The many reader responses to a tantalizingly tough question â which are the greatest Shakespeare performances youâve seen? â left me with a mild case of theatergoerâs envy, which is unusual for a critic who gets to see a lot of plays.  I have run into people at parties who gently â or not gently â suggest that, yes, so-and-so was quite a good Othello or Lear or Hamlet, but (nostalgic sigh, peer into the distance), you really should have seen so-and-so.  Get me another drink, please!  But I do wish I could time-travel for a year or two, zipping back to catch some of the performances mentioned in response to my article. Judi Dench and Anthony Hopkins in âAntony and Cleopatraâ sounds fascinating, but if I had to choose one Dench blast from the past, I think Iâd go with another production a reader singled out: her Lady Macbeth opposite Ian McKellen for the Royal Shakespeare Company.  More than one of the people I interviewed (including Mark Rylance himself) mentioned Mr. McKellenâs Macbeth as a vital high point in their Shakespeare-watching experience.  Then again I should be grateful for what I have seen: Mr. McKellenâs Lear and Richard III. And while I have only seen Ms. Dench in two comparatively small Shakespeare roles â as the Countess in âAllâs Well That Ends Wellâ and as Titania (through the guise of Queen Elizabeth) in âA Midsummer Nightâs Dreamâ â her performances were marked by a clarity of thought, a simplicity of speech and a warmth of humanity that I still recall with wonder.  Zipping back across to America, and moving back a couple of decades or so, I would definitely like to have checked out the Prospero (or the Shylock) of the great Morris Carnovsky, which were singled out by a couple of readers, at the Stratford, Conn., Shakespeare festival. (I was fascinated, too, to learn that Katharine Hepburn played Cleopatra during the same 1960 season as Carnovsky played Prospero: what a colossally strange piece of casting!)  Iâd love to have had a chance to see the Rosalind of Maggie Smith (in Stratford, Ontario). Or would I prefer to go with Vanessa Redgrave? Paul Robesonâs Othello â with Uta Hagen as Desdemona â is an almost unimaginably enticing prospect.  But if I had to choose only one performance from the past to bear witness to, it might be Paul Scofieldâs Lear, which more than one reader mentioned as a life-changer. (He was mesmerizing even in the small role of the ghost of Hamletâs father in the Mel Gibson movie â pretty much wiping any recollection of poor Mr. Gibson from my memory bank.)  I was glad to be reminded of a couple of great Shakespeare performances I actually did see, including Brian Bedford and Martha Henry in âMuch Ado About Nothing.â And for the reader who wondered why so few supporting performances were mentioned, I concur with the high praise for Philip Boscoâs Malvolio, along with Max Wrightâs Andrew Aguecheek and Brian Murrayâs Toby Belch, in the Lincoln Center Theater production of âTwelfth Nightâ from the late 1990s; they handily outshone the young leads. (I hope to return to the subject of Shakespeareâs great secondary characters in a later post.)  Obviously, I could go on endlessly, but if I begin to ruminate on what might have been (but couldnât be, obviously), Iâll never get up off the couch. Still, there is something pleasurable both in conjuring these performances in the mindâs eye, and in realizing how deeply they have ingrained themselves in the memories of readers.  I was glad, too, that a couple of you mentioned Laurence Olivierâs King Lear. As it happens that performance, which I saw as a teenager on PBS, constituted my own moment of Shakespeare conversion. By this time I had read a few of the plays, but never seen a live performance. I can still remember the shock of feeling that overwhelmed me as Olivier staggered forth in the final scene, with Cordelia in his arms.  Thanks to all of you who took time to respond: that mild case of envy was soon transformed into fascination.
A Times critic admits to feeling envy in response to readersâ picks of the best actors they ever saw perform in William Shakespeareâs plays.