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Original poster

Anyone who enjoys Shakespeare

143 replies

EveryKneeShallBow · 29/12/2023 18:20

… who has been your greatest actor, and in which role?

For me (I live in the middle of nowhere so I watch YouTube and NT Online)

Adrian Lester as Othello, with Rory Kinnear as Iago
Andrew Scott as Hamlet
Tamsin Greig as Malvolio

OP posts:
MsJuniper · 29/12/2023 19:34

Ian McKellen as Richard III and the whole cast of Tim Supple's Indian Dream have been my two standouts. The latter was probably the best Shakespeare I have ever seen. I saw it a few times including once with several school groups and it's the only time I've seen teenagers genuinely laugh at the humour.

Giggorata · 29/12/2023 19:40

Alan Rickman's Hamlet.

Notonthestairs · 29/12/2023 19:43

Janet McTeer & Kathryn Hunter as Petruchio & Katherina in an all female version of The Taming of the Shrew was a joy to watch and sent me home with a spring in my step.

Like @claracluck1978 I've seen Kenneth Branagh as Hamlet and King Lear and loved both productions.

So many amazing performances mentioned in this thread - I can't help but wish I'd seen them all!

Interested in this thread?

Then you might like threads about this subject:

Books
ladybee2 · 29/12/2023 19:43

Charles Dance as Coriolanus.
33 years ago!

AphraBehn · 29/12/2023 19:58

Ben Whishaw as Richard II in The Hollow Crown dramatisations. Rory Kinnear was Bolingbroke and the deposal scene was just a masterclass in acting.

My favourite Hamlet is Jamie Parker in a Radio 4 version. Would have loved to have seen Ben Whishaw when he played the role.

Michelle Terry as Beatrice in Much Ado. Her 'if I were a man' speech made me rexamine everything I thought about the Beatrice/Benedick dynamic. Didn't like Edward Bennett as Benedick as much though.

My favourite ever Much Ado was a touring version I saw at Shakespeare's Globe with nobody well known at all in it but it was just perfect & joyous.

TheTecknician · 29/12/2023 19:59

The only exposure to Shakespeare I have had is reading The Merchant of Venice in high school English lessons. I was 14 at the time. That was nearly 39 years ago. Have I really missed a great deal ? I admit to zoning out and glazing over when the Bard's name is mentioned, picturing strange costumes and gobbledegook prose! Perhaps I'm being unfair.

LaMadameCholet · 29/12/2023 20:04

Anthony Hopkins as Titus Andronicus, I second Adrian Lester as Othello, with Rory Kinnear as Iago, and years ago I saw an actor called Saskia Reeves as Isabella in Measure for Measure who was amazing.

lto2019 · 29/12/2023 20:04

Pete Postlethwaite as Macbeth just amazing.
Sir Ian McKellen as King Lear (although it went on for hours and my bum was numb)

AphraBehn · 29/12/2023 20:06

TheTecknician · 29/12/2023 19:59

The only exposure to Shakespeare I have had is reading The Merchant of Venice in high school English lessons. I was 14 at the time. That was nearly 39 years ago. Have I really missed a great deal ? I admit to zoning out and glazing over when the Bard's name is mentioned, picturing strange costumes and gobbledegook prose! Perhaps I'm being unfair.

I hate to say you're missing out, but you really are!

Shakespeare wrote about the whole human experience, life, love, jealousy, sex, hating your boss, ambition. There is so much for a director to draw out from the text to make it relevant for the times.

Some of the performances mentioned this thread can be found on NT at Home and would be a terrific place to start.

JosieHetty · 29/12/2023 20:07

Tracey Oberman as Shylock is also exceptional

cardibach · 29/12/2023 20:07

In the late 80s I saw Kenneth Branagh as Hamlet at the RSC and Mark Rylance a Hamlet at the Barbican. Sooooo different. Both fab.
Anthony Sher was fab as Lear recently at the RSC

SkylinePigeon · 29/12/2023 20:08

David Tennant as Touchstone in AYLI when he was very young and pre-fame, and then David Tennant as Richard III.

Rory Kinnear as Macbeth.

Derek Jacobi as King Lear.

Simon Russell Beale in anything, but especially Malvolio.

I once attended the Shakespeare in the Abbey thing and had Mark Rylance performing Shakespeare to me and me alone in a tiny crypt.

