Best Shakespeare Plays for First-Timers: Where to Start

Watching is easier than reading. That is the most practical advice for a first-timer, and it applies to all five plays below. Shakespeare wrote for performance, not for study, and the plays make considerably more sense when you can hear the language and see the action.

That said, here are the five best places to start, and why each one works.

A Midsummer Night's Dream

A Midsummer Night's Dream is consistently the first recommendation for new readers, and the reasons are practical. It is funny without requiring cultural context: the comedy is physical, the plot turns on love potions and mistaken identities, and a weaver named Bottom has his head literally transformed into a donkey's.

Written around 1595-96, it runs four storylines in parallel: Athenian lovers chasing each other through an enchanted forest, a fairy king and queen in dispute, a craftsmen's troupe rehearsing a play-within-the-play, and Puck causing chaos throughout. What surprises first-timers most is how fast it moves.

Romeo and Juliet

Romeo and Juliet suits anyone who wants the most familiar story. Because the outline is already known, the language becomes the focus rather than an obstacle.

Written around 1594-96, it has been adapted directly for film more than thirty times, giving a first-timer multiple ways to encounter the story before or alongside the text. What surprises people is how funny the first half is: Act I is largely comedy, full of wordplay and banter, and the shift into tragedy is more abrupt than expected.

The nurse and Mercutio are the characters most readers remember above all the famous speeches. Neither survives to the end.

Much Ado About Nothing

Much Ado About Nothing has sharper dialogue than any other Shakespeare comedy. Beatrice and Benedick are fully realised characters whose verbal sparring is more interesting than the nominal lovers at the centre of the plot.

Written around 1598-99, it works particularly well on film: Kenneth Branagh's 1993 adaptation, filmed in Tuscany with Emma Thompson as Beatrice, is the easiest entry point available. What surprises first-timers is how dark the subplot involving Hero becomes, given that the play is officially a comedy.

Macbeth

Macbeth is the right starting point for anyone who wants a tragedy. At around 17,000 words, it is Shakespeare's shortest tragedy and roughly half the length of Hamlet. There is no subplot. Macbeth decides to murder the king, does it, and then spends three acts watching his life disintegrate.

Written around 1606, it was designed to appeal to James I, who had himself written a book on witchcraft, Daemonologie, published in 1597. What surprises first-timers is how quickly Macbeth deteriorates: by Act IV he is ordering the murder of a colleague's entire family, and the man who seemed heroic in the opening scenes is entirely gone.

Hamlet

Hamlet is not the easiest starting point, but it rewards patience more than the others. It is the longest play in the canon at just over 30,000 words, and it demands engagement in a way the comedies do not.

Written around 1600-01, it works best approached after one of the plays above. By that point the language is less foreign, and Hamlet's refusal to act reads as a considered dramatic choice rather than a plotting problem. What surprises first-timers is how many phrases they already know: "To be or not to be" and "The lady protests too much, methinks" (now usually misquoted as "doth protest too much") are two of dozens of lines the play planted in the language.

Practical Advice

Find a production before or alongside reading. The Globe's recorded performances, available through Globe Player, are the most straightforward way to see the plays staged as they were intended. The RSC archive has strong filmed productions of all five plays listed above.

If you read first, use an edition with notes on the same page as the text rather than at the back. The Arden Shakespeare series is the standard scholarly choice. For something more accessible, the No Fear Shakespeare editions print a modern translation alongside the original on facing pages.

You will not understand every word the first time through. That is normal. It does not matter.

Sources

• RSC on Shakespeare's plays
• Globe Player
• Open Source Shakespeare word counts
• Folger Shakespeare Library beginner resources

Read the plays: A Midsummer Night's Dream · Romeo and Juliet · Much Ado About Nothing · Macbeth · Hamlet