What is your favourite play from Shakespeare?

Answer 1

Comedy--Midsummer's

Tragedy--Romeo and Juliet

History--Richard III

Answer 2

Favourite Tragedy: Titus Andronicus

Favourite Comedy: Twelfth Night

Favourite History: Richard II

Favourtie Play by a Shakespearean Contemporary: Edward II by Christopher Marlowe

Answer 3

Tragedy : King Lear (Stacy Keach as Lear)

Comedy Merchant of Venice (Dustin Hoffman as Shylock)

History Richard III (Derek Jacobi as Richard)

Answer 4

To be honest, it's the one I'm watching at any given time--or saw most recently. The only ones that I don't remember very well and that haven't made my list of favorites are the ones I've never seen performed live on stage--or at least in a good film.

I've answered questions like this before. I wonder what I said then. But, as of today, may favorite . . .

. . . comedy is Merchant of Venice. (Though there is really a tragedy underlying the comedy.) This is the very first one I saw staged--by a traveling company of the Barter Theater (and that's a whole story in itself). I was fourteen, and I've never forgotten the sets, the characters, the costumes, the courtship of Portia, the trial of Shylock, the gambling afterwards, the homecoming to Belmont. I've always wanted to see it staged in a way that might bring out the tragedy implicit in a modern Shylock/Portia conflict; for example, with a strong African American actor, like the late Brock Peters playing Shylock, maybe a sultry Janet Jackson playing Jessica, maybe the elderly Tab Hunter as an effete Antonio on Wall Street, an Hispanic as Aragon, an Arab as Morocco, a money-hungry playboy as Bassanio (say, Tom Cruise), and an older, dominant actress like Meryl Streep or Glenn Close as Portia, with the dialect and frock of a shrewd Southern dominatrix in an old plantation style mansion. Don't change any of the lines, just let the choice of actors, costumes, and settings suggest a modern equivalent of the story.

. . . history is Henry IV, Pt 1 (no holds barred) with the inimitable Falstaff and his ne'er-do-well pub buddies on the one hand, and Prince Hal vs. Hotspur on the other, with an authoritarian but guilt-ridden King Henry on the thone.

. . . tragedy is Hamlet. I've seen this many times on stage and film, but never exactly the right Hamlet. Jude Law just might be able to carry it off. No doubt he could play the witty, brash, self-centered, proud, impulsive Danish prince (a fraternity boy called home from the university). I think he could do the emotional, vengeful, but indecisive courtier out to solve the crime and execute punishment. But can he grow into the resolute, resigned, philosophical hero at the end? The one grieving the loss of Ophelia, apologizing to the hot-headed Laertes, addressing "Alas, poor Yorick," confiding in his one true friend, Horatio, recognizing the need for a Fortinbras to set things aright, the one who says, softly, thoughtfully, "The readiness is all" and "There's a divinity that shapes our ends / Rough-hew them how we will" and to the faithful Horatio, "Absent thee from felicity awhile."

Macbeth, Othello, and King Lear are tragic heroes, undermined by their own hamartia (flaw in character), but Hamlet grows into a true hero in a crushing tragedy. "The time is out of joint. O cursed spite / That ever I was born to set it right!" He represents Shakespeare's dramatic, psychological, moral, and poetic triumph.

So, today, my "favourite play from Shakespeare" is Hamlet.

Answer 5

King Lear is my favorite Shakespeare tragedy. The Merchant of Venice is my favorite comedy.

Answer 6

Much Ado About Nothing

Answer 7

Macbeth

Answer 8

The Merchant of Venice

Answer 9

Hands down, Macbeth and Hamlet.

Answer 10

I love the comedies.

It would be a tie between "Taming of the Shrew" and "Twelfth Night".