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[angevin2]

I've made a community icon! This may not be worthy of a post, but it's pretty and I wanted to show it off. ;) (It's not the one I'm using for this post.)

Also, because you knew it had to happen, the obligatory History Plays survey: which one's your favorite? ;)

Comments

[a_t_rain]

I'm partial to the whole Henry VI saga, because ... dude, seductive Frenchwomen and severed heads and pirates and fake blind guys and more severed heads and Queen Margaret leading armies and young Richard being all snarky-like and did I mention the severed heads? What's not to like?

[angevin2]

Henry VI isn't quite my favorite -- as anyone who's spoken to me for more than about five minutes knows, that would be Richard II -- but I do have a deep and abiding affection for it. Especially as the best stage production I've ever seen was the RSC's Henry VI/Richard III cycle about four years ago, which I saw on tour in Ann Arbor, when I was an undergrad at Michigan). The RSC residency was among the happiest two weeks of my life (if you sort of mentally snip out the part where I was finishing my BA thesis. Which was on Richard II, in fact, so I had the Shakespeare's Histories Full-Immersion Experience that semester. Never really recovered from it either).

What I think is sort of funny is that you get the whole spiel about how they're little-produced and not really all that good (less so now; their critical stock seems to be rising) and then every ten years or so someone stages a major production and they get rediscovered...

[kerrypolka]

Heck yeah, ditto that! They're not the best from a literary standpoint, IMO, but they're so ridiculously cool that I'm absolutely in love with them.

...as anyone who's spoken to me for about five minutes knows. ;)

[rymenhild]

Henry IV part I, because I have a deep and abiding love for Glendower. Also, I saw about half the RSC Histories during my study abroad year in England, and, well, Prince Hal was brilliant.

[angevin2]

Yay Glendower! I'm going to be playing him for DSP (originally the part was going to be played by the_alchemist, but she's been promoted and is going to be Prince Hal).

Sounds like you saw the half I didn't see! I wish I could have seen both. (I especially wish I could have seen Sam West play Richard II, because... *loves*)

[lady_isabella]

I was doing a go-back-&-reread-more-obscure-Shakespeare thing not so long ago, and I was surprised at how much I enjoyed King John.

Diverting slightly from Shakespeare, two of the plays in my M.A. thesis were Peele's Edward Longshanks and Marlowe's Edward II. Definitely a contrast between two radically different monarchs.

[arriterre]

King John all the way.

[angevin2]

I'm quite fond of King John, myself. Someday I would love to play Constance, which is a role that would really emphasize my strengths as an actor (i.e. a willingness to be a raving psychotic)... ;)

I just read Edward Longshanks not that long ago! It's a weird play. I have the impression that it never really figures out what sort of play it wants to be...

[galiana_db]

I'm kind of partial to Richard III. Death, seduction, dastardly deeds, death, deposition of kings, death, dastardly deeds, epic battles, death, evil, villainy, curses, death...

[lareinenoire]

If we're purely looking at Shakespeare, I have to go with Richard III (with second place going to the final part of Henry VI). He's just so beautifully snarky. All the time. Even when he's dying. And the seduction scene with Anne is nothing short of sheer brilliance.