# Which Shakespeare plays have you seen on the stage? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 5, 2011, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-shakespeare-plays-have-you-seen-on-the-stage/573589 "2011-03-05T16:15:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2011, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-shakespeare-plays-have-you-seen-on-the-stage/573589/21 "2011-03-05T19:50:55Z")
I’ve seen 9 titles, about 12 plays. I really should have seen more as one of the nation’s largest [Shakespearean theatres](http://www.asf.net/aboutus/index.aspx)is literally visible from my back yard, but they’ve gotten way too pricey. Am I the only person who’s never heard of [Two Noble Kinsmen](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Two_Noble_Kinsmen)? My favorite play co-authored by Shakespeare was [Porky’s 2](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2OD_zI4dib4). ---
**Author:** ![Nonsuch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nonsuch/32/2922_2.png) [@Nonsuch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nonsuch)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2011, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-shakespeare-plays-have-you-seen-on-the-stage/573589/22 "2011-03-05T20:17:12Z")
I saw Kenneth Branagh play Hamlet. I’d never heard of him til then (1993). Hit-and-miss production, but he was great. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2011, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-shakespeare-plays-have-you-seen-on-the-stage/573589/23 "2011-03-05T21:15:30Z")
Technically, all of them. In one performance.\* For single plays _As You Like It, A Midsummer Night’s Dream_ (play and ballet), _Twelfth Night, A Winter’s Tale_ (very odd play – one-half Othello-level tragedy; one-half farce), _Richard II, Hamlet, and King Lear_. I saw _Kiss Me Kate_, but I suppose that doesn’t count. \*_The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged)_ ---
**Author:** ![Miss\_Mapp](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miss_mapp/32/369_2.png) [@Miss\_Mapp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Mapp)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2011, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-shakespeare-plays-have-you-seen-on-the-stage/573589/24 "2011-03-05T21:33:14Z")
I’ve seen all the ones I’ve ever seen at the National Shakespeare Theater in Washington DC. I go fairly regularly–normally at least once a season if not 2 or 3 times–although I’ve seen different productions of the same play in different years. For example, I’ve seen both Patrick Stewart and Avery Brooks play Othello there. I’ve seen King John there. Also Richard II just last year. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2011, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-shakespeare-plays-have-you-seen-on-the-stage/573589/25 "2011-03-05T21:38:12Z")
Wow–so far I seem to be the only person who has seen _Troilus and Cressida_. I didn’t know that one was so rarely performed. (It was a cool production, too–in Greek costume, but with anachronisms, such as sunglasses, and the generals plotting strategy with pull-down charts and pointers.) ---
**Author:** ![amarinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3be4f8/32.png) [@amarinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarinth)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2011, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-shakespeare-plays-have-you-seen-on-the-stage/573589/26 "2011-03-05T22:30:16Z")
I don’t think I’ve ever seen Hamlet live. How very odd. And I have seen non-Falstaff historicals (one of the Shakespeare in the park companies did King John last summer, so I’ve seen that among others). ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2011, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-shakespeare-plays-have-you-seen-on-the-stage/573589/27 "2011-03-05T22:46:03Z")
> [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](#): > > Wow–so far I seem to be the only person who has seen _Troilus and Cressida_. I didn’t know that one was so rarely performed. _Troilus and Cressida_ was quoted on a Magic:The Gathering card my son showed me yesterday. Naturalize, a Green Instant (I have no idea what that means, but that’s what he tells me it is. 😃 ) [QUOTE=Will S.] Our touch of nature makes the whole world kin. [/QUOTE] I told him that _T&C_ is hardly ever performed. Looks like I was right. I’ve never even read it, despite a Shakepeare addiction in college. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2011, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-shakespeare-plays-have-you-seen-on-the-stage/573589/28 "2011-03-05T23:41:56Z")
