TIE - Part 4

For our first TIE performance, our client is Miss Exton from the English Department who has requested that we focus on Macbeth for GCSE exams.




 Our target audience is the Y11 cohort, numbering c.200, who are studying Macbeth as part of their English Literature GCSE. There may be an option to split the target audience into 4 ability groups but this would impact upon the depth in which we choose to look at the play in, in the performance. Therefore, we have to bare in mind that the performance will have to be made more complex for those of a higher ability and less so for those of a lower ability.




Miss Exton suggested that we perform in the Performance Space rather than in the Hall for the piece, however, this would be dependent on how many are in the audience at a given time - for a smaller audience, such as the ability groups, the Performance Space would be perfect however, for the whole cohort it would be beneficial to use the Hall due to overcrowding issues. Ultimately, it may be impossible to engage the whole cohort at the same time as this would restrict the workshop and conversation we would have at the end of the piece.




We would have one hour in which to perform and complete the workshop within the space of a lesson - which would be Monday P1 and Thursday P1 - which will constrict the amount we are able to cover and the amount that we can go into detail on. Therefore, it would be wise to maintain a focus on one or two elements of what Miss Exton suggested and concentrate on them in depth rather than go through too many elements too quickly and not in the detail needed in the exam. Miss Exton set us a performance deadline of 2 weeks after the Easter holidays which gives us just over 10 weeks to create the performance and the focus of the workshop.




We asked Miss Exton what she wanted us to cover in the piece and she gave us a rather long list. I don't think we will be able to cover everything she had said however, if we maintain a focus on a couple of things and go into depth, I believe this will be more beneficial to the cohort. The key things Miss Exton would like us to focus on are as follows:

• Key speeches - this would include key quotes to remember. As there are many key speeches, I think it would be wise to ask Miss Exton what key speeches exactly she wants us to cover. This would also include some analysis of language and potentially a modern translation of what is being said by a key character. We should also focus on different layers of interpretation especially if we follow the ability group style in order to challenge those higher up. To make the piece more visually appealing we could have a PowerPoint with key quotes which the audience are more likely to remember.
• Theme - Miss Exton gave us recommendations as to what themes we should cover which include the contrast of leadership, how the play can be seen as a tragedy and therefore how Macbeth can be seen as a tragic character - the hero versus the broken man. For this latter theme I think we could have Macbeth at the start of the play side by side with Macbeth at the end of the play and show the stark differences between them - this is something we could do at the beginning to show character arcs. Other themes are regicide and the supernatural.
• Plot - Miss Exton mentioned that the audience will know most of the plot but there should be some reminders by using key scenes which are: the witches prophecy; the first time we see Lady Macbeth and Macbeth together; Macbeth having doubts about killing Duncan; Lady Macbeth's manipulation; the relationship between Macbeth and lady Macbeth after the murder; the banquet scene; return to the witches; Macduff being told about the death of his family (incorporating the theme of gender roles); and Macbeth's final soliloquy.
• Character - alongside key speeches we should focus on character motivation, especially that of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. Miss Exton mentioned that we could hotseat characters however this may not work because it relies on a lot of audience interaction which most likely will not happen.
• Context - some use of context from the time but she didn't talk about this as much, apart from saying not to make it that obvious.

Other things Miss Exton mentioned was the use of a narrator (facilitator), the use of key words such as hamartia and catharsis, neutral clothing (perhaps with a symbolic item - I thought we could use the Brechtian method of placards), the use of humour and to mention the exam criteria throughout. She wanted the interactive element in the piece to be high but I fear that some students may not react positively to this, thus creating an awkward moment between the audience and the performers.

In future blogs I will examine and discuss the key characters and themes and analyse some aspects of the Shakespearean language so that I am prepared for the workshop afterwards.


In Chipp's lesson we discussed what the client had told us she wanted from the piece including the impact of the potential 4 different performances of which I have mentioned above.


We focused on the beginning of the piece and decided that we can use humour to enagage with our target audience and thus get us on the same side as they are as we could potentially relate to our audience. We decided to go with an exam style beginning to show some thoughts that some students may have during an exam whilst still maintaining the focus on Macbeth. The piece below is the final product of our work and incorporated our favourite parts from the other groups' small performance. I do think that the piece is thus far too long for a humorous introduction but it does have potential. I do think that the people and their thoughts at the exam desks should remain there whilst the audience comes in and look like they're preparing for an exam. We were missing 4 people from the lesson and these people could be the ones to introduce the piece whilst having those at exam desks still preparing which I think would be visually effective.