The whole of Year 11 (and selected Year 10 students) recently took part in a revision session with a difference when the Academy signed up for the Royal Shakespeare’s Live broadcast of Macbeth.

Christopher Ecclestone and Niamh Cusack have being playing Macbeth and his wife on stage in Stratford this season and the RSC broadcast a performance live to over 220,000 students in classrooms and school halls across the country.  The RSC also took the students behind the scenes of the play and interviewed key actors during the intervals to give them further insight into the characters. Students from across the country also had the opportunity to tweet their questions about the characters and the decisions the director had made in staging the production.

Head of English Joanne Evans said: ‘There is no better way to revise Shakespeare than to watch it. Students had the opportunity to see a full production starring world-class actors. It is incredible to think that so many students were simultaneously able to watch this production live. Seeing the play brings life to the words on the page and students were able to compare this production to other extracts they have watched in class. The decisions this director took shone the spotlight on some of the smaller characters and lead to some really interesting discussions once back in the classroom. It was a perfectly timed piece of revision before the literature exam later this month.

‘Thank you also to the IT department who set up the broadcast for the English Department.’