Best Performances

The best performances and staging you've seen.

Adrian Lester as Hamlet in Peter Brook's Hamlet, hands down one of the best star performances I've seen. I did not agree with the cutting in full and felt the rest of the casting was weak compared to Mr. Lester, but the staging was simple, clean and the use of Asian inspired music and instruments added a unexpected but not distracting layer.

I was in the UK in early February and saw Patrick Stewart in Antony and Cleopatra which may have finally gotten me to appreciate that particular work. The choices he made at first seemed oft putting, but I quickly came around as I realized I was seeing a much more fleshed out Antony than I has seen before.

On that same trip I saw Henry VI Part One and Richard III, performed with the same cast. Very vibrant and immediate productions. The RSC did the entire group of Henrys through Richard using the same cast and set. Quite an undertaking and I wish I had seen them all.

The last one would be a production of Henry IV Part 1 and Part 2 done by Chicago Shakespeare Company before they moved to their new space. It also had that immediate feeling and their Falstaff was flawless.

>2 KimberlyL: I am so jealous, but happy you'll be bringing us more news from England. I can tell you about the best non-performance: I missed my chance to see Peter O' Toole perform MacBeth at the Old Vic in 1980. We were in the downstairs bar, awaiting the performance when a bomb threat forced us out on the street with wine glasses in hand. After the building was checked out and we were seated in the theater, O' Toole appeared on stage and said the show couldn't possibly go on because we could not be certain we were bomb-free :0 Alas!

Mel Gibson's film of Hamelt. Mel is forgiven everything he does when he is inebriated. the man may be the greatest actor of his time, taking the cloak off of olivier and wearing it well.

I'm not so widely traveled as some of you, but so far the best I've seen was The Merry Wives of Windsor at the Virginia Shakespeare Festival in 1995 on the campus of William and Mary. I had been wandering around Williamsburg looking for a place to get out of the heat and literally stumbled into it. I've still got the t-shirt to prove it. ;-)

Morris Carnovsky, as King Lear, at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago, in 1964, will live always in my memory as one of the outstanding Shakespearean performances. (Their 2006 production of the same play, with Stacey Keach as Lear, will, however, live in my memory as one of the worst productions I've ever seen.)

The most brilliant Hamlet I've ever seen was Guy Adkins' performance at Chicago's Court Theatre. A local critic described it as "what might be the finest performance of the title role you may ever see". I heartily concur.

As for great stagings, Goodman did a production of As You Like It a number of years ago that was set in the post-Civil War American frontier. It worked astoundingly well.

And I am a great admirer of Ian McKellan's film version of Richard III.

Wallace Acton was awesome as Richard III a few years ago at The Shakespeare Theatre in Washington, DC. I've never seen anyone do the speech when he wakes from a nightmare quite like that--almost like a schizophrenic. The man really knows how to read a line, including punctuation.

I'm thrilled that he will be back this year to play Edward II.

Speaking of Chicago performances, I saw Chicago Shakes production of Henry IV Part 1 and 2 in their old space. Greg Vinkler was a perfect Falstaff.

I missed Guy Adkins performance, but everyone I know who saw it were blown away.

I loved the Ian McKellan's film version of Richard III. It's one of my favorites on DVD, along with Zeffirelli's Romeo & Juliet and Ian Holm's King Lear.

Off the subject, did anyone see the BBC series Shakespeare Retold? They were really delightful with strong performances. Though I missed Shakespeare's language, I still enjoyed the telling of the stories.

>7 Cariola: If it hadn't been for that production of Richard III, I'm not sure I would love Shakespeare as much as I do. During high school, I liked a handful of Shakespeare's plays, but wasn't completely sold. Seeing Richard III led to my Shakespeare obsession, which is going strong four and a half years later.

I also saw Wallace Acton as Hamlet at the Shakespeare Free For All in DC, and enjoyed him in that role as well. I hadn't realized that he was back for Edward II. (I'm not sure how I missed that, considering that his photo is on the main page of the web site . . .) I was thinking about seeing that anyway, and now I'm fairly certain that I will!

Kimberly, I have seen Shakespeare Retold, bought the DVD, and had thought about using clips for my classes. The four retellings are interesting, but I found that in most cases, they were a bit too far off the mark for class use. I especially liked Much Ado About Nothing.

I had the good fortune to study in London back in 1985 and saw some remarkable performances that year: Antony Sher in Richard III, Kenneth Branagh in Henry V, Ian McKellan in Coriolanus. All great performances.

