Which Shakespeare play...?

[husbandcallsmepickle]

Which Shakespeare play did you study for GCSE English? We were chatting about this at work and most of my colleagues read Macbeth. I was in the minority as I studied A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Shakespeare was compulsory study at GCSE nationally when I left for Oz in the mid-2000s.

I think it still is.

do you remember what your other texts were? That might jog your memory.

My O level Shakespeare was The Merchant of Venice

I have no idea if it was compulsory when I did my GCSEs (1991).

Othello. We went to see a production of it, which was great although my school was obviously on a really tight budget because we were up in 'the Gods' on tiny little seats!

"O" level Julius Caesar
"A" level Othello and The Winter's Tale.
It was a long time ago!

I only remember us reading The Outsiders by SE Hinton (loved it) and The Pearl by John Steinbeck (hated it). I don't remember any plays at all. Or poetry.
It was 100% coursework (no exam) so I don't think we studied much in depth.
Maybe I slept through some of the lessons 🤔

Macbeth at GCSE, and Othello and Measure for Measure at A Level.

O-level: A Midsummer Night's Dream, but we were taken to the cinema to see Polanski's Macbeth with Francesca Annis as Lady M.

Also Midsummer Night’s Dream but they were O Levels then 🤣

Henry IV Part One for O level; King Lear for A level.

I did Volpone too, and loved it. Nobody reads or performs Samuel Johnson these days.

Twelfth Night. And Othello for A level which I saw a few weeks ago at the Haymarket and was very good.

As you like it ... All the world's a stage!

we did Anthony and Cleopatra. Then Winter’s Tale and Macbeth ant A Level. My kids did R&J as well.

Me too!

GCSE: Henry V
A Levels: Othello and Merchant of Venice

We did war poetry at gcse too, and did the Henry V “st crispin’s day” speech as part of that, before we got into the play, as a taster. I still remember large chunks of it.

I’m sure we did midsummer night’s dream at some point too, maybe bits of it during pre-gcse? Though I get mixed up as it came up in Ballet Shoes (Noel streatfield) and I read bits of it at least alongside that.

I didn't do any Shakespeare for O Levels and always felt I missed out. The play I studied was Death of a Salesman. Since school that I've definitely got into the classics as I've got older. My favourite is Romeo and Juliet - I went to see it at the Globe in London and it was amazing!

Merchant of Venice

Gcse coursework was Merchant of Venice and exam was Romeo and Juliet.
I think we did Midsummer Night's Dream in year 9.

Henry V. We all giggled at that line “A little touch of Harry in the night”!

Henry V for GCSE. Could recite almost all of it.
Winter’s Tale and Anthony and Cleopatra for a level. Hated both but did very well.

I remember studying Macbeth, As you like it, and Midsummer. Not sure which was GCSE, A Level or before for sats.

Volpone is by Ben Jonson. Samuel Johnson wrote a dictionary - immortalised in Blackadder 😁

O level - Merchant of Venice
A level - The Tempest and Macbeth

Why did you hate them?