Year 5 Shakespeare Workshop

Year 5 have spent a term looking at William Shakespeare and, in particular, Hamlet. We have looked at Shakespeare’s language and the types of prose he wrote.

Hamlet is a tragedy and is set in Elsinore Castle in Denmark. The King is poisoned, and his brother becomes the new king. Hamlet is suspicious and eventually uncovers the truth. Claudius killed his father.

The pupils enjoyed interpreting the language and altering it into everyday speech.

The performance was not of the play Hamlet, but a workshop to show how we approached learning and performing a difficult text. Hamlet’s ‘brain cells’ were not a part of the original, but emphasised how the pupils thought about the famous speech ‘To be or not to be’ and what they thought Shakespeare was trying to say.

We had a lot of fun this term, and every pupil played a part. Many were nervous and a little reluctant at first, but all enjoyed the final performance for their parents.