So, you want to begin reading Shakespeare, but you don’t know where to start?
In this list, I outline the best Shakespeare plays for beginners. The top five, to be exact!
Between 1590 and 1613, Shakespeare wrote at least 37 plays: 17 comedies, ten histories, and ten tragedies.
These plays all vary in complexity of plot and of language. If you’re new to Shakespeare, it’s probably best to start with one of the easier plays.
All of the plays in this list are fairly accessible. A Midsummer Night’s Dream might seem complicated if you’re just reading it, but watching it clears things up quickly.
By the way: Shakespeare wasn’t meant to be read!
Yes, reading a play is great because it allows you to really soak up every pun, thought, and detail. But you don’t need to start there.
If possible, you should watch a play first. Many film adaptations are available on Amazon Prime and other streaming services, often for free.
I generally like to watch a play, then read it, then watch it again. That doesn’t have to be your process, but it’s what I do to get the most out of each play!
If you want to know where to start with Shakespeare, you've come to the right place. Now without any further ado, let’s get into the list!
Romeo and Juliet
Teenage love. Feuding families. Suicide.
Romeo and Juliet is a fast-paced, action-packed exploration of young love, passion, rivalry, and more. No wonder it’s one of Shakespeare’s most accessible plays.
The play begins with two families who share an age-old vendetta: The Montagues and the Capulets. One evening, Romeo Montague sneaks into a party held by Lord Capulet, and there he meets Capulet’s daughter, Juliet.
The two immediately fall in love, and decide to get married in secret the next day.
However, things quickly go downhill from there.
Romeo’s hot-headed friend Mercutio provokes the ire of Tybalt (a Capulet), who then slays Mercutio.
Romeo, who initially tried to avoid the violence, is then obliged to avenge Mercutio, and kills Tybalt in turn.
The Prince of Verona, fed up with all the violence, lays down hard justice. He stops just shy of the death penalty, saying that Romeo must flee Verona. If he ever returns, he will face death.
This kicks off a long series of events that eventually results in the death of both young lovers. You’ll have to watch the play to see just how it actually plays out.
Romeo and Juliet is a great introductory play to Shakespeare. Depending on how you first encountered it though, you might not think so.
Despite the tragic ending of Romeo and Juliet, the first half of the play is performed just like a comedy. There’s a ton of fun and light-hearted humor, but most of it isn’t taught in schools because of its sexual innuendos.
Mercutio’s humor, in particular, is incredibly raunchy. This article does a great job of explaining the witty wordsmithing of Mercutio’s lines.
Keep in mind by the way, all of this back-and-forth happens in just one scene!
Today, Romeo and Juliet is one of Shakespeare's most studied and most performed plays. Originally published in 1597, the authorized quarto version appeared in 1599.
Romeo and Juliet is certainly one of the best Shakespeare plays for beginners, and even better if you have a good guide to walk you through it.
Reading a good annotated version of the play, or listening to an entertaining podcast series, really brings the characters to life and enhances your experience.
Of course, there are also several stage performances and movie adaptations readily available. Baz Luhrmann’s film with Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes is of particular note.
However you decide to approach it, you really can’t go wrong with Romeo and Juliet.
Much Ado About Nothing
Twelfth Night was the first comedy I included in this list, before changing my mind.
While the plot is phenomenal, it’s pretty complex. The language isn’t the easiest ether.
For that reason, Much Ado About Nothing makes the list. It's a much easier play to start with!
While Much Ado About Nothing isn’t Shakespeare’s best comedy, it’s certainly not his worst. The plot is pretty easy to follow, and its language isn’t too complicated either.
In Much Ado, the pledged bachelor Benedick and reluctant-to-marry Beatrice are portrayed as a perfect match for each other.
As things stand though, they’ll never end up together because they’re both unwilling to give love a shot.
Two other characters, Claudio and Hero, decide to pass the time waiting for their wedding by tricking their friends Benedick and Beatrice into falling in love.
The play would be nothing more than a collage of delightful banter and pranks if it weren’t for Don John, who is Don Pedro’s bastard brother.
Don John has essentially come along for the ride and decided that if he can’t be happy, no one can.
