Revisiting plays -- to see or not to see

I was discussing the just released (in the US) movie Incendies (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1255953/) which is a film version of Wajdi Mouawad's play Scorched.  Silk Road had an amazing production of this (where I only had one small quibble about one scene).  I mentioned that I would hate for a movie version to push the original out of my mind, although they are fundamentally different.  The movie actually can travel to locations and show things that can only be suggested on stage.  And in many ways, I suspect that the emotional impact (and there is quite a lot here) is more powerful on stage than on film.  However, I don't want this to become a predictable film vs. stage screed.

I am more interested in this notion (perhaps held only by me) that watching one version of a play will somewhat displace another one.  For instance, I've seen Twelfth Night around 5 times and Midsummer Night's Dream 4 or so times.  They have all blended together.  I remember one company that had super bright yellow stockings for Malvolio, but I would be hard pressed to remember which one it was (possibly NJ Shakespeare Fest) and I do remember the outdoor production of Midsummer in NYC's Washington Square Park, but I don't remember anything distinctive about it, like what I thought of the actors playing Lysander or Titania.  To some extent, this comes from being a relatively passive consumer of theatre.  I am not always thinking about how I could do this better or that better.  But it also has to do with the way my mind layers things and multiple productions do tend to start blurring together.  This is particularly true when I now have over 20 years of theatre going (some years much heavier than others).  But maybe some roles are so amazing, they just burn themselves in the brain.  Recently someone was commenting on what a weak job Ben Stiller did in John Guare's House of Blue Leaves compared to John Mahoney 26 years ago!  Well, maybe if I had seen the Steppenwolf crew in their original heyday it would be burned bright in my memory too.  Hard to say.

While I have not called for a complete moratorium on seeing multiple versions of Shakespeare or Chekhov, I do tend to stop seeing shows after seeing a truly great production so that it can be fixed in my mind.  If it is simply a good production or a weak one, then I am more willing to keep exploring different takes.   I imagine some people would find this too limiting or silly, particularly those that are really interested in seeing different interpretations of the play.

As far as shows that I consciously no longer go to, I include Heiner Müller's Hamletmachine (so I skipped the recent Chicago production), Lett's August: Osage County, and Fugard's Sizwe Banzi is Dead (not that there is much chance this will be revived soon).  I am extremely unlikely to ever see Merchant of Venice or Albee's The Goat again (though because I had "issues" with these plays, not that I was blown away by the productions, despite some very strong acting).  I imagine there are more on these lists, but these are fairly representative.

Scorched is a play where I thought Silk Road's production was terrific, and I would simply hate to blur any of it.  However, I suspect that the film is so different from the play that it would be stored in a different lobe, so to speak.

Anyway, I thought I would ask whether others worry about play productions blurring together or if it isn't a major concern.  Or indeed if it is simply an occupational hazzard that cannot be avoided for people very active in the theatre.