Shakespeare's Plays

Last spring in my house we started watching Shakespeare’s plays. We just watched the final play. Watching these was both entertaining and edifying.

I’m not going to go into every play, for that I recommend Judi Dench’s book Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Rent. Dench has performed in (all? Nearly all?) of his plays, including opposite Ian McKellen as Lady MacBeth in the version we watched this summer. She certainly has more knowledge and better informed opinions than I do. This is just a few observations from what I watched.

For many of the plays it was difficult to find a production online, so we ended up getting a BBC DVD set from the 1980s which covered almost every one we couldn’t find elsewhere. I recommend this set for the near completeness of it, but also in particular for some of the productions. Comedy of Errors with Roger Daltry was brilliant. I didn’t expect it and him to be that much fun, and yet they were. Timon of Athens is not one of Shakespeare’s best, but watching Jonathan Pryce in it turn away from his friends that were only friendly when he was indulging them with his wealth… it all felt like a prequel for his character from Game of Thrones.

This is the first time I’ve seen many of these since I started writing or at least writing fiction I mean to publish. One thing that caught my eye was how many of Shakespeare’s villains are aware of their villainy, even seeking it out. Richard the Third comes out and says if he can’t be the hero he’ll be the villain. Aaron in Titus Andronicus revels in his evil deeds. So much for that everyone’s the hero of their own story axiom.

Many of these I’d seen before. I’ve seen several productions of Midsummer Night’s Dream both in person and on screen. I hadn’t seen the 1968 version Romeo and Juliet since 9th grade, and it brought back memories of Mr. Drexler half heartedly trying to cover the naked bits on the screen. I’d seen the David Tennant Hamlet before, and liked it all the more on this viewing. I think Branagh’s Henry the Fifth remains my favorite production. I also loved watching Ian McKellen in Richard III again.

One of the big surprises was a happy realization that not every play is good. I thought Pericles was particularly a mess. Though a lot can be done with a production. I thought Love’s Labour’s Lost didn’t seem to know what it wanted to be about when we watched it in play form, but then we watched Kenneth Branagh’s movie version. In the movie they set it in the 1930s, summed up much of the play as newsreels, then replaced other parts of it with old show tunes. I thought the movie worked brilliantly.

My favorite play I hadn’t seen before was Titus Andronicus. Of course I like the bloodiest. While I’m not in a hurry to watch another production of most of the plays right away, I’m eager to see the Anthony Hopkins film of Titus.

This was a great experience. And I learned a lot. As with many learning experiences, it feels like it’s just the beginning.