BeadedBubbles · 29/12/2023 20:13

Alan Howard as Henry V

maltravers · 29/12/2023 20:14

MerlinsBeard87 · 29/12/2023 18:45

Mark Rylance as Olivia in twelfth night at the globe

I second this - he was just superb.

NeedWineNow · 29/12/2023 20:16

MerlinsBeard87 · 29/12/2023 18:45

Mark Rylance as Olivia in twelfth night at the globe

I am beyond envious that you saw this. I would love to have seen it.

Latewinter · 29/12/2023 20:16

TheTecknician · 29/12/2023 19:59

The only exposure to Shakespeare I have had is reading The Merchant of Venice in high school English lessons. I was 14 at the time. That was nearly 39 years ago. Have I really missed a great deal ? I admit to zoning out and glazing over when the Bard's name is mentioned, picturing strange costumes and gobbledegook prose! Perhaps I'm being unfair.

The more I age the more I find his vast knowledge of the human condition both comforting and heartbreaking.

maximist · 29/12/2023 20:25

I don't know about greatest, but when I was 15 we were studying Macbeth at school and making very heavy weather of it, I just didn't get it at all. Then we were taken to the Royal Exchange in Manchester to see As You Like
It, with Janet McTeer as Rosalind (I think it was one of her first roles) and it was a revelation - Shakespeare made sense when it was acted on stage instead of read turn about in class....

It was a joyous production, and one I've never forgotten, despite seeing a good number of excellent RSC productions subsequently. I've still never seen Macbeth on stage though.

TerryWoganFanGirl · 29/12/2023 20:27

Mark Rylance as Cleopatra at the Globe

Mackeroo · 29/12/2023 20:27

UnimaginableWindBird · 29/12/2023 18:27

Probably not the greatest performance ever, but Hammed Animashaun as Bottom in the the Bridge Theatre Midsummer Night's Dream made me see the character, and the play, in a whole different way, and gave such depth and emotion and tenderness to what is generally a bit of a slapstick role.

Need to think more about the question but totally agree with this, I did this play for GCSE and didn't like it....this changed my mind.

IvorTheEngineDriver · 29/12/2023 20:37

Jeremy Irons as Henry IV.
Fiona Shaw as Richard II.
Ralph Richardson as Hastings (in Olivier's Richard III).

Soozikinzii · 29/12/2023 20:38

Just seen Ralph Fiennes in the Scottish play which was brilliant probably best I've ever seen . Saw an excellent production of Romeo and Juliet at Manchester exchange but weren't any big name actors in that.

2024travels · 29/12/2023 20:40

Dame Judi Dench as Lady Macbeth for me!

Helenloveslee4eva · 29/12/2023 20:52

Enjoyable- papa essiediu (sp) and the blqck hamlwt cast.

bloody excellent but horrific and I never ever want to go there again thank you - a gender flipped taming of the shrew - brought out how it was just an entire play about domestic abuse and coercive control Fliipping it to be the male victim / female abuser - horrific and then more horrifying that you found it , well more horrifying iyswim !

YoullCatchYourDeathInTheFog · 29/12/2023 20:53

Everyone in the Bridge production of Julius Caesar was amazing. Ben Wishaw, David Morrissey and Michelle Fairley were all great but Kit Young as Octavian, who was just out of drama school, was mesmerising, really held his own in a very strong cast.

My niche nomination is Roger Allam as Odysseus in Troilus and Cressida. Classic case of "Nice play, I'll take it, no, don't bother to wrap it, I'll eat it now". Given that Sophie Okenedo was doing a brilliant performance as Cressida, it took some doing.

I've seen a lot of Othellos (the most starry was Ben Kingsley vs David Suchet) but not the Lester/Kinnear one, you've all tempted me to rent the recording now.

TheTurn0fTheScrew · 29/12/2023 20:55

notprincehamlet · 29/12/2023 18:36

Antony Sher as King Lear (and David Troughton as Gloucester) (RSC), Ralph Fiennes as Richard II (Gainsborough studios)

I also enjoyed Antony Sher as Lear, but thought Paapa Essidu (sp??) as Edmund in the same production was ever better.

And Derek Jacobi's Macbeth about a hundred years ago at the Almeida was brilliant.