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Curated playlist

British plays adapted into films

  • MacbethIn Macbeth, three witches tell a Scottish general he will be king. Murder, guilt, and paranoia follow.
  • HamletThere is no single, settled Hamlet. Three early versions of Shakespeare's play survive, each with lines the others lack.
  • The TempestIn Shakespeare's The Tempest, a girl weeps for a shipwreck her father arranged. Prospero calls up the storm himself.
  • As You Like ItShakespeare's comedy As You Like It opens with a wrestling match, not a battle.
  • Twelfth NightShakespeare's Twelfth Night opens with a shipwreck and a woman who thinks her twin brother drowned.
  • All's Well That Ends WellIn All's Well That Ends Well, Helena tricks the husband who rejected her into bed.
  • Henry IV, Part 1When Henry IV, Part 1 first appeared on stage in 1597, Falstaff was not called Falstaff. He was called Oldcastle.
  • Romeo and JulietRomeo and Juliet announces in its prologue that the lovers will die.
  • Measure for MeasureIn Measure for Measure, a man is sentenced to death because his betrothed became pregnant.
  • Henry IV, Part 2In Henry IV, Part 2, the new king publicly rejects Falstaff, his old tavern friend.
  • Much Ado About NothingBeside the title of Much Ado About Nothing, in his own copy of the Second Folio, Charles I wrote two names: Benedick and Beatrice. He did not write Claudio or Hero, the other pair of lovers in William Shakespeare's comedy. The king's pen…
  • The Winter's TaleThe Winter's Tale, a play by William Shakespeare, contains the most famous stage direction in all of his work: "Exit, pursued by a bear." That single line has long overshadowed a drama of jealousy, grief and apparent resurrection. The…
  • Richard III (play)Shakespeare's Richard III opens with its villain announcing he is determined to prove a villain.
  • The Importance of Being EarnestThe Importance of Being Earnest opened to a standing ovation in 1895, and within weeks its author was ruined.
  • OthelloOthello's deadly plot hangs on a handkerchief. Shakespeare's tragedy turns on Iago's forged proof of an affair.
  • The Merchant of VeniceIn The Merchant of Venice, a pound of flesh was first offered as a joke. By the court scene, no one is laughing.
  • Antony and CleopatraIn Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra, a boy actor plays Cleopatra imagining a boy playing her.
  • Henry V (play)Shakespeare's play Henry V opens with an apology for its own stage. A lone Chorus says the theater is too small.
  • Richard II (play)Supporters of a rebel earl paid actors extra to stage Richard II the night before their planned uprising.
  • King LearFor nearly two centuries, audiences saw King Lear with a happy ending. Nahum Tate's 1681 rewrite cut the Fool.
  • A Midsummer Night's DreamIn A Midsummer Night's Dream, Puck gives a weaver a donkey's head and a fairy queen falls for him.
  • CoriolanusShakespeare's tragedy Coriolanus opens with a food riot. Romans blame a soldier for withheld grain.
  • CymbelineGeorge Bernard Shaw called Cymbeline "stagey trash" and then rewrote its final act.
  • Julius Caesar (play)In Shakespeare's play Julius Caesar, the hero is Brutus, not Caesar. Brutus kills his friend for the good of Rome.
  • The Taming of the ShrewThe Taming of the Shrew begins with a prank on a drunken tinker. Servants dress him as a lord and stage a play.
  • Henry VIII (play)A cannon fired during Henry VIII burned down the Globe Theatre in 1613. The play had run only two or three times.
  • VolponeThree men queue at the bedside of a rich Venetian, each carrying an expensive gift and each hoping to be named heir. The patient is not sick at all. He is the title character of Volpone, a comedy by the English playwright Ben Jonson, first…
  • The Comedy of ErrorsShakespeare doubled the twins in The Comedy of Errors. A Roman play had one pair, so he wrote two.
  • Titus AndronicusShakespeare's play Titus Andronicus was so brutal that critics doubted he wrote it.
  • The Two Gentlemen of VeronaShakespeare's The Two Gentlemen of Verona may be his first play. No other play of his has a smaller cast.

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