On Tuesday 15th January, our GCSE English students took the first trip of 2019 to The Globe Theatre to watch a spine chilling performance of Macbeth.
Staged within the intimate Sam Wanamaker’s Playhouse, this performance was lit solely by candles grabbing the audience’s attention right from the moment they took their seats. With the fluctuation of the presence of light, the audience were taken on an intricate journey where the stage went from being filled with flames during a busy banquet scene to Macbeth's monologue which was accompanied with just one flickering candle. Some of the action was even performed in pitch-black, which added to the eerie atmosphere and emphasised the importance of the actors' dialogue. Without pre-recorded sounds, voices were used to chant in Enochian, an 'angelic' language invented by the 16th Century occult philosopher John Dee.
Often watching Shakespeare’s plays can make the four-hundred-year-old text more easily accessible. It was an engaging and beautifully staged rendition of the blood thirsty tragedy which the students thoroughly enjoyed.