Shakespeare's Plays Explained in Three Lines

Shakespeare’s Plays explained in three lines

A.     The Comedy of Errors

1.      Two sets of identical twins are separated at birth

2.      One set goes looking for the other set

3.      Everybody gets mixed up and some very high jinks ensue

B.     A Midsummer Night’s Dream

1.      Two couples run into fairy-infested woods

2.      Puck puts a love potion into people’s eyes

3.      Everyone falls in love with the wrong person

C.     The Winter’s Tale

1.      Leontes accuses his wife Hermione of adultery

2.      Some poor guy gets eaten by a bear

3.      Sixteen years later a statue comes to life and all ends well

D.     Troilus And Cressida

1.      Troilus loves Cressida

2.      Cressida is given to the Greeks

3.      Homer’s Iliad happens

E.      Henry VI Part 3

1.      Henry is king (twice)

2.      Edward is king (twice)

3.      Henry dies

F.      Richard II

1.      Richard banishes his cousin Henry

2.      Henry comes back & takes Richard’s crown

3.      Richard dies

G.     Richard III

1.      Richard wants to be king

2.      Richard kills lots of people in order to be king

3.      Richard is killed

H.     Macbeth

1.      Three witches tell Macbeth he will be king

2.      Macbeth kills lots of people in order to be king

3.      Macbeth is killed

I.       Hamlet

1.      The ghost of Hamlet’s father tells Hamlet to avenge him

2.      Hamlet talks a LOT about avenging his father.  I mean on and on and on

3.      Hamlet avenges his father

J.       Julius Caesar

1.      Cassius and Brutus assassinate Julius Caesar

2.      Mark Anthony gives a really long speech

3.      Cassius & Brutus kill themselves

K.     King Lear

1.      Lear gives all his wealth away to two of his three daughters

2.      Lear loses his marbles, big time

3.      Lear dies a miserable old man, along with all three of his daughters

L.      Othello

1.      Othello believes his pretty young wife has deceived him

2.      He kills her in a fit of pique

3.      Lots of people get stabbed and Othello dies. Oh bollocks!

M.   Titus Andronicus

1.      Lots of deaths

2.      More deaths

3.      Just lots and lots of death