Have a listen to this amazing talk with Peter Brook about his groundbreaking production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. What it helps us understand is how the view of Shakespeare’s play as historically fixed entities has opened up, that we set can them anywhere . As Judi Dench says’ you can’t mess about with Chekov, you can’t mess about Ibsen or Tennessee Williams but you can mess about with Shakespeare’. When I tell the plots or stories of the plays to children I find the plays have archetypical structures to them in simple forms that can be understood. It’s in the dialogue they express the human condition so beautifully. So the key to bringing Shakespeare into schools is ‘mess about’ with the stories set them anywhere, at anytime and then throw in a few classic lines. Don’t be scared to have fun after all ‘What fools these mortals be’.
