I’ve seen quite a few. I work with two different acting companies, one of them only does Shakespeare.
All’s Well
As you like it
Comedy of Errors
Love’s Labors Lost
Measure for Measure
Merry Wives
Midsummer
Much Ado
Taming of the Shrew
Tempest
Twelfth Night
Winter’s Tale
King John
Richard II
Henry IV pts one and two
Romeo and Juliet
Coriolanus
Julius Ceasar
Macbeth
King Lear
Cymbeline
I didn’t hate the movie, but Kline and Tucci were definitely the highlights. I like Kline, though.
What amazed me about that film is how appallingly awful most of the cast were. Real stinkers. Tucci and Kline were by far the best of the lot.
I’ve only seen a few onstage but they’ve been interesting. Vanessa Redgrave did a decent Prospero but the production reminded me how weak certain part of Tempest are. And these guys do a Titus Andronicus you wouldn’t believe. Extremely physical, extremely violent, extremely bloody. They had to mop the blood off the stage at intermission and at least one audience member fled the hall to puke. But, apart from an unconvincing fake hand, it was all well in keeping with the horror of the play (and the black, black humor they dredged out of it was ingenious).
[On a tangent: am I the only person to think that Rowan Atkinson was born to play Malvolio?]
I always skip over those parts too; it’s gotten so I know just when to hit the Next Chapter button.
I’ve seen many more on film, and have read still others. For some reason, I keep seeing the same ones onstage – I’ve seen multiple versions of Macbeth and The Tempest, for instance.
Eight I think - may have missed some from school days. A long time ago.
Some famous productions (Anthony Sher doing Richard III a a giant spider on crutches, Dustin Hoffman as the Merchant), some really good productions without a major star (Midsummer Night’s Dream at Stratford in the eighties), and some I’ve mostly forgotten!
Funnily enough, after not seeing any for years, we saw the RSC Romeo and Juliet at Stratford last Friday. Good stuff and the revamped Festival Threatre is great.
My answers include Midsummer Night’s Dream, but (on stage) I’ve only seen significantly cut-down versions performed by high school students who weren’t necessarily taking the drama class by choice, so it shouldn’t necessarily count. But I’ve read the whole thing and seen some filmed versions.
“My kingdom for a horsefly!”
For anyone wanting to add to their list, “The Tempest” and “Much Ado About Nothing” will run at the outdoor theater at The Old Globe in San Diego starting on May 29. Possible Doperfest?
Merchant, Tempest, Hamlet & Othello.
I saw Merchant multiple times, because I studied it for Eng Lit O Level. Hoffman was a great Shylock. The student version I saw set in Mussolini’s Italy was, on the other hand, painful as hell.
Rarely does one see a comedy where most of the cast were apparently not told that comedies are supposed to be funny. :smack:
We have a Shakespeare In The Park company here in town and I’ve been out at least once a year since the mid-90s, with only two years missed (last year being one of them), so I’ve caught a whole mess of Big Willy style over the last decade and change. The Hamlet I saw a few years back was horrid – the actor playing Hamlet apprently felt it was best to play the part by shreiking all his lines as loud as he possibly could. D’oh. On the other hand, the rendition they did a while back of Henry V, set at the World Cup, with all the battle scenes being soccer matches, was both moving and, at times, intentionally hilarious – I was thoroughly entertained.
Just noticed on their website that they’re taking a one-year hiatus, with plans to be back for 2012. Now where am I gonna get my Shakespeare fix? 
For a few years the San Francisco Shakespeare Festival was bringing their productions to a park just a few blocks from where I live. Got a rare opportunity to see Pericles that way. Unfortunately, citing budget troubles, they don’t come around here no more.
:mad:
It’s very funny - I’m going to my ten year college reunion soon, and we thought we might see what’s playing at the Shakespeare Tavern - looks like I’m going to be first on the Dope to see Two Noble Kinsmen! The one play on this list that nobody said they’d seen!
I saw Coriolanus produced by the Royal Shakespeare Company.
I saw a production of Othello in a coffee shop. No costumes, minimal props, just 10 folding chairs in one dingy room. It was amazing. I don’t think I ever realized how great Shakespeare was until I saw one of his productions stripped down like that, and it didn’t make a damn bit of difference.
I grew up in Ashland, OR, and I sold concessions at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival for a couple summers. The pay wasn’t great, but you did get all the comp tickets you could reasonably use. I’ve seen about two-thirds of the canon by now. King John wasn’t really worth it, but Henry VI, 3 shows a lot of the lead-in for Richard III, which is a lot of fun to see, especially because they did Richard III with the same cast the following year.
No one’s seen Two Noble Kinsmen yet? It’s an uncommon one. The only reason I’ve seen Titus is that a local group did it as a stripped down slapstick comedy. Lavinia is pathetic to the point of comedy anyway, Aaron the Moor is racist to the point of absurdity, and so on. It was really a refreshing take on the thing.
Seen many Shakespeares, and as a Theatre Professional I have worked on many as well. The one that sticks in my head was a production of Julius Ceasar I saw at a college theatre festival about ten years ago. This thing was so bad that faculty members from other schools were openly mocking it by the end of the second scene. (I think the faculty members from the school that brought it were mocking it before the curtain went up).
Saw a production of The Tempest that looked like it was set on Gilligan’s Island.
I get muddled by the comedies.
I’ve seen the Tempest and Othello in about five different productions each (and played Prospero once) as they’re my favourites.
One memorable performance includes Vanessa Redgrave and Timothy Dalton in Taming of the Shrew, and Richard Harris in Richard III. Which I’ve just realised I forgot to vote for.
Romeo and Juliet with Jane Asher in 1966 or 1967. The older play-goers couldn’t understand why so many young girls were there! At the time she was Paul McCartney’s girlfriend.
NO! That will break the third seal! (And it took forever to get him to eat freshwater fish.)
I forgot to come back and tell you how it went! It was actually pretty good - I mean, it was no Hamlet, but I’d recommend it. Of course, it could have been awful with a different production, and the actors were fantastic. And it did drag at the end (my mom kept dozing off) and the first act was 90 minutes and I think I may have actually run over some old lady like OJ at the airport on my way to the restroom at intermission.
The funny thing is, I was assuming that the stuff that was harder to understand was the not-Shakespeare stuff, but it turns out that all the good bits with the Jailer’s Daughter in the middle weren’t Shakespeare at all.
At any rate, I’d say I definitely liked it. And I have absolutely seen worse, more boring plays in my life.