My ranking of every Shakespeare play
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My ranking of every Shakespeare play
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Re: My ranking of every Shakespeare play
#2I've read all the plays, but haven't seen many of them performed. My ranking would be different than his, but that's just how these types of things go. I appreciate the effort.
Re: My ranking of every Shakespeare play
#3That was fun to read, even though I would disagree with much of the article. I generally like the comedies least, the OP likes them most, but it's nice to see people talk about Shakespeare in an article linked here. A couple of comments I would make:
* "People will think I’m crazy, but yes, I’m placing Henry IV above Henry V." I doubt many people would think you're crazy, the Henry IVs are generally considered better and for the reason mentioned: Falstaff.
* On performances of Richard III: "I liked two different performances for different reasons. The 1995 major film puts the play in the World Word II era. It’s solid and does well standing alone. The BBC production has linked casting with the three parts of Henry VI, which allows one to enjoy it in full in its broader context. It’s also well-performed, but obviously has less spectacle and a lower budget." -- you really need to watch the 1955 version for Laurence Olivier's performance.
Also on editions: The Riverside Shakespeare is great. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1036552
Re: My ranking of every Shakespeare play
#4I've read all the plays, but haven't seen many of them performed. My ranking would be different than his, but that's just how these types of things go. I appreciate the effort.
There are a fair few that were made into movies in the 60s and 70s that are definitely worth a watch. I saw Taming of the Shrew for the first time in a long time and caught some hysterical jokes that I completely missed as a kid.
Re: My ranking of every Shakespeare play
#5> Like many collections, they omit The Two Noble Kinsmen due to unclear authorship, and for this reason I’m omitting it from my list as well.
> Also, around 20% of plays credited to Shakespeare were collaborations of some degree, though the collaboration details have been long lost.
Isn't it accepted that The Two Noble Kinsmen was a collaboration?
EDIT:
> [On Hamlet] You’d be hard-pressed to find something that beats the faithful, star-studded 1996 major film adaption.
Personally, I liked the (less faithful) 1948 film.
EDIT2: I also found it amusing that the play he liked the best is the only Shakespeare play I've actually acted in (before his favorite adaptation came out).
Re: My ranking of every Shakespeare play
#6I ‘studied’ Much Ado About Nothing in school (as the author wished for) but it was lost on me. Probably the issue is not normally the specific choice of play. But there are lots of things that are hard about Shakespeare in school, even ignoring the unfamiliar language. (A friend from another country said they studied some Shakespeare which had been translated into his language so didn’t sound so unfamiliar, but I can’t imagine something like that being done for english-speaking schools).
I feel like The Tempest is lower than I expected. I think it is often liked for not so easily fitting into one of the traditional genres. I feel like I see productions advertised reasonably frequently but I also did this at school so maybe I notice them more for that reason.
I think the OP has the same favourite play as fictional classics professor Jim Lloyd, which is interesting for some, I guess.
Re: My ranking of every Shakespeare play
#7I ‘studied’ Much Ado About Nothing in school (as the author wished for) but it was lost on me. Probably the issue is not normally the specific choice of play. But there are lots of things that are hard about Shakespeare in school, even ignoring the unfamiliar language. (A friend from another country said they studied some Shakespeare which had been translated into his language so didn’t sound so unfamiliar, but I can…
As well as comedies, histories, and tragedies, some plays include The Tempest are often classified in a 4th genre - "romances" [0]
0.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shakespeare%27s_late_romances#....
Re: My ranking of every Shakespeare play
#8> Like many collections, they omit The Two Noble Kinsmen due to unclear authorship, and for this reason I’m omitting it from my list as well. > Also, around 20% of plays credited to Shakespeare were collaborations of some degree, though the collaboration details have been long lost. Isn't it accepted that The Two Noble Kinsmen was a collaboration? EDIT: > [On Hamlet] You’d be hard-pressed to find something that beats…
Several are confirmed collaborations, including Pericles and Henry VIII (and 1 Henry VI is almost certainly).
The exclusion of 2NK is a bit arbitrary but you draw the line somewhere. I also excluded it from my quest to do every play.
In the end I did it as a Zoom production, which kinda half counts, as is appropriate. It was actually a good deal better than I expected. I found some very good writing, and the plot was easier to clean up than, say, Two Gents or All's Well.
Re: My ranking of every Shakespeare play
#9Timon of Athens is much better if you view it as a black comedy.
One of the best compliments I ever received was an audience member who said, "Why don't they do this play more often?" Well, it really sucks if you take it seriously.
Re: My ranking of every Shakespeare play
#10A well-known software consultant/writer once told me that his years-long hobby, with his wife, was to watch every film of every Shakespeare play. They were working their way through all the Hamlets, all the Macbeths, all the etc., in chronological sequence—indexed by (play, film date), not (film date, play). That's a lot of Hamlets.
Not sure what they were doing with the Shakespeare movies that got made since they started.