# Shakespeare's most frequently performed plays **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** theater-stage-dance\ **Created:** [May 31, 2023, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shakespeares-most-frequently-performed-plays/984838 "2023-05-31T19:38:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2023, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shakespeares-most-frequently-performed-plays/984838/21 "2023-06-01T15:26:19Z")
> [@Dinsdale](#): > > I’m surprised Merchant of Venice is not on the list. Merchant is considered pretty unacceptable these days due to the anti-Semitic theme. I saw Hamlet as an amateur production a few years ago. So many cliches… ---
**Author:** ![sciurophobic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cab0a1/32.png) [@sciurophobic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sciurophobic)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2023, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shakespeares-most-frequently-performed-plays/984838/22 "2023-06-01T15:49:17Z")
> [@bob\_2](#): > > Merchant is considered pretty unacceptable these days due to the anti-Semitic theme. The Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, D.C. does it about once a decade. The last time was 2011. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_S](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/46a35a/32.png) [@Max\_S](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_S)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2023, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shakespeares-most-frequently-performed-plays/984838/23 "2023-06-01T22:09:49Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > Unless you are referring to this version: On a side note, imagine if modern entertainment had dumbshows. ~Max ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2023, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shakespeares-most-frequently-performed-plays/984838/24 "2023-06-01T23:22:15Z")
> [@bob\_2](#): > > Merchant is considered pretty unacceptable these days due to the anti-Semitic theme. I don’t know, you certainly could play it as antisemitic, but a straight reading of it leaves Shylock as a very sympathetic character. “When you prick us, do we not bleed?”, and so on. ---
**Author:** ![outlierrn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/outlierrn/32/3005_2.png) [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2023, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shakespeares-most-frequently-performed-plays/984838/25 "2023-06-01T23:32:01Z")
I’ve seen a few summer-in-the-park productions. I will comment that a didgeridoo makes an innovative and effective choice for Macbeth. Something I wouldn’t have seen coming. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2023, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shakespeares-most-frequently-performed-plays/984838/26 "2023-06-02T00:14:07Z")
Explain that. They had someone playing one as background accompaniment? Or it somehow had a more direct role on stage? ---
**Author:** ![outlierrn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/outlierrn/32/3005_2.png) [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2023, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shakespeares-most-frequently-performed-plays/984838/27 "2023-06-02T01:11:24Z")
Backround accompaniment, they did a series of tones that gave a moody, evocative, foghorn sort of sound, very effective. ---
**Author:** ![romansperson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/romansperson/32/17100_2.png) [@romansperson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/romansperson)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2023, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shakespeares-most-frequently-performed-plays/984838/28 "2023-06-02T02:55:30Z")
I’m married to an English major who eventually became a middle-school English teacher, so I’ve seen A Midsummer Night’s Dream more times than I’ve wanted to. I’ve also seen Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet mutliple times, Much Ado About Nothing, The Tempest, King Lear and Macbeth twice, The Taming of the Shrew, Othello, The Merchant of Venice, and Henry V. I remember really enjoying The Merchant of Venice, but that was years ago back when I was in college (my roommate and best friend was a theater major so I saw a lot of plays in those days). ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2023, 10:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shakespeares-most-frequently-performed-plays/984838/29 "2023-06-03T10:17:06Z")
Of the list, I’ve seen all 10 live, most of those multiple times, as well as most of the others. Not including _**The Compleat Wrks of Wllm Shkspr (Abridged)**_ there, of course 🙂 I’m a big believer in the “Shakespeare is better seen, not read” school of thought. It helps that we have an annual summer outdoor production [in a great venue](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maynardville_Open-Air_Theatre), in addition to other theatres, and that I’ve been lucky enough to visit both Stratford’s _RST_ and London’s _Globe_ reconstruction more than once. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2023, 12:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shakespeares-most-frequently-performed-plays/984838/30 "2023-06-03T12:14:52Z")
> [@Bashorian](#): > > Most likely, yes. I’ve often thought that kids in the 60s on were required to read Romeo because of the musical. In fact, the copy that we read had both productions. So did the paperback copy we used in my 8th grade English class in the late '90s, which I guess goes to show just how long school districts will hang on to old material. ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2023, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shakespeares-most-frequently-performed-plays/984838/31 "2023-06-03T20:30:32Z")
That’s when and where I read it, right before watching West Side Story. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2023, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shakespeares-most-frequently-performed-plays/984838/32 "2023-06-08T13:00:35Z")
Several scholars cite during my College English class suggest that Prospero in _The Tempest_ was written by Shakespeare to play himself. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2023, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shakespeares-most-frequently-performed-plays/984838/33 "2023-06-08T13:11:43Z")
Yes, and I’ve also heard that it was his last role before retirement, and that Prospero’s speech renouncing his magic was a reference to that. ---
**Author:** ![LurkMeister](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3da27b/32.png) [@LurkMeister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LurkMeister)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2023, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shakespeares-most-frequently-performed-plays/984838/34 "2023-06-08T15:20:44Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > I’m a big believer in the “Shakespeare is better seen, not read” school of thought. I was a Theatre major in college, and there was a running feud between the Theatre and English departments about this. I took a course in Shakespeare and when the English professor teaching it saw that I was a Theatre major he started giving me grief. At one point he called on me to “perform” one of the soliloquies (after nearly 50 years I’ve forgotten which one) so the class would get the benefit of “hearing Shakespeare properly instead of just reading it”. ---
**Author:** ![gkster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gkster/32/14107_2.png) [@gkster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gkster)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2023, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shakespeares-most-frequently-performed-plays/984838/35 "2023-06-08T18:42:20Z")
Count me in as definitely agreeing that Shakespeare needs to be witnessed and heard, not just read, to be understood. @LurkMeister crazy that departments should have been feuding! The community college near me has a Shakespeare course that’s team taught by Theater and English faculty, with the focus on showing the interaction between “page and stage”. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2023, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shakespeares-most-frequently-performed-plays/984838/36 "2023-06-08T19:00:30Z")
I’ve only seen two plays on stage, but many on film. I thought the high school production of _Macbeth_ I saw was splendid! Those young people obviously worked their butts off with that play, and the final scene was amazing. ---
**Author:** ![LurkMeister](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3da27b/32.png) [@LurkMeister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LurkMeister)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2023, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shakespeares-most-frequently-performed-plays/984838/37 "2023-06-08T20:12:54Z")
If I’m remembering correctly (as I said, this was 50 years ago) the basis for the feud was that some of the English faculty thought of Shakespeare as “literature” to be read, rather than as “plays” to be performed. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2023, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shakespeares-most-frequently-performed-plays/984838/38 "2023-06-09T00:51:37Z")
Then they would have been shitty English professors. Shakespeare was a playwright, not a novelist. ---
**Author:** ![LurkMeister](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3da27b/32.png) [@LurkMeister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LurkMeister)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2023, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shakespeares-most-frequently-performed-plays/984838/39 "2023-06-09T02:03:20Z")
Which is why we found it so silly. I suppose we should have been grateful they weren’t also teaching Greek drama. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2023, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shakespeares-most-frequently-performed-plays/984838/40 "2023-06-09T03:48:13Z")
In junior high school English our teacher wanted to take us to Romeo and Juliet, This was 1968 and the Zefferelli film had just come out. But some parents objected because there was that very brief nude scene. I still think it is one of the best versions ever performed. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shakespeares-most-frequently-performed-plays/984838.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shakespeares-most-frequently-performed-plays/984838.md?page=3)