Would anybody like a thread to chat about Shakespeare?

[immortalmarble]

I know it is performance rather than reading but I am re reading Hamlet at the moment.

I wondered if anyone would like to come and talk about their face Shakespeare plays, why, good live performances and film versions?

I went to see A Midsummer Night's Dream (college production) twice this week as my youngest was playing Lysander. It isn't my favourite play but it is enjoyable when well done.

What warmed my heart was that, both nights, there was a little girl of about seven or eight on the front row laughing away and really enjoying herself. It reminded me that I saw my first Shakespeare play aged seven. My dad, who was a theatre critic and went to the theatre a lot, took me. It was The Comedy of Errors. I was really lucky to be taken to the theatre often as a child.

I don't have one single favourite - it depends what I've just seen/read. At the moment I'm reading Much Ado, which is definitely one of my favourites.

I also like a lot of plays by contemporaries of Shakespeare such as Middleton, Jonson and Webster. For example, I love Webster's The Duchess of Malfi and Middleton's The Changeling. (For anyone who knows the latter play, my user name would have given them a clue. )

Beatrice - if you are a Malfi fan, I can't recommend the current RSC production too highly. It's genuinely fabulous.

(English teacher and Elizabethan/Jacobean nerd here.)

BBC2 are showing King Lear tomorrow night with Anthony Hopkins & Emma Thompson.

I love A Midsummer Nights Dream; it’s one of my favourites. I love the version with Michelle Pfiefer as Titania.

I have never read or seen King Lear - I’ve got a vague idea of the plot. Is it worth a watch?

keira That's good to know. I'm hoping to go but not sure if I'll manage it.

I remember enjoying the film of AMND but it's a while since I watched it.

Lear isn't one of my favourites TBH. It was one of my A level texts and I had to study it again at university. I've seen a few good productions over the years but I could live quite happily without seeing it again, I think. But that's just me, I know it is a favourite for lots of people.
I haven't seen that film version so I can't say if it's worth watching.

I find both Lear and Othello rather silly. My favourites are Macbeth and The Tempest.

I love Lear, saw a magnificent RSC version a few years ago now where it rained on stage (special effect, not outdoor theatre!)

I imagine the Hopkins one is good, I'll TiVo it

I know what you mean about a level though. I did Othello and when I went to see all production a few years ago I realised I still knew a lot of the words and couldn't really enjoy it

I also love measure for measure.

Don't go to the theatre nearly enough but would love to get some suggestions.
Any R+J Luhrman fans might like this, tickets.secretcinema.org (unless we are more high brow in this thread )

Following this with interest!

Anthony Hopkins is Lear on BBC2 tomorrow night! Saw a trailer earlier. Emma T's in it too and looks like a modern adaptation. God I love Lear.

Also love this thread. I'll be back with more! Thanks OP

I love the idea of this thread.
Personally, I really enjoy reading Shakespeare. It’s poetry innit? Plus I like to know the play well before I see it, then I can focus on the interpretation of the particular production I’m watching rather than trying to work out what they’re going on about.
I’m going to see Christopher Ecclestone in Macbeth soon at the RSC. I’ve seen some people on here say it’s not that good, but I don’t care because I love the play and I love him.

Did anyone see that Hamlet from the Almeida with Andrew Scott (Moriarty from Sherlock) in it? It was on the TV recently. I thought it was good. He made me cry!
Plus who is your favourite female Shakespeare character? I like Beatrice.

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0b57d0w

One of my favourites for many years was Winters Tale. I was more excited to book tickets to it last year at the Sam Wanamaker at the globe last year.

It was awful

I mean truly dire. Both the story, which I now realise absolutely stinks, and the production. Would have been laughable had I not been so bloody disappointed.

I love Henry IV 1&2. So funny.

Not funny at all but Othello is incredible. Saw a stunning one at a local theatre a few years back.

DH has never seen any version of Hamlet. What’s the best one? I remember the Branagh one being pretty good.

I have seen quite a lot of Shakespeare. I recently saw Christopher Eccleston and Niamh Cusack in Macbeth at the RSC. I saw Julius Ceaser there last year. I have A Midsummer Nights Dream and The Two Gentlemen of Verona in the last twelve months or so. I saw Catherine Tate and David Tennant in Much Ado (I have seen this a few times previously). I saw Kim Catrell in Anthony and Cleopatra a few years ago. I’ve basically seen loads of Shakespeare. I’ve also seen the Duchess of Malfi. I love Stratford. I think I am a bit of a Shakespeare nut.

