I’ve got another one for you. If I’m ever asked which play is my favorite, I have a hard time answering. My answer goes somthing like, “Hamlet. Well, it depends, Lear and Macbeth have some cool bits as well…and Iago’s a great villain…” and then I realize that I’m naming all the great tragedies and add, “But for the comedies, Taming of the Shrew is very funny…” and before I know it I’ve named a dozen plays :).

So, here’s my question. Which play is the most *entertaining* to you? Not which one you feel is the best literature, and no special limitations on the question (best plot, best tragedy, etc…). You’ve got a chance to sit in the audience for the performance of one of Shakespeare’s plays. Which one do you pick?

I think I may go with Romeo and Juliet. Something of a populist choice. I think it’s got a good blend of comedy (hello, Nurse), supporting characters (Mercutio!), action, plot, and tragedy. I may love Hamlet to death, but as I mentioned somewhere else, there are parts that make me want to fall asleep. I love Macbeth mostly for the ending, I get confused by much of what goes on. And so on.

Who’s next?

Did Shakespeare ever write anything bad? I realize it’s strictly an opinion question, but one I think is interesting. Several times recently I’ve run into people with this idea of reading everything Shakespeare wrote. Having done it once upon a time, it never really dawned on me that this is not a common thing. But, having done it, I still find myself gravitating toward the more well known plays. Give me Macbeth over Timon of Athens any day, King Lear over Pericles Prince of Tyre.

How about you? Have you already read them all? Do you plan to? Do you think that some are just not nearly good enough to even worry about? Or has Shakespeare attained such godlike status that, even if you don’t like it or understand it, you’ll still find yourself digging for the beauty that must be there and is just temporarily eluding you?

There’s something to be said for reading them all, just for the experience. You may, after all, find some particular gem in The Two Noble Kinsmen that personally works for you. More power to you. I encourage you to give it a shot, and I’ll at least attempt to discuss them with you if you want. I freely admit that even thought I’ve read them all I’m not intimately familiar with most.

I expect that you are reading them for pleasure, not for profit. I’m worried for people walking into the complete works thinking “They are all as good as Hamlet, and if I don’t ‘get’ one, it must be my fault.” Not necessarily true, and don’t let yourself be turned off or confused by Shakespeare by thinking that.

Darnit, Tivo tells me that I don’t get the Sundance channel and thus can’t watch Slings and Arrows over the next few weeks. Check out this blurb from the article:

“Slings & Arrows” takes us backstage at the New Burbage Shakespeare Festival, a fictional setting that will ring hysterically true for anyone who’s spent time in the world of not-for-profit theater. Torn between mercenary corporate sponsors, who want to erect a ”Shakespeare Village” with themed hotels and costumed fudge vendors, and precious artistes who think ”Hamlet” is a dead text that can be revived with pyrotechnics and grunge, the festival is full of familiar but freshly imagined eccentrics. They’re types, but they’re so sharply written that they become real even as they remain laughable.

I can’t believe I’m going to miss that. I have to check more carefully, I thought I had Sundance. Maybe I’m confusing it with the IFC.

So the week’s movie gossip is that Marilyn Monroe wanted to do Shakespeare. Tapes to her psychiatrist reveal that Laurence Olivier had told her to get acting lessons with Strassberg, and that she planned to take him up on his offer of help.

The more interesting question is what sort of role do you think she would have / could have played? This apparently happened “shortly before her death” in 1962, so figure she was what, 36? She’s probably not doing Juliet. But she’s Marilyn Monroe, for pete’s sake, she needs a romantic role. Cleopatra? Could she pull off the shrewish Kate? Liz Taylor didn’t do hers until 67 – Marilyn could have defined the role ;).

Patrick Stewart’s the sort of guy that, when he does Shakespeare, you want to go check it out. (When he does “A Christmas Carol” you want to check it out, too). Anyway, he’s got a new project — Merchant of Venice, ala Las Vegas. He’s already got Ian McKellen signed up. Apparently he’s not getting rave reviews so far, though, as people feel that he’s “trying too hard”, and “hitting it with a sledgehammer.”

What the article doesn’t say is whether this is a movie he’s filming or an actual production someplace. I’d be surprised to see a movie, after Al Pacino just did his Merchant this year.