Best & Worse: Plays

Shakespeare? Goldsmith?

Here is the place to discuss your favourite (or least favourite) playwrights and their plays

Hmm, as far as Shakespeare goes, I enjoyed Macbeth and Caesar, but didn't like Romeo and Juliet. My favorite Shakespeare is Taming Of The Shrew.
Arthur Miller's The Crucible is one of my favorites.

I tend to enjoy watching live plays rather then reading them because it's easier to follow all the action. Though I have to say that reading a play out loud with a group is a lot of fun.

Fie, fie, unknit that threat'ning unkind brow
And dart not scornful glances from those eyes
To wound thy lord, thy king, thy governor.

Sorry, I memorized Kate's monologue for Brit Lit and it tends to come out at random moments.

I wuv Kate. *huggles Kate*


The Taming of the Shrew is my favorite of Shakespeare's plays. I've always loved debating whether the work is as masochistic and misogynistic as many believe it to be.

I wuv Kate. *huggles Kate again*


My other play that I simply adore is W;t by Margaret Edson (and no, the semicolon is not a typo). Vivian Bearing is such an enduring character and the play truly is driven by a rapier sharp and funny wit.


My other favorite plays, which I can quote almost entirely from memory, are in Spanish. If you can find the translations for Federico Garcia Lorcas' works (despite my utter abhorrence for translations and the shameless bludgeoning they commit), especially La casa de Bernarda Alba (The House of Bernarda Alba), read them. You will never find a stronger female character than Bernarda. In fact, while never presenting a single male character on stage, this play has been performed with only male actors--and the result is fantastic. Very few actors, male or female, can capture the iron of Bernarda's will. It is to die for.

I've read a couple plays by Shakespeare and seen a couple in action. My favorite play be Shakespeare though is The Tempest. Very funny play. I enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed watching the play.

One play that I love as well is Wait Until Dark. Freaky scary play. But amazing. I honestly have never actually seen the play on stage--just the Audrey Hepburn movie version that is in black and white. Still amazing though. I actually did have to read part of the actual play script for English I believe in high school.

I'm actually more into musicals than any actual plays though. Here's my favorite list of musicals:

1) Aida (the Disney broadway version)
2) Phantom of the Opera
3) Les Miserables
4) Cats (I don't think a lot of people like this one--it takes a few times to even start to understand it--but that's okay--I'm still working on it...music is phenomenal though!)
5) Rent
6) Bye Bye Birdie
7) My Fair Lady
Jekyll and Hyde

I know I've seen more but they were on my okay list like Kiss of the Spider Woman and Copa Cabana, oh and Pirates of Penzance I have seen but thought it was mildly okay.

I love reading plays. As far as Shakespeare goes, my favorite is As You Like It. There's so much in that play alone to keep a discussion going for weeks.

At the moment, I'm obsessed with Holy Day by Andrew Bovell. There's a monologue in there I'd love to use for an audition piece when I return to the States.

I love learning about Irish culture, history, language and literature, so I've been drawn to a controversial playwright by the name of Martin McDonagh. Anyone else read any of his plays (or seen Six Shooter). I'd love to discuss so many elements in the plays I've read by him. I must warn you, if you plan to read any of his plays, they are extremely dark (at least, the ones I've read are); there is, however, so much that could be said about Irish history and identity in his plays.

So those are my on-going obsessions since last Spring. I'm thinking of writing an analysis of Holy Day to keep myself on my toes while away. It takes place in Australia and has a lot to say about the lost generation. I'd like to do more research on the topic and history.

Isn't it terrible that i haven't read anything by Martin McDonagh!! Its definitly on my reading list though!

LOVE Phantom of the Opera, gobble.

I like Arthur Miller's All My Sons.

And I am one of those people who enjoy Christopher Marlowe a bit more than Shakespeare - Dr. Faustus, Edward II, The Jew of Malta. Too bad he died at age 29

Macbeth, Othello and Julius Caesar are the top Shakespeare plays for me.

I do have to say that even though The Crucible terrifies me (and I love the whole Salem Witch Trial history since people were so paranoid and crazy back then...oh wait, we still are but in a different sense). I do love The Crucible.

I couldn't stand The Crucible. I just...ugh, I didn't like reading it. Watching it was okay, though.

I LOVE King Lear. We just finished it in English, and I fell in love with it. It's perfectly tragic. Plus I got to read as Regan one day and then Goneril the next and I must say that I threw myself into the roles. Heehee. I got weird looks from everybody when I did an evil laugh or two. It was fun.

I read Kenneth Sawyer Gooodman's Dust of the Road and fell in love with it. What a play!

Hmm toughie. I love Broadway plays (Chicago, Rent, West Side Story, Bye Bye Birdie, to name a few) but I also love traditional Shakespearean plays. My favorites of his are the Taming of the Shrew (which is really funny if your school performs it with gender reversal--boys in dresses, girls in suits), Romeo & Juliet, and Hamlet.