Young people from across Nottingham will bring Shakespeare’s storytelling to life when they take to the Theatre Royal stage with their own adaptation of Macbeth.
The 2025 Playmaking Festival, a “vibrant celebration of Shakespeare”, will involve eight schools developing the production in partnership with the Royal Shakespeare Company as part of its associate schools programme.
Students and staff, with guidance from an RSC associate learning practitioner, will engage in RSC rehearsal room techniques to explore the text and devise an adaptation of Macbeth, culminating in a two-day festival.
The schools are Chilwell School, Joseph Whitaker School, Djanogly City Academy, Bluecoat Beechdale Academy, Bluecoat Trent Academy, Bluecoat Aspley Academy, Sutherland House School and Southglade Primary.
The schools will have technical and dress rehearsals on Monday 7 and Tuesday 8 July with the Theatre Royal’s in-house professionals. A performance will follow in the venue’s auditorium. More than 1,100 audience members including families and students will be able to witness the next generation of performers bring Shakespeare’s dark tragedy to life.
The festival comes only weeks after the venue’s community production of Hamlet: The Rest is Silence, which will take place on Tuesday 10 and Wednesday 11 June in the Royal Concert Hall. It will feature a cast and crew of Nottingham residents working alongside a professional director, technical director, producer and RSC Shakespeare specialists.