A night out with the ‘Scottish Play’

Recently, our Year 12 cohort (and several enthusiastic teachers) visited Dendy Theatres for a special screening of Shakespeare’s Macbeth, starring Ralph Fiennes and Indira Varma. Students downed handfuls of popcorn—and other things that crinkled in the dark—while drinking from the fire hydrant of Shakespearean prose, with some complaining at the 15-minute intermission that they had “...no idea what was going on.”

It’s a very common occurrence when Shakespeare is first experienced. It is difficult. It even seems, at times, impenetrable. But just like a host of other things that are difficult at first, your efforts are eventually rewarded if you persevere.

What are students rewarded with in understanding Macbeth? Simply this: Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are deeply flawed human beings and their desires get the better of them. Ambition becomes ‘vaulting’ and guilt seems impossible to wash away. Shakespeare is worth studying for the beauty of the prose and for the incidental moral instruction that it gives attentive audiences.

Not surprisingly, Shakespeare also points to the spiritual problems and realities of life that can only be addressed, in the final analysis, by our Saviour, Jesus Christ who “...is before all things, and in him all things hold together” (Colossians 1:16-17).

Students will become more acquainted with the ‘Tyrant’ and his ‘fiend-like queen’ later this term as we pivot to external exam preparation.


Mr Jaeden Haas
Head of Department – English