Shakespeare at the Thameside

On Wednesday 27th March Woodside year 5 took over the Thameside Theatre to present their own versions of three Shakespeare plays: Hamlet by 5R, Macbeth by 5M and Romeo and Juliet by 5L.

This was our 10th Shakespeare Festival at Thameside Theatre. We started as part of the national Shakespeare Schools Festival, when our plays were part of an evening including Gable Hall and Palmers College drama groups. When we expanded to three class in a year we decided to hire the theatre and have our own festival just for Woodside so that every year 5 class, and every child in those classes, had the experience of performing Shakespeare on the stage in a real theatre. It is a huge challenge, as although we only perform shortened versions of the plays, children still have to grapple with real Shakespearean language as spoken 400 years ago. We know they get a huge amount from this; growing in confidence and even put some of the bard’s language into their written work.