Shakespeare 4 Kidz - S4K's Macbeth

THE NOTORIOUS Scottish Play Macbeth will be given the modern treatment when Shakespeare 4 Kidz comes to Venue Cymru.

Promising a show full of weird witches and spooky spells to make Harry Potter and his friends look like amateurs, Macbeth will feature bloody battles, gruesome ghosts and even a forest which moves.

And because many theatre folk believe the play to be jinxed lots of celebrities have sent the company good luck wishes, including Stephen Fry, King of the Jungle Joe Pasquale and West End actor Jonathan Pryce, who had his own bad luck stories to tell after playing Macbeth.

He said: �When I played him in Stratford, before the first night Lady Macbeth had an accident and fractured her collar bone. I fell head first down the stairs on stage and for the first time forgot my lines in the middle of a soliloquy. At the Barbican I got stuck in the lift with the three witches and was rescued just in time to make my reappearance.�

The S4K Macbeth has been very well received each of the five times it has toured since its premiere in 2000 and its creator Julian Chenery was confident that the play would be a winner once again.

"The famous curse is something we�ve had our share of in the past," he revealed. "In the autumn of 2000 we had incessant rain for three months which affected all of our get-ins and get-outs; a national fuel strike which made it nigh impossible to move the production around the UK; the actor playing Banquo hit his head on the windscreen of the cast coach; the actor playing King Duncan went down with Bell�s Palsy making half his face freeze and one of the stage crew walked into a door and fractured her skull. Apart from that the show was a huge hit and has remained immensely popular ever since!�

Shakespeare 4 Kidz plays use the most famous lines from the original texts, weave them into modern language, add some songs and dances into the mix and the result is a two hour entertainment which everyone - even the youngest primary kids - can understand.

The whole plot is retained and all the major characters are there too, to tell the blood-soaked story of the murderous Scottish warrior who, egged on by the prophecies of three weird witches and the ambitions of his evil wife, removes every obstacle in his path until he can seize the throne for himself.

Playing the role of Macbeth for the third (and hopefully lucky!) time is Jason Lee Scott, who leads the 14-strong company.

So watch out� something wicked this way comes.

Macbeth will be showing at Venue Cymru in Llandudno on Thursday, February 11 at 10.30am and 1.30pm. For more information or to book tickets contact the Box Office on 01492 872000 or visit the website at www.venuecymru.co.uk

CLICK HERE TO SEE DAVID WADDINGTON'S ORIGINAL ARTICLE ON THE NORTH WALES CHRONICLE WEBSITE

What they say about us:
S4K ROMEO: "I have heard many parents of children older than mine pass on very positive comments about how well received this has been with the children who saw it through school, that although for some this was their first experience of Shakespeare how easily they 'knew' the story afterwards - it was not lost on them - and that they saw this is as approachable and fun and they could identify with it due to the modern touches and humour. Some children are even quoting some of the script after seeing it just once! Wonderful!"

What they say about us:

S4K ROMEO: "I have heard many parents of children older than mine pass on very positive comments about how well received this has been with the children who saw it through school, that although for some this was their first experience of Shakespeare how easily they 'knew' the story afterwards - it was not lost on them - and that they saw this is as approachable and fun and they could identify with it due to the modern touches and humour. Some children are even quoting some of the script after seeing it just once! Wonderful!"