What is your favorite play by Shakespeare?

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william_daniel
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Re: What is your favorite play by Shakespeare?

Post by william_daniel »

No shout-outs for Antony and Cleopatra?! Gotta say it was my first Shakespeare love. Cleopatra is just hilarious ("even some innocents escape not the thunderbolt!"); Antony so passionately foolish––and so recognizable, slave to his lust; and the history is pretty fascinating as well. Definitely recommend it for those romantically inclined...Cleopatra's "vapors" speech is beautiful and chilling (also: "Oh most false love! Where be the sacred phials thou shouldst fill with sorrowful water?") ... Antony does a lot of shouting and eloquent cursing of himself, though his ending speech ("A Roman, by a Roman, valiantly vanquished...") isn't too bad. Gotta see it performed though, get that Egyptian imagery goin'.
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Reshmi
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Post by Reshmi »

My favorite is 'The Merchant of Venice'
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Post by Qew »

My favourite has to be Hamlet but probably because it was my first one that I read at a relatively young age. It was pretty darn revolutionary for me as a kid to have every single main character die at the end. It is an objectively good play.

On the other hand MacBeth does have one of the best murder scenes in all literature (warning - spoilers):

FIRST MURDERER
     (Stabbing him)     What, you egg?
Young fry of treachery!
SON
He has killed me, mother.
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Post by Jolie »

Hamlet & The Taming of the Shrew

An extraordinar author i admire William Shakespear c:
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Post by toshilou »

For a while, The Twelfth Night was my favorite. But then last year I read The Taming of the Shrew.. Now it's probably a tie for those two
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Post by Gravy »

Much Ado About Nothing.
Beatrice and Benedick are the perfect couple.
I can't help but love the back and forth between the two of them.
It's just wonderful.
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Post by OnionPickle »

I have only read one Shakespeare play and probably the most widely known: Romeo and Juliet. We read and performed it in our honors language arts/history class and I loved it. However, I do need to expand my Shakespeare inventory.
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Post by lisateb »

Much Ado About Nothing. What a great play that is not of funny but full of life!
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Post by Ryan »

I love Othello. There's something incredibly attractive about the character that I've never felt in any of his other plays, except maybe Catherine from The Taming of the Shrew or Beatrice from Much Ado About Nothing. I haven't read them all, though, so perhaps I've yet to discover another that I like. But generally, I would have to say that Othello is my favourite. Behind this is perhaps Henry V or The Taming of the Shrew.
"Reason is intelligence taking exercise. Imagination is intelligence with an erection" -- Victor Hugo.
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Post by Courtney Whittamore »

I am an actor for my profession. I went to college as a theatre student, so as you can imagine, there has been a LOT of Shakespeare in my life. It is so very difficult for me to pick one of his works as a stand out favorite, as they all have their own voice uniquely and are so very different. I have always found it so genius that one writer could span so many different worlds of emotion and circumstance with his writing. However, if I had to pick, I would choose As You Like It. I have always enjoyed his comedic plays, as they are vastly underplayed to his dramas. His characters are so unique and it brings a smile to your face. When done right, As You Like It can lift you out of your own circumstances and into a completely different place, even if just for awhile, and bring you a dose of joy.
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Post by MichaelMcManus »

Having performed the part of Bottom in "Midsummer Night's Dream" when I was in school, that play will always be special to me. However, I recently reread "The Merchant of Venice" and was completely taken by it. I did not remember how many of the lines from the play have become adages that we use in everyday conversation.
Friedrich Nietzsche: And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music.
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Mattreadsbooks12
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Post by Mattreadsbooks12 »

Okay so I hate to be cliche but Romero and Juliet will probably always be my favorite. It was my first Shakespeare play and it has never let me go.
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Post by ALynnPowers »

I guess I would have to go with A Midsummer Night's Dream. It's psychotic.
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Post by milliethom »

I love The Merchant of Venice but I also have a fondness for Twelfth Night, which I studied at school when I was the grand age of fourteen.
I thought the drunken Sir Toby Belch was hilarious at the time.
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Post by Archie1791 »

Hamlet.. :)
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