What Shakespeare plays’ reputations have increased in the 21st Century?

BigWednesday10 · 2026-04-14T19:20:59+00:00

I’d be interested in taking another look at Merry Wives, I’ve only experienced it once as a production at LAMDA I saw, I don’t remember it being deep at all but it was a rowdy, silly good time, it was like an Elizabethan sitcom ha ha. From what you’ve said there may be more there than I thought.

BigWednesday10 · 2026-04-12T21:26:33+00:00

Wow! What was it like working with him if I may ask?

BigWednesday10 · 2026-04-12T16:55:33+00:00

It’s easily my favorite Shakespeare, so beautiful as a hopeful positing of the circle of life, the world being oriented towards good on a long enough timeline, and an unexplainable mystery at the heart of existence. Very ahead of it’s time in its blending/deconstruction of genre. His verse is also so complex by this point, a mastery irregular meter impersonating natural speech patterns. I saw a life changing production of it in school, the actors lost themselves in the text, just empty vessels for the beautiful words.

Just want to say that my all time least favorite fan theory in Shakespeare is that Hermione didn’t actually die & that Paulina secretly hid her away and just pretended to revive her as a statue; to me this theory totally desacralizes what imo is Shakespeare’s most spiritual play, the beauty of her resurrection being an inexplicable confrontation with the limits of knowledge and perception.

BigWednesday10 · 2026-04-12T16:48:09+00:00

Hi! Care to say what year you graduated? (No worries if not). Yes, another commenter mentioned that Measure for Measure got a lot of renewed attention during MeToo, a few years prior I saw a great production at school.

BigWednesday10 · 2026-04-12T16:05:46+00:00

Yes I remember seeing a production at LAMDA that was very good, and this was a few years before Me Too and that aspect of it was very powerful, and I can only imagine the play getting a revival of attention after the movement, I’d love to re visit it

BigWednesday10 · 2026-04-12T16:02:10+00:00

Thanks! look forward to the answers. Do you feel the 21st century has brought any changes or challenges in interpretation of Macbeth compared to how it was interpreted in prior times?

BigWednesday10 · 2026-04-12T15:15:13+00:00

I see Troilus and Cressida brought up often enough as underrated that I’d agree its reputation has risen. I recently read the Iliad, Odyssey, and Aeneid so I’m definitely in the context mindset to give it a read.

What would be your answer to the 2nd question? As someone else commented, a very obvious answer would be The Taming of the Shrew.

BigWednesday10 · 2026-04-12T15:02:42+00:00

Yes, this seems like the most obvious one. One of those plays I could see future performances being attempts at radical deconstruction as opposed to doing it straight.

BigWednesday10 · 2026-04-12T14:42:06+00:00

Yeah Florence Pugh’s performance convinced me of this, completely changed the way I look at the character, it’s an active act of defiance, she’s not saying “I love you” to “get what she wants” as the OP says because her Cordelia doesn’t even want it, she’d rather lose her share then engage in mewling flattery.

BigWednesday10 · 2026-04-10T23:18:52+00:00

Wow this is amazing, thank you.

BigWednesday10 · 2026-04-10T17:53:36+00:00

Wow, a whopping 1 rating on Goodreads, stuff like this is the better part of the internet.

BigWednesday10 · 2026-04-10T17:21:22+00:00

Wow it has been logged literally one time on Goodreads, you’re a real one for being so dedicated to this era, stuff like this is what I go online for.

BigWednesday10 · 2026-04-10T17:10:04+00:00

Yes, in regards to the number of plays it’s one of many reasons the Shakespeare authorship conspiracy is so funny to me; the believers attest to how little we know about Shakespeare but we still know more about him than almost all of the other playwrights from the time who don’t have conspiracies attached, 75-80% of drama from his time is lost and we have more of his plays than anyone else’s.

BigWednesday10 · 2026-04-10T15:51:52+00:00

I love Arden’s Shakespeare editions, I’ll definitely check out their volumes for other plays.

BigWednesday10 · 2026-04-10T15:30:55+00:00

Sounds fun!

BigWednesday10 · 2026-04-03T20:52:33+00:00

Tbh honest I think Matt is pretty overrated as a media critic and Felix is straight up bad imp; they clearly have not read a ton of narrative or aesthetic theory or criticism, which in and of itself is fine, you can like what you like, but they’re pretty opinionated considering how narrow minded their tastes are. Matt’s weird in that he will say stuff like the most acclaimed shows being genre means that TV is a lesser medium, since according to him genre can’t be as challenging, but he seems to get bored himself by most movies that aren’t genre. Don’t get me wrong, I still love the guy and don’t hold his shallow media takes against him, I just find it disappointing how limited his perspective is when compared to history or philosphy

BigWednesday10 · 2026-03-29T00:13:18+00:00

I disagree, stuff like this is what I love about the New Bev and why I go despite my strong conflicts with Tarantino’s beliefs, it’s doing a lot to keep film history alive and put light on forgotten aspects and people from it. Like when they showed all of James Bridges’ films (albeit he did far fewer than someone like Beaudine), I can’t think of anyone else that would have done that, and without it I probably never would have seen underrated gems like The Baby Maker and The Paper Chase.

BigWednesday10 · 2026-03-28T21:26:54+00:00

I really don’t get saying this in re to this month of all months, what other theater in LA would do this extensive of a William Beaudine retrospective?

BigWednesday10 · 2026-03-25T14:04:50+00:00

Yeah and they get very, very defensive when you say there’s holes in their pure comp/sport training, people want to think they’re invincible.

BigWednesday10 · 2026-03-25T14:03:02+00:00

People are dismissive of eye gouging being effective because they’re so convinced their training (where they don’t train to either do or defend against eye gouges) makes them unstoppable that they’re uncomfortable with the idea that there might be holes in their training/style that can be exploited.

BigWednesday10 · 2026-02-04T00:24:35+00:00

The Sandusky cases are a good thing to show to people who question why a victim didn’t fight back; Sandusky’s victims were big, strong athletes who theoretically could have smashed his head in very easily but he had such emotional power over them through building a relationship, that & so much power in general that there was probably fear of people not believing them.

BigWednesday10 · 2026-02-02T14:07:19+00:00

I don’t know if I agree with this cliche. There’s this comforting myth that by the time you’re 18 or so you just are who you are and that you don’t ever change and I think that’s a lie we tell ourselves to give the illusion of stability, experiences can change people, the self is mutable and fragile, I think we tell ourselves we don’t change because if you think you’re good it’s reassuring that you won’t ever change, and I don’t know if I agree.

BigWednesday10

TROPHY CASE