In a cruel attempt to cut off the wedding between Claudio and Hero, Don Jon works out a plan in which Hero’s maid, Margaret, has sex with his friend Borachio in sight of Claudio and Don Pedro.
Falsely believing that Hero has cheated on him (and had sex out of wedlock, no less), Claudio humiliates her at the altar.
Hero faints from the stress, and her family decides to pretend she is dead while they wait for the truth of her innocence to come out.
Eventually things get straightened out, with the help of one bumbling constable and his friends. You’ll have to watch the play to find out exactly what happens!
The witty banter between Beatrice and Benedick provides much of the humor in Much Ado About Nothing. It also sounds surprisingly modern, with lines like:
Beatrice:
I had rather hear my dog bark at a crow than a man swear he loves me.
Benedick:
God keep your ladyship still in that mind! So some gentleman or other shall ‘scape a predestinate scratched face.
Beatrice:
Scratching could not make it worse, an ‘twere such a face as yours were.
400 years later, and not much has changed!
While there are several adaptations of Much Ado About Nothing, two notable ones make the list.
Kenneth Branagh’s 1993 film brings so much of the witty banter to life, and makes it accessible to people who have never read Shakespeare before.
Joss Whedon’s 2012 take is a more modern adaptation, but still quite good. It was filmed over twelve days at Joss’s Santa Monica residence, and inspired by Shakespeare reading nights he and friends used to do.
If you're looking an easy to understand Shakespeare comedy, Much Ado About Nothing is a great one to start with.
Macbeth
Did you know the play Macbeth is associated with a curse?
People performing the play often avoid using its name while in the actual theatre itself. Instead, they refer to Macbeth as "The Scottish Play."
Macbeth, Shakespeare's shortest tragedy, was first published in 1623. The five-act play is about 1,000 lines shorter than Shakespeare's Othello and King Lear.
While some scholars date the writing of the play as 1599, most are of the view that Macbeth could not have been written before 1603.
The plot of the play is relatively simple, but that doesn’t mean it’s not profound. The journey of Macbeth’s descent into evil is so quick, it is chilling.
The play shows us how the line separating good and evil runs straight through the human heart.
The play begins as General Macbeth and his friend Banquo return from battle, and they meet three witches. The trio prophesize Macbeth as the future King of Scotland.
Macbeth cannot believe what he has heard. He informs his wife, Lady Macbeth, and she convinces him to murder King Duncan and take control of the throne.
At first, Macbeth is hesitant, but he eventually gives in to his wife’s demand and kills the king.
Though King Duncan is dead, Macbeth, the new King of Scotland, is paranoid. He lives under the constant fear that someone is trying to usurp his throne.
Macbeth kills anyone who dares to oppose him, and even goes so far as to murder his friend Banquo.
Lady Macbeth’s actions drive her to insanity and she commits suicide. The people of Scotland are infuriated by the killings and civil war erupts. Macbeth’s thirst for power results in his own death during battle.
The journey of Macbeth from general to king to tyrant is just part of what’s at the heart of the play Macbeth.
The play is bloody, insightful, and entertaining the whole way through.
On a historical note, King James I was a patron of Shakespeare's theatre company, and he believed kings were second only to God. This is part of the reason why Macbeth is eventually held to account for his murder of King Duncan.
The only way Shakespeare could get away with killing off a king in one of his plays was by ensuring the criminal eventually paid the price!
Several films have been made based on Macbeth, with some changing the title, some not. Throne of Blood (1957), Men of Respect (1990), Macbeth (1948, 1971, 1978) are some that stand out.
Even Disney’s The Lion King is loosely based on the plot of Macbeth!
A Midsummer Night's Dream
A blend of love, jealousy, mischief, and marriage, this play is a comic fantasy of four lovers who get entangled in the affairs of the fairy world.
Set in Athens, A Midsummer Night's Dream was written between 1595 and 1596. It is one of Shakespeare's most popular and widely performed plays.
There are no specific sources Shakespeare adapted for the play, though he was inspired by stories like Ovid's Metamorphoses and Chaucer's The Knight's Tale.
There’s a lot going on in this play. All four plot-lines are connected by the wedding celebration of Duke Theseus to Hippolyta, the Amazon queen.
