In March Year 9 was able to take part in an interactive presentation of "The Tempest. Four actors from the Young Royal Shakespeare Company brought the play to life - especially Caliban licking his big toe to the disgust of most of the audience!

The first half of the production took the form of a workshop - students giving their views on how the actors should speak, move, dribble and generally interpret Shakespeare's text.The actors then took us through "motivation" - questioning the reasons why a character is included in a scene, what makes them "tick".

For the second half of the performance the actors took us through the play: Prospero's revenge, Miranda and Ferdinand falling in love, Caliban trying to get his island back, Stephano thinking he could be King of the island. In the end, all the plots came together in a positive way, students had a fantastic opportunity to see Shakespeare brought to life, and how actors develop their skills, as well as having a much clearer idea of the play itself.

Student Reviews....
“Let’s face it, Shakespeare can be dull, with actors droning and the audience falling asleep. The language can be difficult to understand and therefore the actors become melodramatic. However, Young Royal Shakespeare Company let the audience be literally part of the performance in their pre workshop, which explains the characters motivation.

The performance itself had the audience enraptured, with every eye on the story unfolding before us. Most would say that Shakespeare’s plays could never capture teenagers this way. They would be wrong. Shakespeare can be exciting, with the audience on the edge of their seats and the actors living their roles. The language can be understood and the actors naturalistic,” Ella Mc Cusker Yr 9

“The play was quite entertaining. The characters got the audience involved and asked them what kind of characteristics a specific character would have,” Tom Clarke Yr 9

“The play was performed really well and had a lot of interesting points and techniques. The actors always stayed in character  and were very believable. The plot was slightly confusing at times, because a few actors played two or more characters,” Abigail Woods Yr 9

“Shakespeare - what’s the first thing that comes into our mind when we thing of him? A play writer who uses language that none of us could really understand. That’s where the Young Shakespeare Company come in. With their easy handson approach to teaching Shakespeare this company is head and shoulders above the rest!

They were fun, witty and a joy to watch. This was what most of the Commonweal students were saying after the performance. If you don’t understand Shakespeare as much as you would like then go and watch them,” Alfi Laver-O’Sullivan Yr 9