What's your favorite Shakespeare play?

[jpgray]

[proud patriot]

1. Taming of the shrew

Much ado about nothing comes in second

[skooooo]

2. "Our Town"

[Reverend_Smitty]

3. Othello

For being written hundreds of years ago, it feels so current. I read it as a senior in HS and fell in love. I would love to see it live sometime

[charlyvi]

11. I second that!

Greatest play ever written; has some of the best poetry!

[Magrittes Pipe]

4. Starlight Express

[flamingyouth]

5. Hamlet

[Zomby Woof]

6. I'll list for 2 categories

Tragedy: "Macbeth" (although "Hamlet" is undeniably his masterwork, I prefer the mood and setting of "Macbeth", so it edges by a hair, or should I say, out! Damn spot!)

Comedy: "Twelfth Night" - If Music Be The Food of Love, Play On!

[Jack Rabbit]

7. King Lear

My favorite comedy is Twelfth Night.

I should add that I believe Richard II is terribly underrated; as tragedy, it's superior to Romeo and Juliet, although Romeo and Juliet contains the better poetic passages.

[jpgray]

8. I just saw a Derek Jacobi film of Richard II

Bushy, Bagot and Green are in a bathhouse with him for one scene. :D

[vajraroshana]

9. Twelfth Night

I saw it on PBS when I was twelve and then saw it live by the Alabama Shakespeare Festival when I was 17.

I guess I love it the best because it was the first that turned me on to Shakespeare and also seeing it so well done by ASF. ASF is really awesome.

[Jack Rabbit]

12. I recommend the film version

Made in 1997 and directed by Trevor Nunn, it had the misfortune of competing with Bas Lehmann's awful Romeo and Juliet for publicity. Nigel Hawthorne is precious as Malvolio and a fine performances are turned in by Ben Kingsley as Feste the Clown and Helena Bonham Carter as the Countess.

[Gildor Inglorion]

10. Henry V for history...

Macbeth for tragedy...
A Midsummer Night's Dream for comedy

[PittPoliSci]

13. MACBETH

and it isn't because i have a weird obsession with scottish people and especially scotish females.

[Rabrrrrrr]

14. Rosenkrantz and Gildenstern are Dead

[jpgray]

16. Tell you what--let's flip a coin to decide if you have to pick a real play

:P

[Rabrrrrrr]

17. Well look at that. heads again!

[sundog]

15. Midsummer Night's Dream

[Gloria]

18. Hamlet....after reading it the first time, we all saw the Olivier version.

Olivier's Henry is wonderful...his Richard is amazing, his Othello..and then, finally, his Lear. I have recording of all these performances plus others as well. All in boxed 33 rpm sets (LOL)!!

I think I love Olivier more than Shakespeare, because he made Shakespeare so wonderful.........

[kodi]

19. Richard III

but i still cry after seeing or reading romeo and juliet.

[NNadir]

22. Did you see the Ian McKellan film with Richard as a 30's fascist?

It was unbelievably cool.

I actually love these films that set Shakespear in non-Elizabethan times.

I thought Branaugh's "Hamlet" the best I'd ever seen.

[kodi]

26. sure did. and Kurasowa's "Ran," a Japanese King Lear

Ran is one one of the most magnificantly filmed movies of all time. the colors alone are so good one could eat them. it was the first dvd i bought.

[NNadir]

33. Incredibly, I've still not seen "Ran." I will though.

[tjdee]

30. Me too. From the blond hair to the....uh....blond hair, LOL.

I thought Branagh did a gorgeous job with Hamlet. At the very least, it was the most Danish *looking*. I really like his take on Shakespeare in general, I also particularly liked his Much Ado About Nothing.

[NNadir]

20. Lear. But I also love Hamlet and Macbeth.

Macbeth has my favorite soliquoy:



"To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow; a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing."


It doesn't get much more powerful than that.

[mitchum]

21. "Othello", but I call it "Iago"...

because villains are always more compelling than dupes

[capriccio]

23. You know the one...

Where Shakespeare, he's in the alley
With his pointed shoes and his bells,
Speaking to some French girl,
Who says she knows me well.

[Zomby Woof]

24. And I would send a message

To find out if she's talked,
But the post office has been stolen
And the mailbox is locked.
Oh, Mama, can this really be the end,
To be stuck inside of Mobile
With the Memphis blues again.

[BigMcLargehuge]

25. Henry the 4th Part 2

[Jack Rabbit]

27. I like Part One better

If youb can find it, check out the Orson Welles film Chimes at Midnight, which is based on the {i]Henry IV plays with pieces of Richard II and Hnery V tossed in. Welles cast himself as Falstaff, of course, and he was made for the part.

[tjdee]

29. Man, I love Orson Welles.

He was such a megalomaniac, LOL. Would like seeing him as Falstaff--thanks for the heads up on Chimes at Midnight.

[tjdee]

28. Measure for Measure, only because it's got unwed pregnancies.

(Should read, unwed pregnancY, for those of you sticklers.)

But for actual wordplay and conflict (of the ones I've read) I'd go with Hamlet.

I'd like to read more of the histories.

[Alleycat]

31. Mid Summers Nights Dream

NT

[Ivan Sputnik]

32. King Lear

I don't really have a favorite, but I think Lear is his best play -- it's certainly one of my favorites. I have heard it described as the greatest work in the English language.

"If the cause be not good, the King himself hath a heavy reckoning to make, when all those legs, and arms, and heads, chopped off in a battle, shall join together at the latter day and cry all, 'We died at such a place.'" -- Henry V

[fishnfla]

34. King lear nt

[skygazer]

35. Othello absolutely

So far ahead of its time - amazing.