Plays > M Plays

Much Ado About Nothing

Advantages: its studied at GSCE english, so its important to read.
Disadvantages: It can be hard to read because the language is shakepearian.

Shakespeare’s romantic comedy Much Ado About Nothing could perhaps be interpreted as a comedy of errors; all the relationships have problems, and many mistakes are made along the way. Shakespeare uses characters with small parts to give the play a more interesting story line. For instance the minor character of Don John creates issues between Claudio and Hero, one of the main relationships in the play. But the relationship of Benedick and Beatrice ...
...language is very important in Much Ado About Nothing. I think that Shakespeare’s ingenious title is actually a play on words itself because the difficulty Benedick and Beatrice have in getting together is “much ado about nothing” because their problem isn’t that they don’t love each other, it’s that they both hold their dignity too high to be able to let one and other know how they truly feel. After their conversation when Benedick is masked, he ...

sportscrazy-loz 16.11.2009 · Read full review
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Review of Much Ado About Nothing - William Shakespeare

A perfect play for an all female cast.

Advantages: Good characterisation, perfect for students.
Disadvantages: Could start to become dated in a few years time.

I first saw My Mother Says I Never Should performed as a play at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe a few years back, and performed very well at that, so when I found a copy of this I thought it would be nice to read it as a script. The story focuses on four women from different generations as they grow up. Leaping back and forth throughout time, we see how motherhood changes them, and how they make the same mistakes as each other as time goes on. ...
...reading it from the page flows well. However, it is easy to see that it is in performance that this particular play would be most successful. The interlinking scenes depicting all four women as young girls leave plenty of scope for a director, and each of the characters is individual enough to present a great vehicle to a talented actress. As a smaller, all female cast, this could be a perfect piece for AS/A Level students, and provide not just a ...

Zalx84 22.07.2009 · Read full review
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Review of My Mother Said I Never Should - Charlotte Keatley

One of Shakespheres best

Advantages: Great plot
Disadvantages: None

Another A-Level English Book! Measure for Measure was written in 1603 or 1604. The play was first published in 1623 in the First Folio. The earliest recorded performance of Measure for Measure took place on "St. Steven's night", December 26, 1604. During the Restoration, Measure was one of many Shakespearean plays adapted to the tastes of a new audience. Sir William Davenant inserted Benedick and Beatrice from Much Ado About Nothing into his adaptation, ...
...Notable recent productions of Measure for Measure are Peter Brook's 1950 staging at the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre with John Gielgud as Angelo, Charles Laughton as Angelo at the Old Vic Theatre in 1933, and a 1976 New York Shakespeare Festival production featuring Meryl Streep as Isabella and John Cazale as Angelo. The play has only been produced on Broadway once, in a 1973 production that featured David Ogden Stiers as Vincentio and Kevin Kline ...

damob123 15.08.2007 · Read full review
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Review of Measure for Measure - William Shakespeare

Macbeth The Scottish Play Review

Advantages: Lady Macbeth's fantastic and very well known speeches.
Disadvantages: None- I love this play!

Macbeth is my favourite Shakespeare play of all time. I have encountered this play so many times and never got sick of it. I studied it in high school, performed it at university and then taught it to high school students and I'm still not sick of it. One of the reasons Macbeth is among my Shakespeare favourites is because the leading lady, Lady Macbeth, is such a good part; one of the few great female roles in Shakespeares works. She's ambitious, ...
...say she's more stong and powerful than her husband, Macbeth! That is how huge her desire to become the Queen of Scotland is. Not to mention the three witches and the spooky, supernatural element they provide! If you like ghosties and don't mind a bit (well, quite a lot) of blood, do read this great tale. ...

performeress 03.09.2009 · Read full review
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Review of Macbeth - William Shakespeare

It's all corrupt, y'ken?

Advantages: knowledge of legal system
Disadvantages: none

...I was required to study Murmuring Judges as an A level text a few years ago, I would have enjoyed reading this play anyway. Murmuring Judges is the second play in David Hare's highly acclaimed trilogy about British institutions. Racing Demon, which won four awards as Play of the Year in 1990, was the first part of the trilogy and examined the Church. The Absence of War, a play about the Labour Party, completed the trilogy. Hare has most definitely ...
...themes come into play in Murmuring Judges, apart from the main theme that the Judiciary system is in three very separate levels (and classes), with the prisoners and prison staff being at the bottom, the police in the middle and the bar staff at the top, and different levels and types of corruption being portrayed in each. One of the scenes actually shows all three levels at the same time, pointing out their distinct differences. The Guardian describes ...

steffee 27.09.2001 · Read full review
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Review of Murmuring Judges - David Hare