Learning Projects Story

Something wicked this way comes… Macbeth: Live and unplugged

  Our education project in partnership with Deutsche Bank, Playing Shakespeare, is now celebrating its sixteenth year

4 minute read

One of the most impactful and longest running cultural education projects in the UK, Playing Shakespeare with Deutsche Bank is now in its sixteenth year, and is our flagship project for secondary and post-16 further education students.

Supported by Deutsche Bank as part of Born To Be, their global youth engagement programme which aims to help students prepare for the future and unlock their potential, Playing Shakespeare with Deutsche Bank sees Shakespeare’s plays adapted in to fast-paced productions with young people in mind.

Playing Shakespeare with Deutsche Bank sees Shakespeare’s plays adapted in to fast-paced productions with young people in mind.

This year’s production is Macbeth, and despite being written more than 400 years ago, the themes of loyalty, courage and guilt that are raised in Shakespeare’s tragedy are still as relevant today. Directed by Sarah Frankcom, former Artistic Director of LAMDA, we’ve adapted this thrilling and chilling tale into a 90-minute production that is a fantastic introduction to Shakespeare and live theatre, enabling young people to get to grips with the play’s complex language, characters and themes.

Charting Macbeth’s bloody journey from hero to tyrant, Macbeth is now playing in our Globe Theatre, and we’ve already welcomed so many students through our great oak doors this month. Schools across the country will be able to watch the show until 30 March 2022, with public performances running from 19 March – 16 April 2022, perfect for the whole family.

 

‘I’m thrilled to be collaborating with such an exciting cast and creative team to reimagine Macbeth for younger audiences. As young people continue to ask big questions about their future, I can’t think of a better play to explore how personal ambition and the abuse of power can corrupt the individual and destroy nations’

— Sarah Frankcom, Director

Woman in blue gown and crown facing forward, man wearing crown in the background
Three women in brown with arms open wide
Man in crown looking right with arms open

Macbeth is a thrilling and chilling 90-minute production, and is now playing in our Globe Theatre. Photographer: Cesare de Giglio

All students are required to study a Shakespeare text for GCSE, but strangely, it is not compulsory to see a Shakespeare play in performance. Experiencing live performance helps students immerse themselves into the play and better understand the timeless issues which affect them and society.

This is why Playing Shakespeare with Deutsche Bank is such an important project, and so popular. This year, 20,000 free tickets have been snapped up by London and Birmingham state secondary schools, and a further 7,000 free or subsidised tickets have been taken up by families, schools and community groups.

‘Macbeth represents our 16th consecutive Playing Shakespeare with Deutsche Bank production. This incredible project has given so many schools an invaluable way to bring Shakespeare alive for their students. A significant proportion of young people in this country rely entirely on their school for access to the arts. This unique financial support from Deutsche Bank allows us to offer over 20,000 free tickets to students from London & Birmingham state schools and to play our small part in enabling all students to experience a culture rich education’

— Lucy Cuthbertson, Co-Director of Education

A graphical map of Greater London, dividing the Boroughs and showing the number of schools in each London Borough that have engaged with the Playing Shakespeare with Deutsche Bank project.

Since 2007, 263,521 students have watched a Shakespeare play in our Globe Theatre as part of Playing Shakespeare with Deutsche Bank.

What’s more, we continue to run our workshops for schools across the country, as well as our continuing professional development (CPD) courses for teachers. Furthermore, we’ve also recently launched our free resources for Macbeth online to support GCSE and A-Level curricula, that will not only be used by schools across the globe this year, but that will be freely available in the years to come. Our previous award-winning resources for past Playing Shakespeare with Deutsche Bank projects are still available now.

Our mission with this project has always been to give students the opportunity to see a Shakespeare play as he intended: live and unplugged, and we’re so thrilled to see so many young people from across the country in our wooden ‘O’ this spring.

FINIS.


This year marks the 16th anniversary of the Playing Shakespeare with Deutsche Bank project, providing over 20,000 free tickets for students aged 11–16 in state secondary schools in London and Birmingham. Productions exclusively for schools will run from 3 – 30 March 2022.

Public performances run from 19 March – 16 April 2022. Book your tickets.

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