Just interested.

My favourite Shakespearean play is Othello. To me, Othello's soliloquies had the most beautiful cadence, and I absolutely loved hearing Iago's snaky justifications for his actions.

Ooh what a great question

I have always been very fond of Twelfth Night, The Tempest and Macbeth. I'll have to have a think about why and get back to this later

Dang, I haven't read any Shakespeare since high-school, and that was Merchant of Venice and I think King Lear or something...the one with the three witches.

I've been thinking that I would like to read some Shakespeare, so I'm hoping for suggestions.

The three witches might have been Macbeth. They prophesied that he couldn't be killed by a 'man of woman born'. I still love Lady Macbeth's "Out damn spot!" speech.

Hamlet is good if you can get past the whining... it's very beautiful whining though. I absolutely hated that play when we studied it, but it grew on me.

A Midsummer Night's Dream is hilarious. I first watched it being performed in the Royal Botanic Gardens in Sydney and it was magical--the actors climbed the trees and delivered their lines from among the branches while we sat in the grass and had a picnic.

I saw a very good production of Macbeth in the 90s, with Mark Rylance (who also directed) as Macbeth and Jane Horrocks (Bubble from Absolutely Fabulous) as Lady Macbeth. It was a modern dress production and took literally the phrase about the delusional Lady Macbeth's 'night waters', featuring a scene where Jane Horrocks had to sleepwalk dressed in just her underwear and, ahem, wet herself on stage I'm not sure I can recall ever seeing another adult wet themselves in front of me, whether in character as Lady Macbeth or not, so this certainly got the audience's attention you might say.

I recall her being interviewed about this at the time and when asked how she managed it night after night she explained that she had to drink a lot of water beforehand and that when it came to her big scene, "I never know how it's going to be. Sometimes just a little trickle comes out, but some nights I do a great big steaming piss like a horse."

Thinking about it I suppose one of the reasons I like Macbeth so much is that I had to study it and learn whole passages out of it which we then had to recite in class, which was something that not only makes an indelible imprint on the youthful brain but also can mean that maybe even the meaning of the words gets through

Thanks for the suggestions, Sciski




Now that's dedication to your craft!

Kind of pathetic admission, but I haven't read much Shakespeare. I was so bored in high school English classes that I didn't even read 99% of what we were supposed to. I read science fiction. You can guess what my grades were like. In recent years I have tried to correct this gaping hole by reading some of his sonnets when I pass the S's (and I've enjoyed that), but I still haven't read anything in its entirety.

You could always try one of the films... Baz Luhrmann and Kenneth Branagh have done some well-regarded adaptations. (It's not cheating because it's still Shakespeare )

Well I rent/watch about 1 movie every 5 years, and I AM pushing about 4.5 years...

You must be the negative-world me.

i really enjoyed the merchant of venice. i am not sure, but theres a good chance its simply because the cleverness with which shylock was prevented from collecting his "pound of flesh" really impressed me. i also find it quite easy to empathize with the ambivalence of hamlet, so that gets on the list. i think reading shakspeare is inferior to seeing the works depicted in movies/on stage. its really meant to be acted (as pretentious as that may sound, its really just easier to understand his language in the context of action >.<)

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Isn't it pretty to think so?

I'm the unBailiwick.

I rarely even turn my TV on between April and November.

I liked reading Measure for Measure. Isabella and the Duke struck me as clever IFJs.

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I am not as familiar with his works as I think I should be. Our high schoolers did do a charming performance of 'Midsummer Night's Dream' last year and my eldest son (who is 11) loved it. His class is doing it this year and he was thrilled to get the part of Nick Bottom. I think I have some of the movie versions in my Netflix queu but it usually takes me a few weeks to get through one movie.

Shakespearean Insult Generator: http://www.pangloss.com/seidel/Shaker/index.html?

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Fiction is just like real life, only truer.

I was kind flattered by this one: [Thou art] a fool, a coward, one all of luxury, an ass, a madman.