Shakespeare is a playwright for risktakers when it comes to staging. I’ve seen some productions where they experiment with style and costume and all where it went really well and where it was distractingly bad. Of live productions, the Mussolini-esque fascist _Othello_ and an African version (with obvious nods to Tamor’s _Lion King_) of _The Tempest_ were probably the best; the worst was a Cole Porteresque musical revue style of _A Comedy of Errors_ and a 1960s themed _Midsummer Night’s Dream_. Speaking of fascist retellings, those happen a lot it seems and of mixed quality. In movies I liked Ian McKellan’s fascist alterniverse retelling of _Richard III_ (many didn’t), but Patrick Stewart’s similarly set version of _Macbeth_- though it got some good reviews- I found unwatchable (especially the witches). I liked Branagh’s “all over the place but vaguely late Romanov era” 38 hour production of _Hamlet_ but couldn’t watch the Kevin Kline/Keanu Reeves/et al _Much Ado About Nothing_. I’ve always thought a Restoration/Sun King style setting of _King Lear_ would work well with those [ridiculous wigs and faux armor](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/62/Portrait_louis_xiv.jpg) and “if it stands still gild it” style of decoration; it would make for a great contrast when Lear is stripped of everything and homeless in the storm. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2011, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-shakespeare-plays-have-you-seen-on-the-stage/573589/29 "2011-03-05T23:56:13Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > …couldn’t watch the Kevin Kline/Keanu Reeves/et al _Much Ado About Nothing_. Me neither. Probably 'cause they didn’t make it. 😉 The Emma Thompson, Richard Briers, Kate Beckinsale, Imelda Staunton, Brian Blessed, Denzel-what’s-a-black-American-doing-here-Washington _Much Ado_, however, was very cute. I fast forward through the Keanu Reeves and Michael Keaton parts, though. If Kevin Kline was in it, I’d probably fast forward his parts, too. Not a fan. ---
**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:** [March 6, 2011, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-shakespeare-plays-have-you-seen-on-the-stage/573589/30 "2011-03-06T04:56:29Z")
Quite a few, it seems. _Merry Wives of Windsor_ at Stratford, if that count for anything. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2011, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-shakespeare-plays-have-you-seen-on-the-stage/573589/31 "2011-03-06T05:43:49Z")
> [@WhyNot](#): > > Me neither. Probably 'cause they didn’t make it. 😉 But if they ever do, you know who knows how to use brackets and ain’t gonna go see it?\<\<\<\\>\>\>\> ---
**Author:** ![Ponch8](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponch8/32/9883_2.png) [@Ponch8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponch8)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2011, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-shakespeare-plays-have-you-seen-on-the-stage/573589/32 "2011-03-06T05:51:22Z")
_Macbeth_ is the only one for me, although technically it wasn’t even on a stage. It was a free outdoor performance in a local park last summer, and there were no sets and very few props. It was still done pretty well, though. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2011, 7:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-shakespeare-plays-have-you-seen-on-the-stage/573589/33 "2011-03-06T07:42:29Z")
I’m not positive this is exactly right, but I got 21. The Patrick Stewart _Macbeth_ from a couple of years ago was great, and the Old Vic did a very good _As You Like It_ that came to the U.S. about a year ago. Shakespeare in the Park did a very good _Henry V_ starring Liev Schreiber a couple of summers ago. I’m pretty sure I haven’t seen King Lear onstage, but I’d like to. There’s going to be a lot of Shakespeare in town later this year because the RSC is coming to the Park Avenue Armory. ---
**Author:** ![Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/le_ministre_de_l_au-dela/32/12181_2.png) [@Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Le_Ministre_de_l_au-dela)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2011, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-shakespeare-plays-have-you-seen-on-the-stage/573589/34 "2011-03-06T15:05:11Z")
> [@WhyNot](#): > > If Kevin Kline was in it, I’d probably fast forward his parts, too. Not a fan. Differing tastes, and all, but the version of Midsummer Night’s Dream featuring Michelle Pfeiffer and Calista Flockheart (both of whom had clearly done a lot of work memorizing their parts without actually understanding a word.) was at least partly saved by two performances - Stanley Tucci as Puck and Kevin Kline as Bottom. Other than them, I hated that film. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2011, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-shakespeare-plays-have-you-seen-on-the-stage/573589/35 "2011-03-06T15:27:28Z")
