Theatre Memories Part 11: Shakespeare, The Tragedies

The photo is from my collection of Hamlet playbills: I did not see Richard Burton or Albert Finney (Middle row); but I did see Kevin Kline (twice, both at the Public), Jude Law, Ralph Fiennes (on Broadway), Stephen Lang (Roundabout), Peter Sarsgaard (CSC), Michael Stuhlbarg (Delacorte), John Glover (Philadelphia Drama Guild at the Walnut Street Theatre), Peter Stormare (brilliant production directed by Ingmar Bergman at BAM), Tom O'Neill (at Villanova University, performed in rep with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead), Brian Hugh O'Neill (performed in the 79th Street Riverside Park Boat Basin), Toby Stephens (Maggie Smith's son in London).

Other Shakespeare tragedies seen (I am leaving out TV and film versions, because there are too many):

Macbeth: Patrick Stewart (BAM/Broadway), Alan Cumming (in an almost solo version on Broadway), Christopher Plummer/Glenda Jackson, Ethan Hawke, Liev Schrieber, Kelsey Grammer (pretty terrible production), John Douglas Thompson, Corey Stoller, Alec Baldwin/Angela Bassett, Raul Julia, Kenneth Branagh/Alex Kingston at the Park Avenue Armory.

King Lear: Glenda Jackson, Derek Jacobi (my favorite), Kevin Kline, Frank Langella, John Lithgow, Hal Holbrook, F. Murray Abraham, Sam Waterston, Ian McKellen (BAM, Sylvester McCoy, Doctor Who no. 7 was the Fool), Christopher Plummer, Brian Cox (in London in rep with Richard III, Ian McKellen was the Duke of Kent and alternated as Richard III, Cox played Buckingham in Richard).

Othello: David Oyelowo/Daniel Craig, Raul Julia/Christopher Walken, Keith David/Liev Schreiber, John Ortiz/Philip Seymour Hoffman (a weird production directed by Peter Sellars).

Lucy Peacock and Andre Sills
in Coriolanus,
perhaps the best Shakespearean 
production I have ever seen.

Coriolanus: Ralph Fiennes (BAM), Christopher Walken/Irene Worth, Jonathan Cake (Delacorte Theatre), Andre Sills at the Stratford Festival in Ontario an amazing production directed by Robert LePage, perhaps the best Shakespeare I have ever seen anywhere.

Troilus and Cressida: Delacorte Theatre (twice), Theatre for a New Audience

Titus Andronicus: Jay O. Sanders (Public Theatre) and Donald Moffatt at the Delacorte

Romeo and Juliet: Public Theater with Cynthia Nixon and Peter McNichol, Anne Meara was the nurse; Lauren Ambrose and Oscar Isaac (Delacorte); Condola Rashad and Orlando Bloom (Broadway); Elizabeth Olsen and Julian Cihi at CSC (Daniel Davis as Friar Laurence was the best thing in this bizarre production which played at about the same time as the Broadway one); Shakespeare's Globe at the Armory (Romeo injured himself late in Act One and his understudy replaced him after intermission).

Timon of Athens: Brian Bedford in Tony Randall's NAT on Broadway, I believe this production was imported from the Stratford Fest; Richard Thomas at the Public.

Julius Caesar: Twice at the Delacorte: the controversial Donald Trump version in 2017 and an earlier one with David McCallum as Caesar; Denzel Washington on Broadway; Stratford Festival with Martha Henry as Julius Caesar.

Vanessa Redgrave and David Harewood in
Antony and Cleopatra
Credit: Michael Daniel

Antony and Cleopatra: Vanessa Redgrave/David Harewood (Redgrave also directed); Joaquina Kalukango/Jonathan Cake.

Cymbeline: At the Public with Joan Cusack in JoAnne Akalitis' truly weird production, and twice at the Delacorte (once with Liev Schriber as the villain, then with Kate Burton).