Hugely Impressed

We've just returned from watching the Shakespeare 4 Kidz production of Romeo & Juliet in Grimsby. Wow! What a performance! Emily absolutely adored it and is still buzzing. She and Jon are busy watching one of the various adult versions we have on video (seem to have a house full of Shakespeare) and she's busy discussing with him which parts they modified and which they didn't.

It was pretty spellbinding, I have to say. I was far, far more impressed than I thought I was going to be. Naturally the venue was full of school parties, but I've never been to a performance which held kids' attention like this one. No messing about, no rowdiness, no kids kicking seats with boredom, just intense concentration. They must have been doing something right to have half the audience in tears during the final scenes, lol. Must admit I shed a tear or two. Emily didn't, but was mesmerised throughout. Talking to her about the imagery, the "meaning" and the mechanics of the play was like talking to a teenager; I can't believe how much of a handle she has on this stuff.

Have promised Emily that we can go to see more of their productions whenever they come anwhere within striking distance. Unfortunately, they performed Macbeth in Hull just a couple of days ago, grrrrr. Didn't know. Poooey. They're touring with both shows until the end of March, but although R&J is on at several venues we could get to, Macbeth isn't. Hmmmppph. Macbeth and Midsummer Night's Dream are both available from them on DVD, though, so we'll definitely be getting those.

We've already done a fair bit of work about Shakespeare's life (when we were doing our Tudor and Elizabethan project) and Emily's familiar with quite a few of the plays through books we've read and audio tapes, videos and DVDs - she now wants to do a proper Shakespeare project. Hmmmm, and I said we weren't going to do projects at the moment. Have ordered this book for the moment as it's one we haven't come across before - let's see where this re-awakened passion takes us.