This Thursday, I took 15 students, from 10-I, to Stratford-Upon-Avon to see the RSC’s new production of ‘Much Ado About Nothing’ starring ‘Doctor Who’ alumni Freema Agyeman and Nick Blood, from ‘Slow Horses’. This is their GCSE Literature text.

 

First we dropped in to Shakespeare’s Birthplace to ascertain if the floor was actually the floor Shakespeare had walked on, and to catch the sun’s rays in his idyllic garden.

 

We had a plethora of picnics, McDonald’s dinners and Subway foot-longs, before heading to the theatre. 

 

This production was really unique. The men returning from war, became a football team returning from a League win; Leonato (the club owner) was pushing his pop starlet daughter (Hero) onto the Manager (Don Pedro) –  whilst she fell for the star player (Claudio). In the most intelligent update I have seen in a long while, the public shaming of Hero became an online, deep-fake trolling take-down of an innocent women – and it really chimed with our current issues surrounding AI and lad culture. I am making this sound so dark, but the comedy was fabulous, with a deeply funny gulling scene involving a prolonged holding of breath in a hot-tub and an awkward interaction with a statue.

 

It was a long, but lovely day (the students genuinely liked the performance) and it was topped off by the staff at the RSC complimenting our kids on their behaviour. What could be better than that? 

 

Ms C Spencer-Cruise