It’s March and time for Madness. But here at the Bill / Shakespeare Project, it’s not about the round ball, but about the grand Bard (of Avon, that is!). We’re through our 32-play round and on to Round Two, which means the Sweet Sixteen:
1 Romeo and Juliet [#RomJul]
vs
16 The Tempest [#Temp]
9 Richard III [#R3]
vs
8 King Lear [#Lear]
29 The Winter’s Tale [#Winters]
vs
13 The Comedy of Errors [#Comedy]
21 Richard II [#R2]
vs
28 The Merchant of Venice [#Merch]
6 Measure For Measure [#Measure]
vs
11 Hamlet [#Hamlet]
19 The Taming of the Shrew [#Shrew]
vs
3 A Midsummer Night’s Dream [#MBD]
26 Twelfth Night [#12N]
vs
7 Much Ado About Nothing [#Much]
15 Henry IV [#H4]
vs
2 Macbeth [#Macb]
Which are your faves?
You can vote in any of the following ways:
- Leave the titles of your winning choices in the comments below
- Tweet @walthall with #BardMadness and the hashtagged titles (see above), one winner for each pairing
- Use the Instagram poll in the story at @billwalthall
Or - Leave the titles of your winning choices in the comments of the BSP Facebook page…
This round ends tomorrow night at midnight… We’ll announce the Elite Eight on Thursday, with Round Three beginning Friday!
Cast your votes today!
The Tempest / King Lear / The Winter’s Tale / Richard II / Hamlet / A Midsummer Night’s Dream / Twelfth Night (Benedick is way less insipid than Orsino, but 12th Night is the better play) / Macbeth
Tempest; Richard III; Comedy of Errors; Richard II; Hamlet; Taming of the Shrew; Much Ado; Henry IV
A bit evil, that last fixture – but then pitching Henry against JC in the last round was terrible for me. I suspect that RIII is about to fall by the wayside this time, which would make me very sad …
Damn, it may be too late, but I’ll try anyway:
R&J
King Lear
Winter’s Tale
Ack! A toughie! Richard II
Hamlet
Another toughie! But I have to give it to Midsummer
Oh Boy…Much Ado…
Macbeth!
not too late at all… this goes through Wednesday!
Some really REALLY tough choices here! If I were going by which plays I think are objectively best, my list would probably be a little different. But I’m going more with those I enjoy more. R&J v Tempest, and Winter’s Tale v Comedy of Errors were nearly impossible to decide, as I like the two opponents in each case about equally well AND they are so very different – the old apples & oranges problem. Hard to vote down Hamlet, but I do love Measure for Measure…. why do I have a feeling I’ll be in the minority again on quite a few of these?
The Tempest
Richard III
The Winter’s Tale
Richard II
Measure For Measure
The Taming of the Shrew
Much Ado About Nothing
Henry IV