Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Chat

Join the discussion and chat with other Mumsnetters about everyday life, relationships and parenting.

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:
SonicAllanKey · 29/12/2023 22:20

EveryKneeShallBow · 29/12/2023 22:16

I can’t tell you how much I envy all you posters who have been able to see these live performances. I live in the back of beyond (and generally love it) but I would love to see more live theatre.

I’m in the back of beyond now too. Means I don’t see much anymore 😭

BeaRF75 · 29/12/2023 22:22

I would definitely agree with David Tennant as Hamlet, Ralph Fiennes as Macbeth with Indira Varma as Lady M, Kenneth Branagh as Macbeth and King Lear, Michelle Terry as Beatrice. Also Simon Russell Beale as Prospero.
Antony Sher as Richard III in the 80scwas amazing.
Both of the productions at The Bridge - Julius Caesar and Midsummer - were fantastic ensemble pieces.
David Tennant was also fab as Benedick (but Catterine Tate as Beatrice in the same production was awful).
The entire cast of The Comedy of Errors at Shakespeare North this year, and the Handlebards in the touring version of Much Ado - so funny.
There is always so much to enjoy and learn, the more you go into the plays.
Looking forward to Ian Mckellen's Falstaff in 2024.

upinaballoon · 29/12/2023 22:36

Well, I have not seen many live performances so I cannot say a 'best' but this thread has taken me back to the BBC in the 60s and Keith Michell and Mary Morris as Antony and Cleopatra. The words, "I am dying, Egypt, dying" haven't come to the front of my brain for years. Thank you.

Interested in this thread?

Then you might like threads about this subject:

Books
bellocchild · 29/12/2023 22:45

Kenneth Branagh's Much Ado About Nothing film brought the play to sparkling life. The Polanski 1971 Macbeth set the whole play in the bleak, cold, muddy Scottish countryside with convincingly uncomfortable mediaeval castles. The cast was quite good too.

NeedWineNow · 29/12/2023 23:17

It was a bit of a Marmite love it or hate it production but I really enjoyed Rory Kinnear and Anne-Marie Duff in Macbeth at the National Theatre a few years ago.

QueenOfWeeds · 29/12/2023 23:20

NeedWineNow · 29/12/2023 23:17

It was a bit of a Marmite love it or hate it production but I really enjoyed Rory Kinnear and Anne-Marie Duff in Macbeth at the National Theatre a few years ago.

I hated that so very, very much. I was so disappointed. I’m glad you enjoyed it though!

NeedWineNow · 29/12/2023 23:23

JosieHetty · 29/12/2023 20:07

Tracey Oberman as Shylock is also exceptional

Was that in her recent adaptation of Merchant of Venice set in 1930’s East End? We saw that in one of our local theatres back in October and thought it was outstanding.

countdowntonap · 29/12/2023 23:24

David Caves as Petruchio in RSC’s Taming of
the Shrew. I developed a huge crush that day!

NeedWineNow · 29/12/2023 23:25

@QueenOfWeeds My DH didn’t like it either, he said it was too dark, gloomy and weird. I think that’s why I liked it!

LaBelleSauvage123 · 29/12/2023 23:44

Just thought of another one - David Troughton as Caliban in Sam Mendes’ The Tempest for the RSC. Early 90s. Amazing.

PandaG · 29/12/2023 23:52

John Simm as Hamlet at the Crucible in Sheffield, and John Nettles in the same production.
Tom Bateman's Coriolanus, also at the Crucible was excellent, especially as it was the last thing I saw live for months due to lockdown.
Sam West as Brutus, again at the Crucible. Utterly fantastic production, really well done. Sheffield People's theatre as extras made a real impact alongside the professional actors

clary · 29/12/2023 23:55

LaBelleSauvage123 · 29/12/2023 22:04

Well that’s really odd as I was convinced I saw it at school but it must have been much later - I was 27 in 1987.

Show quote history

Unless there were two productions - I deffo saw it with my then bf whom I didn't meet until 1985!

Sonolanona · 29/12/2023 23:57

Andrew Scott as Hamlet.. just amazing.
Patrick Stewart as Shylock. Ditto!

I'd love to see David Tennant ( in any Shakespeare!)

