Film

The Scottish Play

Name: The Scottish Play
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Released: 2020
Cast: Tina Benko, Peter Mark Kendall, Will Brill, Geraint Wyn Davies, Ali Ahn

Other titles called The Scottish Play: the 2017 series (Prime Video).

Comedy

A working actress lands Lady Macbeth at a scrappy New England theater and sparks fly with her charmingly fumbling director. Then Shakespeare shows up. It's a romantic comedy that wears its theatrical heart on its sleeve—clever without being precious, funny without punching down, and genuinely sweet about the messy collision between ambition and connection.

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you enjoy backstage comedies where theater people's vanity gets gently skewered and a romance simmers under the self-absorption, with a supernatural joke that stays light.

Skip it if you want a film with real stakes or a sharp, fast-moving plot, since this one is happy to drift, chat and linger in its rehearsal-room mood.

What it asks of you: Settle in for a leisurely 113 minutes of talk-heavy scenes, where the tone stays breezy and the jokes arrive slowly rather than in rapid bursts.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Waiting for Guffman1997

Christopher Guest's mockumentary about small-town theater people chasing their dream show. Affectionate rather than cruel, hilarious about creative delusion, and surprisingly moving about why we make art anyway.

But The mockumentary format demands patience; if you hate the studied awkwardness of that style, this won't convert you.

Noises Off...1992

A backstage farce that's part slapstick, part romance, part disaster. Wildly inventive staging and the sight of a cast falling apart while trying to hold it together is genuinely joyful.

But The humor is theatrical and cartoonish; if you prefer subtle comedy, the pitch might feel exhausting.

Singin' in the Rain1952

The gold standard for theatrical romance and romance-as-performance. Gene Kelly and Donald O'Connor in a story about love, ambition, and the terrifying transition from silent films to talkies.

But It's a classic, which sometimes feels like homework. And if you're resistant to full-throated musical numbers, the style won't bend for you.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from The Scottish Play

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

A Midsummer Night's Dream1935

Both films are about theater people stumbling through Shakespeare with messier, more human concerns than the text provides. Both suggest that the Bard is best served by letting actors be themselves.

Max Reinhardt's surreal, visually intoxicating adaptation of the same playwright. A dream-logic fairy tale where Shakespeare's words become pure cinema—weightless, strange, and utterly enchanting.

But It's from 1935 and has a theatrical stylization that can feel remote. The production design is extraordinary but occasionally campy by modern standards.

Much Ado About Nothing1993

Kenneth Branagh's Shakespeare adaptation. Lively, sexy, funny, and genuinely moving—it proves the Bard works when you let actors have fun with the language instead of treating it like scripture.

But It's still Shakespeare; if iambic pentameter feels like homework, no production gimmick will change that.

Fanny and Alexander1982

Bergman's late masterpiece about children and theater. A sprawling, sensual family drama where the theater isn't just a setting—it's the metaphor for how we survive and imagine ourselves.

But It's three hours and deliberately paced; Bergman's scale can feel overwhelming if you're looking for something lighter.

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend2015

A woman derails her life following an ex to West Covina, and it somehow becomes a genuinely smart musical comedy-drama about self-delusion, ambition, and the stories we tell ourselves. Hilarious and heartbreaking by turns.

But The tone whipsaws between comedy and serious mental health material; if you need consistency, the tonal shifts will feel jarring.

Ghostbusters II1989

A ghost story set in New York theater, with Peter MacNicol as a struggling opera singer. It's lighter than the original, genuinely funny, and surprisingly tender about creative people and their anxieties.

But It's a sequel to a beloved film and lives in that shadow; it's also broad comedy, which isn't everyone's speed.

The Producers2005

Matthew Broderick and Nathan Lane in the film version of the musical about two men trying to stage the worst Broadway show ever. Theater people behaving badly, and the musical numbers are genuinely clever.

But The broad comedy and deliberately terrible 'Springtime for Hitler' number will feel dated or uncomfortable depending on your mood.

Synecdoche, New York2008

Both explore the romantic delusion that theatre can save us, but Kaufman goes dark and abstract where The Scottish Play stays warm and grounded. They're the inverse response to the same question.

Charlie Kaufman's fractured, dizzying film about a theater director building an increasingly elaborate reproduction of the real world inside a warehouse. It's baroque, ambitious, and genuinely about how art and life blur until you can't tell them apart.

But It's deliberately confusing and doesn't resolve cleanly. If you need clarity and forward momentum, this will feel like being trapped in someone else's anxiety spiral.

Sullivan's Travels1941

Both films are secretly about whether art matters, and both conclude that what matters is the connection between people, not the perfection of the work. Both find their comedy in that gap between ambition and reality.

Preston Sturges' masterpiece about a successful comedy director who wants to make serious art and winds up on a chain gang learning what actually matters. Hilarious, heartbreaking, and about the gap between intention and consequence.

But It's a 1941 film; the style and pacing are patient in ways that modern cinema isn't. And the shift from screwball comedy to genuine darkness might feel tonal whiplash.