What's your favorite Comedy?

[Ganymede]

Personally, I feel that the comedies often get overlooked.  But I'll take As You Like It over Hamlet any day.  (Okay, so I have a thing for cross-dressed chicks  )  What do you think?  Which Comedy is your fav and why?  

[shaxper]

I'd have to say Twelfth Night of Measure for Measure.  Twelfth night because I really love the characters and I'm intrigued by its ending.  Measure for Measure because it's such an uncomfortable, yet daring mix of humor and tragedy.  Every time I get to the scene where Angelo is hinting (not so subtly) that Isabella should sleep with him to save her brother's life, I laugh uncontrollably and then feel terrible for laughing.  I feel the same way about the end.  Isabelle is suddenly married off along with everyone else to make a happy ending, but she's the same character who complained that, as a nun, she wanted more restrictions placed upon her than the rest of the sisters had.  Is it funny that she so quickly changes her mind, or does she change her mind?  This can be a very tragic, sacrificial ending as well, depending on how it's played.

As for the Comedies being overlooked, I think everything BUT the Tragedies gets overlooked.  The Histories used to be Shakespeare's most cherished genre (and they're still my favorites) but tastes have changed.  It blows my mind that no one wants to read the Henriads anymore!  All people know is Julius Caesar (not even an English history), Richard III, and (sometimes) Henry V (from the Branagh film).  There's so much more!!!

I think the comedies are often overlooked for three simple reasons:
1. Most of them deal with really raunchy material that doesn't go over well in public school, which is the only place where most people read Shakespeare.
2. Most of them have problematic endings, and while I think they make the plays more poigniant, they upset readers who expect decisive endings.
3. People tend to expect comedies to be funny, when that isn't always what the genre is.  On one hand, this turns people off who approach it and aren't in the mood for dark subplots, and on the other, it frusterates people who aren't able to grasp Shakespeare's often subtle humor and think there's nothing else to be gained from a comedy.

[Bardolph]

12thNight.  But I'm also fond of Comedy of Errors.  That may be the most plagiarized of the plays of WS, but staged well it can be a real treat.  

I agree that some overlook the native tawdriness of WS.  They choose to see a loftier WS, above the common man.  But his bawdriness is what makes him very much a man of the people.  A good read to get a grasp of that is Shakespeare's Bawdy, a dictionary by Eric Partridge.  It's unlike any other dictionary you'll ever read.  And it's good to have on hand to wake others up to the bawdy subtexts that can be found.  

[shaxper]

I'm very curious to know what you love about The Comedy of Errors, B.  It's the one Shakespeare play that I can honestly say I don't like because it seems to rely on a simple, overdone gag and adds little else to it.  Of course, that's only my opinion, which is why I'd love to hear yours in greater detail.  I've always passed it off as Shakespeare's first experiment.  

[Bardolph]

I think it may well be WS's first experiment.  Perhaps it's his first solo dramatic flight.  It borrows so heavily from Plautus that it's hard to imagine it as anything but an immature work.  It's very short and could well have been an extension of a masque.  In pursuit of knowledge of WS it has often been suggested that his transitional works should have been more evident.  I think that this is one of them.  And for that reason I think it tells us alot about him.  

When this play is delivered with an extremely rapid pace it comes off very well.  If too slow, the gag gets too old too quickly.  What I find most interesting is that while the plot is borrowed, the characters are not.  It shows us that WS came to the stage with a knowledge of characterization that came naturally to him.  We will never know if someone took him under wing and gave him instruction that brought out Hamlet or Othello.  But we can know that he had a sense of what made a successful Elizabethan comedy very early in his career.  

I think that it's likely that there was much comedy hidden in the original stage directions.  Comic near meetings of the various twins and such would have made this a visual comedic feast.  Certainly the known comedic actors of the company would have influenced such devices.  

I think it's a cute little play.  If The Tempest is the doorway out, than this may be the doorway in.  

In selecting these as favorite comedies, I take leave of my all time favorite, The Tempest.  I leave that in a different category.  

[MelanieS]

I'd say the Comedy of Errors.
Measure for Measure  is actually rather a dark,
sadistic play, I think.
As you like it" has a plot I forget immediately.

I like Comedy of Errors because it is realy funny.

I saw it on TV years ago as a musical played in
1930's costume, and it was hugely funny. ;D

Whenever I read it I think it's funny. ;D

It may be an overdone running gag, but I just think
it's funny. ;D

MelanieS

[N.N.W]

[glow=red,2,300] Gotsta be Twelth Night... 'Exeunt chased by a bear' Ha ha ha (guffaw!) makes me chuckle every time...
[/glow]