare lists

Yes. It's that thing where you ask people to list their favourite all-time pop music and they list what was popular when they were 13. 

[David J]

Apr 5, 2020 9:39:49 GMT Jan said:

Apr 5, 2020 8:44:26 GMT theglenbucklaird said:

Early to mid-eighties productions make up a large percentage of your peak Shakespeare lists

Yes. It's that thing where you ask people to list their favourite all-time pop music and they list what was popular when they were 13. 

That describes my list that includes 5 RSC productions from the late 2000s to the early 2010s, when Michael Boyd was in charge.

[theatremad]

Apr 5, 2020 9:37:20 GMT Jan said:

Apr 4, 2020 13:04:11 GMT crabtree said:

I wonder if there is a single play that has slipped through the net. anyone mentioned king John? or Henry VIII?

The Howard Davies RSC Henry VIII would have been in my next group of 10. Richard Griffiths and John Thaw. I saw it at the RST on a virtually bare stage - very Brechtian, focussing only on the politics of the play. Later I saw the same production again at the Barbican but this time it had a set - turned out the stagehands had been on strike the first time I saw it, but it was more in keeping with the concept without one. I think Lynette liked the one done in the Stratford church during the RSC complete works season. The Doran one in the Swan was praised but for me there was too much empty processional stuff.  

I remember the Swan one for Jane Lapotaire as Katherine and Cherry Morris in the Old Lady/Anne Boleyn scene.

The shows range from about age 12 to mid 30s age wise

[sondheimhats]

Reading this thread makes me incredibly jealous! So many productions mentioned that I desperately wish I could have seen myself. Sir Mark Rylance is one of my all-time favorite actors, and if I had been given the opportunity to see more of his Shakespeare performances, I'm sure my "favorites" list would look very different.

As I've only been seeing Shakespeare regularly for the past 5-6 years or so, I'm limited to that timeframe, as well as films, and filmed stage productions - of which, I will say, I've seen quite a few. But for what it's worth, here are some of my favorites (note also that I live in New York, though most of my favorites have been UK productions).

--Hamlet - Icke/Scott at the Almeida - Hamlet is the play I've seen the most, but I doubt I'll ever see a production that moves me as deeply as that one.

--Donmar Shakespeare Trilogy - Phyllida Lloyd - I saw the full trilogy in one day and it was among the most thrilling theatrical experiences I'v ever had.

--Roman Tragedies - not necessarily my favorite in terms of interpretation of the text, but it was quite an experience. I agree with the poster above who said that Hand Kesting's "Friends, Romans Countrymen" speech was the best I've ever seen it done.

--Macbeth - dir. Yukio Ninagawa - undoubtedly the most emotional, melancholic take on Macbeth I've seen, which was a delightful shift from the many productions that work too hard to be chilling.

--Richard III - Ostermeier/Schaubühne - while many actors and directors love to talk about how Richard is supposed to have a seductive, deceptive charm about him, Lars Eidinger's performance (with Ostermeier's direction) was the only time I've really felt that palpably as an anchor to the production.

--Troilus and Cressida - NYC Shakespeare in the Park - dir. Daniel Sullivan - an absolutely thrilling production that, unfortunately, didn't receive much attention at the time. I was lucky enough to see David Harbour (from Stranger Things) as Achilles during his one week of performances, before injuring his foot and departing the production.

--Winter's Tale - Cheek By Jowl - the only time I've really enjoyed the troublesome and overly-long Act IV, which really helped the whole play click into place for me.

--Romeo & Juliet - Baz Luhrmann, 1996 - one of my favorite film adaptations of Shakespeare, and to date, the version of the text that moves me the most profoundly.

--Much Ado - Rourke/Tennant/Tate - in my experience, the funniest rendition of Shakespeare's funniest play. The chemistry between Tate and Tennant was excellent.

--Twelfth Night - Godwin, National Theatre - I found this production really delightful - definitely the most fun I've had at Twelfth Night in the (too) many versions I've seen. Though the Rylance production at the Globe is certainly a close second, and nobody can hold a candle to Rylance's Olivia.