Why we should all see plays by Shakespeare

To see, or not to see, was that the question? No, it wasn’t. But it might be yours? And if so, the answer is definitely to see, go and see as many of them as you can, see them all!

I’m talking about William Shakespeare’s plays if you hadn’t already gathered from the title of this blog. Little Willy Shakespeare, good old Billy boy, the hot-to-trot Bard of Avon, as I’m sure he was referred to back in the day.

You’ve all heard of him, yes? The actor, the poet, the playwright, the legend? The guy that’s been labelled (by many but not all) as the greatest English writer of all time? If you’ve not heard of him, where’ve you been for the past 400 years?

Personally, I’m a big fan. I mean, I have to say that because I’m a trained actor and it would be sacrilegious not to. But also, it’s totally true. Yes, the language in his plays can sometimes be difficult to understand. And yes, he has been accused of stealing other writers’ works and palming them off as his own. And yes, it seems many of his plays were cobbled together by multiple people rather than merely a solo endeavour.

But does all of that really matter in the grand scheme of things? Look, people all over the world, if you’re not quite ready to join hands and start a Shakespeare love train, don’t worry. By the time you’ve finished reading my top 3 reasons to watch Shakespeare plays, you’ll be converted into a fully-fledged first folio fan, just like me.

1. You’ve probably already seen an adaptation

Have you ever watched the 1999 classic movie 10 Things I Hate About You? Or the 2006 movie (I’m sorry, I just can’t bring myself to label this one as a classic) She’s the Man? Well, both of these modern-day chick flicks, believe it or not, were inspired by olden-day Shakespeare plays.

The movie 10 Things I Hate About You is loosely based on Taming of the Shrew and She’s the Man is a modern adaptation of Twelfth Night. If you haven’t watched either of these movies before, definitely go and watch 10 Things I Hate About You, Heath Ledger is amazing (as always). As for the other one – you’ve probably got better things to do with your time.

Surely you must have seen the Leonardo DiCaprio and Clare Danes version of Romeo and Juliet? The one where they’ve traded swords for guns and renaissance finery for jazzy Hawaiian shirts? It’s brilliant, and the modern-day twist makes the Shakespearean language really easy to follow.

If you’ve somehow managed to miss all three of the aforementioned movies, there’s absolutely no way you could’ve let Disney’s cult classic The Lion King pass you by! Yes, that’s what I said The. Lion. King. If you’ve been under the illusion that this is just a modern tale about a lovely little lion cub losing his lion Daddy then you’ve been mistaken. It’s Hamlet. But with Lions.

2. There’s something for everyone

I realise that my references so far have all been sort of lovey-dovey-cutesy ones, that’s just my own personal taste. But with Shakespeare you’ve got it all. The guy wrote at least 37 plays (some people believe more) along with hundreds of poems. There’s surely got to be something in his back catalogue for you to enjoy.

His plays are usually divided into three genres – comedy, tragedy and history. If that’s enough to float your boat, great. But it’s a little too narrow a spectrum in my humble opinion. It doesn’t do him justice; his plays are much more diverse than that. With Shakespeare you’ll get stories about love, war, fantasy, murder, mystery, death, grief, jealousy, magic, revenge – all the juicy stuff. His characters are nuanced, flawed and relatable and his topics are universal and timeless.

And the best thing is, you can pretty much find out any information you need about any of his plays via the good old world wide web. This makes it easy to do simple research to help you decide which of his plays you should go and see first.

Shakespeare’s plays are also in the public domain, which means they are not protected by any copyright laws. Luckily for all the avid readers out there, this means his plays are easily accessible and are usually available to read online for free.

3. He made up words that you will have definitely used

Shakespeare invented loads of words. He is credited for inventing or introducing over 1,700 words that are still used in the English language today. If that doesn’t scream olden-day influencer, I don’t know what does!

I won’t list them all, because frankly that would be quite boring for me and you both. But to give you a little flavour of some of the top-quality words Shakespeare threw into the mix, here’s an incredibly condensed list:

· Bedroom (I don’t know where everyone was sleeping before)

· Hobnob (not the biscuit)

· Swagger

· Eyeball (I think the two words already existed, he was just the genius that joined them together)

· Lonely

· Zany (I don’t know about you, but I’ve never used this word before)

· Obsequiously (or this one)

So, I trust now that you’ve been dazzled by my top 3 reasons to watch Shakespeare plays that you’re also a fully-fledged fan now. My work here is done.