Post #2848982

2026-05-11 10:00 UTC

#ScribesAndMakers May 11: Though it can be hard to choose favo(u)rites and you may not be a fan of his work, which of Shakespeare's plays would you say you like best? Oh, I'm pretty basic on that. While I like A Midsummer Night's Dream and As You Like It, I tend to like the tragedies more. Wikipedia lists The Tempest as a comedy which ... ok, let's not go there (I'm not saying it's a tagedy ... it's clearly not but, even in Shakespeare terms, I don't think it's a comedy). Anyway. I can't simply say Hamlet. I can't say I love Hamlet more than The Tempest or the Scottish play. But I also can't rate one of those higher than Hamlet. So let's call it a three way tie for first place and I'll do my best not to think about any of the ones I could have put into that tie.

Replies (2)

@EveHasWords@toot.cat 2026-05-11 12:26

Ian McKellan and Judi Dench played in a version you can watch for free on YouTube and it’s really good. If you have Apple TV, Joel Coen directed Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand in it and it’s one of the best screen adaptations IMO. (The McKellan / Dench edition is essentially still a stage production but shot on video.) I don’t have any suggestions for The Tempest. I’m saving a Tilda Swinton version of it for a rainy day. For Hamlet, apart from The Lion King and other loose adaptations, I’ve only seen Kenneth B’s version. It got me started on Shakespeare. All star cast too. But it’s also the second or third longest movie I own and a real time commitment to watch. Romeo + Juliet is a really great production of that play. I borderline didn’t like that play until I saw that adaptation. Its style and humor make it extremely accessible and the whole cast are great (apart from Leo who is adequate). All that said, there are full stage productions of just about anything where the script is in public domain that you can watch on YouTube. I’ve seen a lot of Gilbert and Sullivan and also Italian operas that way. Not to mention some other Shakespeare productions. A plays the thing to catch the conscience of the king. Reading a script isn’t nearly as good a way to do it. Although I will say 100% of the Shakespeare I watched after Hamlet, I read first. #ScribesAndMakers

Open ##2848983
@ljwrites@writeout.ink 2026-05-11 10:24

@EveHasWords@toot.cat I remember reading that traditionally the distinction between comedy and tragedy was not whether it's funny but that a comedy ends with marriage while tragedy ends with death, so in that sense I guess The Tempest fits!

Open ##2848995