Get all your news in one place.
100's of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment

The play’s the thing – but everyone has their own favourite

Michael Billington Shakespeare RSC
The RSC’s 2016 hi-tech production of The Tempest.
The RSC’s 2016 hi-tech production of The Tempest. Photograph: Tristram Kenton/The Guardian

Thank you for Michael Billington’s brilliant and fascinating ranking of Shakespeare’s plays, which will surely give rise to much debate (To see or not to see? Every single Shakespeare play – ranked!, 22 April).

I’d like to make a case for promotion of The Tempest from its lowly 25th position. Admittedly my fondness for it started with doing it for A-level in 1968, but, having the good fortune to see both the all-female women’s prison version, starring Harriet Walter, and the RSC magical hi-tech production within a few months, I think its versatility deserves a higher ranking. I would swap it with The Winter’s Tale, which for me is just a bit too weird.
Marian Sainsbury
Edinburgh

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100's of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Women just want to work out in peace. Why all the thigh-rubbing lechery?
On Saturday Night Live last week, comedian Shane Gillis made a pathetic ‘joke’ about the clothes women wear to the gym. It was puerile – but also pernicious, writes Emma Beddington
The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
‘He’s terrified, panicked, can’t sleep’: the tragic, lonely death of Beatles manager Brian Epstein
Spandau Ballet’s Gary Kemp paid £10k at auction for Epstein’s address book. He then used it to co-author a thrilling account of the swinging 60s – and an intimate portrait of a tormented man whose life was unravelling
The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Qianlong vase found in Cornish property brochure sells at Sotheby’s for £304,800
A large imperial porcelain vase, standing thirty-seven centimetres tall and made for the Qianlong emperor, passed down through a single English family before arriving at Sotheby's. Estimated at between £100,000 and £200,000, it sold in November 2025 for £304,800, comfortably above the top end of the estimate. Its story combines…
The Times of India
The Times of India
Scientists Asked Coffee Drinkers to Quit for 14 Days — Here’s What Changed
What would happen if you gave up your morning coffee for two weeks? Would you sleep better, feel less anxious, or spend your mornings battling...
Saving Advice
Saving Advice
Michigan TikToker says neighbors allegedly called ICE on her family. Then asked her mom to save them some tamales
A promised batch of tamales, delivered anyway.
We Got This Covered
We Got This Covered
Two strangers say a mom handed them her baby at a Phoenix concert. But when she came back, she told security a different story
No good deeds, huh?
We Got This Covered
We Got This Covered
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.
Download on the AppStore Get it on Google Play