Favorite play by Shakespeare — Page 2

I LOVE Hamlet, Twelfth Night, A Midsummer Nights Dream and The Merchant of Venice.

Shylock is probably one of my favourite characters of all time. As is Malvolio. I tend to gravitate towards the misunderstood "bad guys". I find Bottom heartbreaking...Maybe it's just me.

I recently saw a wonderful production of The Comedy of Errors directed by the marvellous John Bell. They used Commedia to heighten the mystique, and up the comedy. The production was absolutely hilarious, and showed the merits of this early Shakespeare.

I love all Shakespeare, except for Titus Andronicus. It repulses me. Which is interesting because Sweeney Todd is one of my favourite Musicals -Titus has motive to cook the sons of the Queen of the Goths, whereas Mrs Lovett is simply compelled by greed.

The scene where Demetrius and Chiron are fighting over Lavinia can be amusing. I think in Taymor's production Matthew Rhys(Demetrius) and Jonathan Rhys Meyers made it humorous which I liked. I also agree that it can be played too seriously which can be its downfall in the end. But I think the movie is very well adapted to both the drama and comedic moments.

When I read the play the first time the whole baking Tamora's sons into meat pies reminded me so much of Sweeney Todd.

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I get the humour, I just don't like it.

um... Twelfth Night makes me laugh ..so hard. there's nothing like it

Love TWELFTH NIGHT too. I wouldn't call it a perfect comedy, though -- only because it's a comedy somewhat tinged by darker elements of melancholy. Which is why I think it's a unique piece in Shakespeare's repertoire of comedies.

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"As You Like It"

Out of curiousity, has anyone ever seen/heard/read the Reduced Shakespeare Company's abridged Shakespeare? I used to take out the BBC tapes of it from my library, and it was my first introduction to a lot of Shakespeare outside of R&J and Julius Caeser. Hysterically funny.

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mine- As you like it
my friend alli who is sitting next to me- ROmeo and Juliet

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Hamlet is my very favorite Shakespeare of all time, with Twelfth Night as an extremely close second. However, my favorite Shakespeare *scene* is the one in Act I Scene I of Midsummer between Helena and Hermia. "Call you me fair?!" Gotta love catfights.

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Richard the Third for the History plays. As You Like It for Comic.

BlueWizard, I agree with you re: the McKellan/Dench Macbeth. A brilliant, thrilling production

Thinking about the production again, I decided to impulse-buy and ordered it on DVD (with an introduction by McKellen!); I await its arrival with thirsty anticipation.

how was it misused? never seen it in a commercial... what was it for?

I've heard many, many people misuse the quote, "To thine own self be true"; hell, even I've misused it until I realized it was spoken by Polonius (always a highly suspect character).

Many people assume it means, "Be true to yourself," but really it doesn't; the stress is "To thine own self be true." When Polonius mutters the line to his son Laertes in I.iii, he is really telling him, "Look out for #1! Put yourself first and lie to everyone else!" In its original context, the line has the opposite meaning of what people assume it means when it's quoted.

When PrideTV had a Pride Week commercial end with, "To thine own self be true," I laughed and thought, so they want everyone to go back into the closet?

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Updated On: 1/15/05 at 10:04 PM

Of the ones I've read or seen performed, it's hands down, Much Ado About Nothing. In fact, in my Spanish class, my Spanish name is Beatriz :)

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