The main plot goes like this: Hermia and Lysander are in love. Helena loves Demetrius, but Demetrius loves Hermia.
Hermia's father wants his daughter to marry Demetrius, not Lysander. Upset, Hermia and Lysander flee into the woods at night. Helena and Demetrius go after them to pursue them.
In the same forest, the fairies Queen Titania and King Oberon meet. After an argument they part ways, and a frustrated Oberon decides to play a trick on the queen.
He sends Robin Goodfellow, a puck, to fetch a magical flower that Cupid’s arrow once touched.
When the juice of the flower is applied to a sleeping person’s eyes, it makes the person fall in love with the first person they see after waking. Oberon wants to use the juice to prank Titania.
As Robin goes to apply the flower to Titania’s eyes, he comes across a group of “rude mechanicals, ” or craftsmen he finds rehearsing a play in the forest.
He then applies the flower to Titania’s eyes, but not before turning one of the aforementioned craftsmen into a half-man, half-donkey!
Who do you think Titania sees first when she wakes up?
That’s where the craziness begins. Later, flower juice gets applied to both Demetrius and Lysander’s eyes as well, and they both fall in love with Helena!
You’ll have to watch or read to play to figure out how it all gets sorted out.
Everything ends up working out in the end, but not before a fair amount of mischief and mayhem takes place!
The play has been adapted into film many times. Some of the recent ones are: A Midsummer Night's Rave (2002), Were the World Mine (2008), French film The Apartment (1996) and many more.
My favorite adaptation though, is Casey Wilder Mott’s 2017 film. Set in modern day Hollywood, it maintains the actual prose of Shakespeare while adapting everything to a modern audience.
If you’re looking to get caught up in the magical world of Shakespeare’s fairies, this is without a doubt the best version to start with!
Hamlet
Written sometime between 1599 and 1601, Hamlet is Shakespeare's longest play. It’s about 30,577 words long!
Don’t let that scare you though. It’s length doesn’t mean it’s inaccessible.
In fact, it’s quite entertaining to read, especially when paired with a great podcast like Chop Bard!
At the beginning of the play, audiences meet Prince Hamlet, whose father has recently died. King Hamlet’s ghost appears early in the play to inform his son that he has been murdered.
Supposedly, it was his brother, Claudius, who murdered the king in order to take his throne and marry his wife. The ghost of King Hamlet asks his son to avenge his death by murdering Claudius.
Now at this point in history, you couldn't just trust every ghost you ran into.
Some would spring from hell to tell you lies and cause destruction, so Hamlet is initially wary of what the ghost says.
However, he resolves to take action in order to uncover the truth about his father’s death and see if he should trust the ghost.
As such, Hamlet devises a plan to have a group of actors perform a play in which a king is murdered by his brother.
While the play is being performed in front of Claudius, Hamlet observes the king’s reaction. Claudius’s obvious discomfort tells him that the ghost was honest: King Hamlet was murdered.
Prince Hamlet immediately sets to work concocting a plan for how to kill his uncle and avenge his father.
The play Hamlet is filled with interesting side-plots and lots of deep food for thought. Despite its length and complexity, it’s still surprisingly accessible for people new to Shakespeare!
Since 1900, more than 50 films have been made based on Hamlet. One of the most recent films is the 2018 film Ophelia.
Don’t know where to start? The Royal Shakespeare Company’s 2009 film adaptation with David Tennant is a must-watch.
If you really want to experience Hamlet at its best, you can’t go wrong with the RSC and David Tennant!
Conclusion
Don’t worry too much about which play you start with - just pick one and dive in!
If possible, watch the play first, then grab a good annotated version to read through.
And don't forget - reading Shakespeare should be enjoyable! Don’t fret too much over which annotated version you get.
These plays are all quite popular, so any annotated version you buy is probably good enough.
If you want to further experience how Shakespeare’s work can impact your life, even in today’s modern world, then you can download my free book The Bard and the Bees.
In it, I discuss what Shakespeare’s plays can teach us about sex, evil, and life in our modern world. Click here to get your copy today!
In the meantime, happy reading, and may the Bard be with you!
-Evan