Choosing a play at the 2012 Utah Shakespeare Festival

billwill

I went last year and saw Richard III with a few friends. It was a great experience, and I'm doing it again this year.

However, we really don't know what to choose. I haven't seen any play outside of Richard III (though I have read a few) last year, and I especially don't know which would be best out of the ones listed.

Here's a link to the plays that are showing: http://www.bard.org/tickets/prices2012.html (please note that we're going late July/early August so whatever you recommend would have to be playing then)

Any recommendations would be great. Thanks!

ChopperDave

Out of the ones they listed, Hamlet is far and away the best. If you can only see one, see that.

Titus Andronicus is sort of love it or hate it, I find. It is one of Shakespeare's earliest plays, and also one of his most violent and grotesque. To give you an idea, if you like the Southpark episode "Scott Tenorman Must Die," you'll like this, because Shakespeare beat Matt and Trey to the punch by about 500 years. Many critics think it's one of his worst plays, but a lot of modern critics now claim it has been wrongfully maligned and that it's actually quite good. Most people will tell you that it's definitely better to see performed than it is to read off the page, so I'd recommend seeing that one at some point if you get the chance (especially if it's a good production).

Merry Wives of Windsor is pretty mediocre -- probably one of his worst -- and there's more of a critical consensus on that. If you're going to take a pass on one, this should be it.

Sentry

Titus Andronicus is basically Shakespeare summer blockbuster. It's a bit Shakespeare by way of Michael Bay. But of course way better because, seriously, Shakespeare...

If it were me and I'd never seen Titus Andronicus I'd see it, Les Miserables, and/or To Kill a Mockingbird, but mainly because of how many times I've seen Hamlet. Hamlet is definitely a better play then then Titus, but it's also the one most people have seen in at least some capacity.

ChopperDave

Oh yeah, Les Miserables is a nice musical for an uninitiated theater-goer. It's worth seeing if only so that you "get" the cultural significance of it, seeing as it's one of the most popular musicals ever made. I've never seen, read, or heard of the theater adaptation of To Kill a Mockingbird, so I can't say much about that beyond that the book (and movie) it is based off of were both very good. I guess I just assumed he was only interested in the Shakespeare plays.

But yeah, if you haven't seen it in your life, Hamlet.

Rend

I didn't see it on the list, but if you have the chance to see The Hanged King's Tragedy I would highly recommend it. I've never seen a script inspire such devotion from the cast, and even audience, before.

naporeon

I'm not downtalking Hamlet. At all. But if they are performing it as written, it is loooooooooooong. In addition, perhaps more than any other of Shakespeare's plays, the story has been lifted wholesale and reused note-for-note in countless modern works. The Lion King is probably the most notable of these, but you really cannot swing a dead cat without hitting a movie, play, or TV series that has borrowed heavily from the plot or themes in Hamlet.

My recommendation is honestly for The Merry Wives of Windsor. Why? First, it's a comedy. In my experience, Shakespeare's comedies are far, far better in a festival setting than his tragedies or histories. Next (and I really cannot emphasize this enough): FALSTAFF, an awesome and hilarious character that appears in several of Shakespeare's plays and is basically the prototype for the modern "lovable coward" trope (e.g. Shaggy and Scooby). He is great whenever he appears, but I feel he shines here.

In addition, The Merry Wives of Windsor is a great play for those new to Shakespeare. It's not exactly representative of his work, but its ample use of sarcasm and irony give it a somewhat more modern sensibility than many of his other plays. You may also want to consider that Hamlet is performed constantly; it is very easy to see. The Merry Wives of Windsor, on the other hand, is not produced half so often.

Last is that it is simply fun.

billwill

Hamlet unfortunately doesn't start until September so it's not even an option for us.

It seems like it's coming down to either Titus Andronicus and The Merry Wives of Windsor.

(Unfortunately, it's impossible to get good tickets for Les Miserables now, it seems).

Mad Jazz

I really like Merry Wives, and it would be my recommendation. Falstaff is a great character, the comedy is entertaining and light, and you'll probably go 10 years without seeing another company producing this one. What everyone said about Titus is true; it's lots of blood and killing and whatnot, and not particularly engaging imo. Hamlet is Hamlet. It's awesome, but it's done to death (to be perfectly honest, my favorite thing to come out of Hamlet is Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead).