I figured just one option would be too limiting, so the checkboxes would give a broad view of best comedy, history, tragedy etc, which might be apples/oranges to aficionados.
For me it’s between Hamlet and Othello, and I’ll go with Hamlet. Self-doubt, procrastination, a desire for certainty, family crisis.
I limited myself to one and picked Lear. *Hamlet *is more a collection of great exchanges than a coherent whole, and I’ve fallen a bit out of love with *Julius Caesar *over the years. My favorite **filming **of Shakespeare is Branaugh’s Henry V–excellent use of the medium to tell a story using the Bard’s words for maximum effect, but with the courage to use film’s visuals in place of dialogue to good effect.
I’ve gotten more out of Titus Andronicus than any of these, but that’s another story.
I was going to pick one comedy and one tragedy – but unfortunately you left Comedy of Errors off the list. I hovered over Hamlet and Macbeth but settled on Romeo and Juliet for the strength of the romantic imagary.
My favorite film version would probably be the Richard III with the Nazi imagery.
That’s a good distinction to draw. I’d rather see a good production of Twelfth Night than any other Shakespeare show, but I do think that others are better written. I voted for Romeo and Juliet, though Richard III, Hamlet, Lear, Much Ado About Nothing, and Othello are all close behind it. I could take or leave either Romeo or Juliet, but Mercutio captivates me, and I love the Friar.
Just stunning. One of the best stagings of a Shakespeare tragedy that I’ve ever seen. Even better than their Richard III a couple years back.
I am glad the R&J is getting some votes. I was re-reading it the other day, and I think I have come to the conclusion that it is significantly under rated due to overexposure. It’s *really *well put together structurally. It doesn’t wander all over the place the way some of his other plays do (Hamlet, I am looking at you) and Romeo is really a lot more of a bastard than I remember him being. Good stuff there, and a nice little message about teenage rebellion and parents looking out for their own best interests while ignoring their kids.
Kind of a crap romance though.
One of the best ideas for a production of Hamlet comes from Soviet Russia. Vladimir Vysotski performing in the translation by Vladimir Nabokov. Forget Hamlet the ditherer, forget Hamlet the indecisive, mother-loving, gay intellectual. Hamlet is a good man brought down by the constant surveillance of a regime that he cannot trust. He is destined to kill the king and take the throne, but he cannot trust his friends, his girlfriend or even his mother. Against this crushing, oppressive network of spies, what can one man do, except to play the clown and wait for his moment to strike… I’m told it was absolutely chilling, and his Hamlet had balls and brains to spare. I saw a brief clip in a biography of Vysotsky, and it was fantastic!
When my Grandfather (born in Lithuania, a native Russian speaker) found out that I was going into theatre professionally he sat me down to talk about it. The subject of Shakespeare came up and he started to go off on a long rant about how much he loved Shakespeare until he learned to speak and read English and how Nabokov’s translations were so much better than the dry crap old William was writing. 
Well, he was so much better in the original Klingon…
Mine too, hands down. Brilliant movie. I love the swing band rendition of “Come Live with Me and Be My Love” opening the film instead of jumping right into the “winter of our discontent” speech.
He did! Check out The Bad Sleep Well; you can find it at Netflix.
You know, I had almost the same conversation with my dad! Except that in my case it was about how it was a great Hungarian author (whose name I’ve forgotten) who translated them and how those Hungarian translations are so much better than the original English.
Indeed. I never was too impressed by *Measure for Measure *until I had the opportunity to see it done live, by a professional theater company. Then I was blown away.
Richard III…intrigue, incest, murder who could ask for anything more?
It doesn’t have witches. That’s why I voted for Macbeth.
I voted for Macbeth because it is my favorite play ever and a serious contender for the best of Shakespeare’s plays.
I voted for Hamlet because it is my favorite play ever and a serious contender for the best of Shakespeare’s plays.
I refuse to distinguish further! Third place is also a tie between Othello and Antony and Cleopatra (how come it’s not got even 1 vote?).
I disagree with the Dopers who say that the plays have got to be seen performed. Sure, they work great on the stage (obviously) and it’s always a pleasure to witness a good production, but no live staging can capture all the nuances and possibilities that one can visualize while reading the plays.
Also, there’s no Portuguese translation of the plays that’s considered definitive or seen to rival the originals. We’ve some excellent translations, both for the stage and for home reading (and they end up being very different), but too much has to be sacrificed. I guess the languages and literary traditions are just too different. (That’s here in Brazil. The Portuguese may think differently.)
Where is Titus Andronicus?
Where are my sons?
This is good pie.
King Lear. I can’t help but love it the most.
By the way, I hope all you Shakespeare fans are familiar with the Canadian TV series Slings and Arrows.
But don’t you regret it now?