Teen-Shakespeare Macbeth

The Teen-Shakespeare Macbeth has been designed as a gateway into the
original Shakespeare text. By reincarnating the tragedy of this major
Shakespearean character in a realistic contemporary teenage context, and by
using language that teenagers can readily understand, this drama aims to help
them better understand Shakespeare, themselves and each other. It will also
provide High Schools with an age-appropriate drama for an area of the
curriculum where there is currently a shortage of titles.

In order to maximise dramatic interest, the Teen-Shakespeare Macbeth
incorporates the same mix of suspense and tension, and light and dark humour
which Shakespeare so effectively uses. The drama script also seeks to replicate
other dramatic techniques which strongly feature in Shakespeare’s plays: e.g.
soliloquy; caricature versus fully realised characters; educated versus
uneducated characters; an extensive list of dramatic personae so as to enable
full class participation; a judicious use of evocative imagery to convey powerful
feeling; and the five act structure conforming to exposition, complication,
climax, falling action and catastrophe.

With respect to structure, the play is approximately 90 minutes in performance
length and, therefore, is a major piece of theatre in its own right rather than just
a slimmed down imitation of the Shakespeare original.

The Teen-Shakespeare Macbeth is an ideal way of introducing students to the
original Shakespeare text. Teaching and learning tasks featured in the free on-
line supplementary resources for the Teen-Shakespeare Macbeth incorporate
written and oral, as well as analytical and creative responses and have been
deliberately varied so as to elicit maximum engagement.