I’ve seen only _Romeo and Juliet_ and _A Midsummer Night’s Dream_. The latter was by sixth graders, and made absolutely no sense. The former was really good; however, it was abridged heavily. Yes, the one by the (advanced placement) sixth graders was the entire play. And I was also in sixth grade at the time. None of us understood what was going on. ---
**Author:** ![Apollyon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/apollyon/32/4238_2.png) [@Apollyon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apollyon)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2011, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-shakespeare-plays-have-you-seen-on-the-stage/573589/36 "2011-03-07T01:58:59Z")
> [@Lamia](#): > > I’ve also seen _Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead_ twice. 🙂 Have you also come across _[Ophelia Thinks Harder](http://www.theatreview.org.nz/reviews/review.php?id=2609)_? Two memorable theatre-going experiences: A university _“Summer Shakespeare”_ production of _Midsummer Nights_ with dark and evil fairies… less “pease-blossom” and more “nettle-thorn”… distorted little goblins that really captured the mercurial nature of the fae… and one very non-canon but so very in character moment: when after many trials Puck had finally secured the “Indian boy”, (the child represented in this production by a swaddled doll), Oberon gazed upon his prize, reveling in his little victory over Titania, and then pitched the baby over his shoulder. Puck, [mouth gaping open]: :eek: “You bastard!”. 😃 And a girls only high school production of _Twelfth Night_… yep, all female cast… added an extra dimension to the play’s gender bending and cross-dressing. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Lasciel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e79b87/32.png) [@Lasciel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lasciel)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2011, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-shakespeare-plays-have-you-seen-on-the-stage/573589/37 "2011-03-07T02:56:17Z")
Good lord, I never realized until I listed them how many of the weird-ass plays I’ve seen. Freaky. God bless the RSC, that’s all I’m saying. Between two seasons there, that’s the great majority of my watching experience. And I did count the ones we did in my Theatre major, because while I costumed/teched/stage-managed them, I certainly wasn’t IN any of them, and the crew watched those bloody things more than anyone else ever did. That has to count for something. ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2011, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-shakespeare-plays-have-you-seen-on-the-stage/573589/38 "2011-03-07T03:15:59Z")
My most recent was Henry VIII at the Globe Theatre in London in July last year. > [@Biffy the Elephant Shrew](#): > > Wow–so far I seem to be the only person who has seen Troilus and Cressida. I saw a Royal Shakespeare Company production back in 1986 at the Barbican in London. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Mondegreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/91b2a8/32.png) [@Lord\_Mondegreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Mondegreen)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2011, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-shakespeare-plays-have-you-seen-on-the-stage/573589/39 "2011-03-07T04:05:58Z")
Saw Macbeth during my final year of high school because we were studying it. Within a year of that I saw Othello in Stratford performed by the RSC, just because that’s what you do when you’re in the UK for the first time and happen to visit Stratford. ---
**Author:** ![Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kolak_of_twilo/32/73_2.png) [@Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kolak_of_Twilo)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2011, 7:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-shakespeare-plays-have-you-seen-on-the-stage/573589/40 "2011-03-07T07:55:31Z")
I’ve actually read far more than I’ve seen - only seen _Comedy of Errors, Taming of the Shrew, Romeo and Juliet_ and _Midsummer Nights Dream._ In college I was in \*As You Like It \*and _Hamlet_ so even though I know the plays I suppose they don’t count. I’m frankly amazed at the number of people who have seen _Cymbeline._ Is it possible you all attended the same production? 🙂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-shakespeare-plays-have-you-seen-on-the-stage/573589.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-shakespeare-plays-have-you-seen-on-the-stage/573589.md?page=3)