Welcome to Shakespeare Week! Because I couldn’t participate in all the Shakespeare 400 anniversary hullabaloo leading up to his birthday/day he died, I have decided to have my own little celebration here on the blog for the week after the anniversary. There will be a new post here on Finding the Bard every day until next Monday. I am very excited to bring this blog back full steam ahead. Today, I have a post for you that I am particularly excited to share.
I have not read all of Shakespeare’s plays yet, but I thought, for the purposes of celebrating his birthday, I would choose my favorite ones and make myself limit it to five. But I ended up with six, and who cares about arbitrary numeric limitations anyway, right? Here we go:
1) Macbeth. The Scottish play isn’t exactly under-appreciated, the attention it gets is rightly earned. It has long been my very favorite play. It was the first Shakespeare play I was ever introduced to, as I played the First Witch in my sixth grade’s class simplified and condensed version of it. Lady Macbeth would have to be given the distinction for the Shakespearean character that intrigues me the most. I find her fascinating and could spend hours upon hours trying to figure her out. There are so many stunning lines and memorable images. Macbeth’s “Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow” speech is one of the most haunting things I have ever read or listened to. Even if only for that monumental set of lines, it is my very favorite Shakespeare play.
2) Hamlet. No surprise, huh? There is something utterly timeless about this play. It astounds me how applicable it feels, even though I am not a Prince of Denmark whose father was murdered by my villainous uncle. I feel like there is something in the character of Hamlet that everyone can connect with. As possibly Shakespeare’s most popular play, many aspects of it are almost beyond cliché at this point, but it is absolutely worth the (admittedly substantial) time investment to watch or read it.
3) Richard II. Not one of Shakespeare’s more popular plays, or perhaps his most exciting, but I love many, many lines from this story of a deposed king. The scene where Richard returns to England to find only bad news is one of my favorite scenes in any play I have read. Even if you don’t want to read or watch the whole thing, look up that scene. It is beautiful and heartbreaking. If I were to attribute the word “stunning” to any Shakespeare play, it would be this one.
4) Richard III. This play feels similar in some ways to Macbeth. Our title character is even more villainous, though, and never really clearly commands the audience’s pity in the way that Macbeth does. But it is a magnificent piece of literature and theatre. It may not be the most engaging of the Bard’s plays, but the character of Richard III is endlessly complex and fascinating, and that is the reason the play makes my list.
5) Henry IV Part 1. This is on my list for one particular reason: Falstaff. Namely, the scene where Henry/Hal and Falstaff take turns pretending to be the King, Hal’s father. It’s one of the best scenes that Shakespeare ever wrote, and Falstaff is entirely unmatched among any character that Shakespeare created. I am not a huge fan of Merry Wives of Windsor, which is a shame, so I have to get my Falstaff fix from the Henry plays, and they are thoroughly entertaining!
6) As You Like It. The only comedy to make my list. Some people call Shakespeare’s comedies dated, or just simply not funny anymore. I don’t know to what extent I agree with that, but As You Like It is the one play I would point to in order to disprove that argument. There are multiple points that are laugh-out-loud funny without even trying very hard, and Rosalind is among my favorite Shakespearean characters of all time. It is thoroughly charming and simply great fun. Plus, you have to give the Bard credit for the quadruple wedding at the end. I mean, he really outdid himself in that arena.
Let me know what your favorite Shakespeare plays are! Is it affected by whether you’ve seen them performed or only read them?
