Benedict gives some thoughts over on the Tumblr

This play is such a buddy comedy -- as such it has all the problems of a male buddy comedy, summed up by the whole one-guy giving over the women to the other guy resolution. Ouch, pretty sure that was a major part of the movies of my youth.

Benedick (over on the tumbler - and it is awesome using pseudonyms for your kids that they choose themselves) likes the dialogue. And here he recognizes what the 18th-century Shakespeare scholar Edmond Malone identified when he said that both the poetry and the comedy "are as perfectly Shakespearean (I do not say as finished or as beautiful) as any of his other pieces"

For me, this is young exuberant Shakespeare who knows he is awesome at the word play and everyone better watch out. So yeah, a teen buddy comedy written by this young auteur still in film school or maybe just out of it. You can see the genius but boy is he a jerk. Luckily, unlike many film auteurs, Shakespeare grows out of it.

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June 2015: The Two Gentlemen of Verona

"The Two Gentlemen of Verona has the unenviable distinction of being the least loved and least regarded of Shakespeare's comedies." - The Riverside Shakespeare

The good news is it's a quick read. It's almost frothy, it's so light and insubstantial. The only reasons to like this play are 1. Launce and his dog and b. it's got all of the elements that will become trademark Shakespeare comedy gimmicks: crossdressing, a trip to the woods, outlaws, hiding out with priests, feisty nurses, rings as love tokens that change hands several times in unexpected ways, all that kind of thing.

Let me back up. Proteus and Valentine are best friends. Proteus is in love with Julia. Valentine leaves Verona for Milan to seek his fortune. There he falls in love with Silvia, who is already betrothed to the rich, but dim, Sir Thurio. Proteus gets sent to Milan, also to seek his fortune. There he also falls in love with Silvia (mostly, one gathers, because Valentine's in love with her) and he exposes their plan to elope to her father. Valentine is banished to the woods. Julia, to keep tabs on Proteus, dresses as a boy and goes off to Milan, where she is employed, by Proteus, as a messenger, to bring love notes to Silvia. Silvia consistently rejects Proteus, 'cuz he's creepy, and runs away to the woods to seek out Valentine. Proteus finds her there and tries to rape her (with Julia in tow as his servant, no less). Julia swoons and the truth is out, whereupon Proteus decides one dame is as good as another and Valentine bests Sir Thurio and gets to marry Silvia, and they all live happily ever after (for very low expectations of 'happily'). Proteus' servant Launce and Valentine's servant Speed crack wise throughout.

So, the good news is, there's nowhere to go from here but up!