ShinyBandana · 30/12/2023 00:06

Chiwetel Ejiofor as Othello at the Donmar in 2008
and
Patrick Stewart as Macbeth - saw that in Chichester maybe 2007? and again in London.

ChimneyPot · 30/12/2023 00:07

Best was Ralph Fiennes as Richard III in the Almeida.

Most disappointing was probably Daniel Craig as Macbeth on Broadway a couple of years ago.

Singleandproud · 30/12/2023 00:07

IPlayer has the old BBC Shakespeare productions on there is a very young Maggie Smith in Merchant of Venice but Olivier's MacBeth really is something special, he really does look like he is losing his marbles in the Tomorrow and Tomorrow speech it's easy to say why he was such a revered actor.

14 year old DD loves Shakespeare and we go to see the outdoor productions that are put on by The Lord Chamberlain's Men, they really are sensational and are traditional (small, all male company in Tudor/Stewart style costumes). It's Hamlet this year so well worth looking for tickets.

If you only know Shakespeare from GCSE it's well worth giving it another go as an adult. DD and I always read the sparknotes version first it has the original text next to modern English. But even if you dont 'get' what's going on just letting the words wash over you and enjoy the physical aspect of the story is just as good

maximist · 30/12/2023 00:14

LaBelleSauvage123 · 29/12/2023 23:44

Just thought of another one - David Troughton as Caliban in Sam Mendes’ The Tempest for the RSC. Early 90s. Amazing.

I loved that production!

ComorosPearl · 30/12/2023 00:19

Robert Lindsay as Hamlet at the Royal Exchange in Manchester 1983. Unexpectedly hilarious yet still tragic & moving.

EmmaEmerald · 30/12/2023 00:29

Robert Stephens, King Lear - 1993! My first Shakespeare!

But then a big gap to the best - Andrew Scott, Hamlet, 2018.

Seen loads inbetween but nothing as striking as those too. Not even that keen on Hamlet tbh, but Andrew Scott made it into something else.

lilyfire · 30/12/2023 00:41

Brian Cox as King Lear was very memorable

RainBow725 · 30/12/2023 00:57

Kenneth Branagh as Macbeth in Manchester in a really small venue. I could almost touch him. It was mesmerising. Still one of the best things I've ever seen. Also enjoyed Benedict Cumberbatch as Hamlet. That was a live recording at the cinema so a bit different as an experience but still captivating. Also looking forward to Ian McKellen's Falstaff next year.

1990s · 30/12/2023 00:59

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.

This whole production was excellent.

1990s · 30/12/2023 01:01

I really liked Christopher Ecclestone in Hamlet in the West Yorkshire Playhouse in about 1996.

Jude Law in the Donmar Warehouse production of Hamlet in New York.

Love the Kenneth Branagh Emma Thompson Much Ado About Nothing film.

N4ish · 30/12/2023 01:30

Ben Wishaw as Hamlet in 2004 - he was so young and just the right age for the role. So many Hamlets are too old.

Timothy West as King Lear

Sean Bean as Macbeth

Roger Allam as Falstaff at the Globe- absolutely brilliant!

Alltheprettyseahorses · 30/12/2023 01:32

I love Shakespeare but it's almost always better in my head than on the stage. I find most actors to be far too mannered and proper, especially anyone who speaks cliched RP. The only 2 performances that have really made an impression on me are Alun Armstrong's Friends, Romans, Countrymen speech from a telly programme called New Tricks of all places and Suzanne Burden as Lady Macduff in the film of Macbeth starring Patrick Stewart.

I did see Ralph Fiennes last week but found his performance extremely muddled - to be charitable it was almost as though he was experimenting with different personas throughout the play (or, less charitably, he started playing Macbeth one way, forgot for while and then picked up the characterisation later only to forget about it again). The less said about Indira Varma and her soliloquy the better.

I was lucky enough to see Ian McKellen in Mother Goose which breadcrumbed the Shakespearean denouement throughout but even here I thought John Bishop's was the better performance of a sonnet. I remember a tutor at university saying Shakespeare sounded best in a Scouse accent and I had to agree. Give me a good strong accent and I love it but the Branagh/Thompson/Olivier stereotype leaves me cold.