LONDON EVENING STANDARD
HOT TICKETS MAGAZINE

Thursday 4th November 2000
 
It has often struck me as very unfair to expect children - some of whom are grappling with the complexities of modern English usage - to enjoy Shakespeare the way it was written. How many of us would go and see The Cherry Orchard in Russian or enjoy Racine in the original armed with a French O-level?

This is the thinking behind Shakespeare 4 Kidz, the phenomenally successful theatre company which, in its aim to ‘return Shakespeare to the people’, has introduced over one million children to the Bard in less than four years.

Their current touring adaptation of Macbeth, a fast moving musical thriller, is one of the most exciting versions of the Scottish play (either for adults or children) that this ex-theatre editor has ever seen. What the play loses in poetry it more than makes up for in clarity. Great care has been taken with visual and verbal aids to ensure the audience - some as young as seven - knows exactly what is going on where, when and to whom, leaving them free to enjoy the suspense that builds up as Macbeth murders his way to the crown and fights to the death to keep it.

Rather than spending my interval explaining who Fleance was or why being made the Thane of Cawdor convinced Macbeth he should be king (‘Oh, Mummy, it’s so obvious’) I found my eight- and ten-year old sons discussing the nature of evil, the power of ambition and the possible existence of witches.

There were moments when you could hear a pin drop, others where the kids were rocking in the aisle to the musical score or roaring with laughter at the porter. With the teen and pre-teen fans whooping and cheering it was like being at a rock concert - they had no idea that this isn’t how people normally react to Shakespeare.

Feisty, fun, fast and furious this really is, as the flyer proclaims ‘Shakespeare everyone can understand.’

LYDIA CONWAY