I love Macbeth.

DS is currently reading a book called Macbeth which is some sort of crime fiction - he loves it.

I used to be a member of the rsc and I still go to Stratford a lot.

I remember enjoying the film of Richard III with Ian McKellan, but I think my favourite was the version of The Tempest by Derek Jarman, if only because it was so off the wall, does anyone remember it? Had a wonderful ending with Elizabeth Welch singing 'Stormy Weather'?

Remus btw (apologies for hijacking thread briefly) I can post on this thread but when I try to add a post to the 50 book challenge I can preview but not post, any idea why?

Lear is my favorite because of the original premise, complicated relationships and captivating language.

I will watch it on the BBC tomorrow and be lulled into a place of perfection. The story is complicated but the language is King. It's ok not to get the whole thing.

Some will read it for the story; others for the structure; the acting possibilities; the language; the setting; the history. It's perfect and anyone who says it's boring is as thick as Tewkesbury mustard.

Dottie - No idea, sorry. I am a Luddite.

I have enjoyed the productions and film Macbeth. I am in two minds about King Lear on BBC 2 this evening, if only because the stage production I saw was with Pete Postlethwaite in the lead role (a privilege indeed for me), and the person who recommended it to me sadly died last year.

Delighted to find this thread. I go to the theatre about once a month and Shakespeare features an awful lot.

Macbeth is my all time favourite and I have seen many versions, most recently Ann-Marie Duff and Rory Kinnear (who I saw as Iago and was magnificent) at The National - it wasn't the best I have seen and Kinnear was sick. I have tickets for Cusack/Eccleston in January when they will also do a talk afterwards. I am saving the remainder of a theatre token I have to see Ralph Fiennes and Sophie Okenedo in Anthony and Cleopatra later in the year, really excited as I often stick to the plays I love and know. I also have stalls seats to see McKellen as Lear in August.

I took the DC to see Much Ado at the Globe earlier in the year, which was condensed to 90 mins and it was 7 year olds first time. We go to the Globe a lot as their family programme is fantastic.

Took the older two to RSC's Hamlet this year which I thought was great and saw just after Black Panther so was great to see two productions with large Black casts, it really worked well.

Othello has grown on me after seeing Adrian Lester years ago and Emma Rice's production at the Sam Wanamaker.

A little bit of me dies everytime I watch R&J, the last time being Lily James.

p.s. I have also seen the Andrew Scott Hamlet and thought it was very well done. Juliet Stevenson was the star for me.

Joss Whedon did a version of Much Ado about Nothing (available on dvd for a few £s) with actors he worked with in his other shows (Angel, Firefly etc). We really enjoyed it.

Best live theatre performance was Twelfth Night with Derek Jacobi as Malvolio.
Also enjoyed the cinema screening of Romeo and Juliet with Lily James and Richard Madden. He wasn't great but she was good.

I thought the RSC Eccleston/Cusack Macbeth was confused and a bit under-acted, by CE especially, who seemed to struggle with the verse, but it was close to the beginning of the run, so might have settled down...?

I think in general I’ve seen more very good Sh. at the NT and Globe than at the RSC. The NT Henry V with Adrian Leicester was great, and I saw a wonderful pair of Henry IVs with Roger Allam as Falstaff and Jamie Parker as Hal, both brilliant, at the Globe in 2010 — we were in the yard, and it was cold and very wet, but we were transfixed — and the NT Much Ado with Simon Russell Beale and Zoe Wanamaker was so good I went two consecutive nights. Was less keen on the Rylance all-male one at the Globe.

But my ultimate experience of Sh. was the RSC histories cycle at the Roundhouse which was mind-blowingly good.

Has anyone seen the new RSC Lear with Antony Sher? I was supposed to go this week, but had to cancel and was disgusted.

I’m going to try and get tickets for the eccleston RSC - my DS likes Macbeth but he has autism and doesn’t always cope too well at the theatre (once walked out on stage in the middle of a performance of A Streetcar Named Desire )

R and J is touring soon I believe

Oh I love Macbeth too - also The Merchant of Venice. Shylock is such a complex and interesting character.

And this is potentially outing but I work at the RSC and often have to pinch myself when walking into work in the morning - love me a bit of Shakespeare!