Double, double, toil and trouble for young thespians
YOUNGSTERS at Greenbank Preparatory school have been getting to grips with Shakespeare.
The youngsters were introduced to the Bard by putting on their own performance of Macbeth.
The eight-year-old thespians found the gory play great fun and more comedy than tragedy with every child in the year group getting a chance to play a main part – including four Macbeths and five Lady Macbeths.
Former soap star and head of drama at Greenbank, Adele Firth, said: “The kids can’t get enough of it.
“They love the blood, the gore, the stabbings, the intrigue, the witches, the madness and the dramatic denoument with the trees moving across the stage.
“They’re not scared at all, they are just completely engrossed.
“It all seems to work perfectly, our theatregoers are so engrossed in Shakespeare they don’t even seem to notice a string of different faces or at least let it show.
“People ask how on earth do children as young as eight years old get to grips with Shakespeare, but they do and they absolutely love it.
“The idea is that when they progress to secondary school and are presented with Shakespeare text in a literacy lesson, they won’t turn their nose up but say ‘yes, I love it, I can’t wait’ and, of course they always get so much more from playing it on stage that reading it from the text.”