HandleBards Bring Shakespeare to Life

Year 5 and Year 6 were visited by a two-person troupe of actors this week, who performed an imaginative and entertaining version of Macbeth. The children were completely captivated, particularly during the moments of audience participation, with Mr Westland's star turn as Banquo's ghost proving a particular highlight!

The performance brought to life the Shakespeare study both year groups have undertaken and gave pupils a wonderful insight into how theatre can transform a text and make it come alive.

Year 6 were also given the opportunity to take part in acting workshops, learning about the physicality of drama before performing short scenes for one another. It was remarkable to see the progress they made in such a short time and has left the Year 6 team feeling very excited about next term's production, with clearly plenty of acting talent to look forward to!

Our pupils said:

“The workshop was really fun and we were able to learn how to act and perform the original text of Macbeth.”

“I also liked the workshop because we learned how to use our facial expressions and movement to communicate what the story is about.”

“The performance of the Handlebards was really funny. It was amazing how only two actors were able to perform all the different characters.”

“I loved the performance because it had the whole story but they changed it to make it funnier so that we could enjoy it more!”

“I enjoyed it a lot because the actors used their expressions and there were only two of them! They acted out all of the scenes and characters!”

“I enjoyed how there were only two people acting but they made every scene so real!”

“I really liked the production and how funny it was!”

“The Handlebards performance was superb, especially as there were only two actors and more than two characters on stage at some points!”

“Last Wednesday, Year 5 and 6 watched Macbeth being acted out by the Handlebards. Only two people were acting, so it was really funny when there were meant to be four people on stage and they shook hands with themselves!”