#10 My favorite one of The Shakespeare Retold is Macbeth, but then again that's my favorite Shakespeare play, so perhaps I'm a bit biased.

Did any of you Chicagoans see Scott Parkinson as Richard II? Fantastic.

Also, I saw a really sexy Midsummer at the RSC in 1999.

I am so sad.

I have just learned that Guy Adkins, whose performance as Hamlet I praised above, has died of colon cancer, at the far too young age of 41.

from the Chicago Tribune.

Off the top of my head

Judi Dench as Cleo
Harriet Walter as Cleo and Beatrice and Lady M and Imogen and Viola and almost anything else she's done
Patrick Stewart as Tony
Tony Sher as Richard III and Macbeth
Robert Stephens as Falstaff
Penny Downie as Margaret of Anjou
Simon Russell Beale as Hamlet
Sam West as Richard II
Ian Holm's Lear
Ian McKellan's Iago
Richard McCabe as Iago
Imogen Stubbs as Desdemona - and if we are including stuff probably written by Fletcher her Gaoler's Daughter in Two Noble Kinsmen

But there are loads more - for instance Brian Cox and Fiona Shaw almost brought me round to appreciating The Shrew - as did Anton Lesser and Amanda Harris in Alexander's production which loads of people loathed but I really enjoyed.

Noble's Henry IV, his conflation of the first tetralogy The Plantagenants and his Midsummer Night's Dream before he mucked it up - in fact most of the productions he directed at the RSC (although he was a disasterous Artistic Director of the company)
Boyd's first tetralogy the first time I saw it in the Swan
Warner's Titus Andronicus
Alexander's Cymbeline and his Twelfth Night - actually this bloke keeps appearing as a director of my favourite performances too
Bogdanov's Wars of the Roses - apart from the Joan of Arc scenes

So that includes three stagings of what are frankly very uneven plays in the first tetralogy - all of which were very different. And if I'd included filmed versions Jane Howell's for the BBC would have been in there too. In fact thinking it over loads of my favourite productions have been of the lesser known plays.

And the most recent King John at the RSC with Richard McCabe (again!).

Actually in my experience any production of King John is going to be well worth watching.

It's a very strange play and I'll be jiggered if I can locate its moral centre but if you get the chance have a look at it.

It wasn't that amazing that Tennant did well - he had an excellent supporting cast (Claudius, Gertrude, Ophelia, Polonius and Horatio were all amongst the best I've seen) and previous experience of a couple of seasons at Stratford when he was very well thought of.

I was especially disappointed by the sneering attitude of Dr Miller when he heard about the casting - something about catering to the lowest denominator by casting TV actors. That hadn't stopped Miller himself using one of the stars of Bless My Neighbour in his Old Vic production of The Tempest (and very good Rudi Walker was too) whilst I suspect a fair number of those who saw both that production and Miller's King Lear still thought of the main player as Soames Forsyth.

And yes, Richard Pasco is rather wonderful.

> 18

something about catering to the lowest denominator by casting TV actors.

Which is, of course, ridiculous. Actors these days often do film, television and stage work. Is Judi Dench's work to be denigrated because of "As Time Goes By"? Helen Mirren's because of "Prime Suspect"?

I thought this sort of snobbery had diminished, but I guess not.

18, 19> Not all actors are effective both on stage and on film/TV, but, as you've demonstrated, many are. I admit that, initially, I didn't expect Tennant's Hamlet to do much for me, but I thought it was quite good. Why not give the actors a chance before condemning them?

If you look at their resumés it's a rare actor who hasn't got a combination of The Bill, Eastenders, Corrie etc sitting on it - and a very rare murderer on Morse, Poirot etc who hasn't been at the RSC or National

I do know what you mean though Cariola and I wasn't having a pop at you - just Doc Miller!

Having said which - some of you may have noticed that one of the productions I was quite nice about (the Cox/Shaw Shrew) was directed by the self-same Miller.

21> That's likely true of British actors; not always so true of American actors, some of whom have also given some wonderful Shakespearean performances (but let's not talk about Keanu Reeves).

Believe me, I wasn't defending Miller's comment.

It is such a blow to the Chicago Theater community and of course to those who knew, loved and worked with him. Gone too too young.

I adore the entire cast of the 1996 movie version of Twelfth Night, particularly Imogen Stubbs as Viola, Helena Bonham-Carter as Olivia and Ben Kingsley as Feste.
Olivia Hussey (in Zeffirelli's Romeo & Juliet) was also the most adorable, lovable Juliet of any production I have ever seen.