modern version of Macbeth for y7.

[cheesenpickle]

My son is doing Macbeth at school and I would like to find a modern film version to get him more engaged with the story. Any recommendations please?

The RSC did a very good version with Christopher Ecclestone.

Do you mean modern as in recent or modern as in modern dress, or modern as in changed wording?

The 2015 Michael Fassbender version is on Amazon Prime if that's any good to you.

Are you looking for something that has the basic story and is engaging/entertaining, but not too bothered about a particular historical setting or sticking to the script, as an initial introduction, or are you looking more for something that can substitute somewhat for reading the play?

The one with James Mcavoy as a chef/Macbeth sticks out as being very watchable and telling the themes, though is obviously a different setting

Yep that's under the ShakespeaRe-told strand I think?

TBH I'd go with both. Something like that to get the overarching plot and some of the basic themes and a feeling that this is actually something which is intended to be enjoyed, then watch a more "faithful" stage production with your studying head on.

There are a couple of animated versions. They don’t have every word from the play, but they have the key scenes. BBC Teach has one designed for K2/3. There’s also Macbeth from The Animated Tales series. You can find both on YouTube.

Our son is also foing macbryh in year 7. Seems crazy to me!!!!

Why is it crazy?

I remember both my grandsons doing Macbeth in junior school (they are 25 and 30 now). I also remember them really enjoying it and talking about it. Kids love blood and gore. Then there are the witches dancing about “Where shall we three meet again ……Banquo’s ghost, Lady Macbeth, battles and the soldiers with branches on their backs “when Burnham Wood moved to Dunsinane. What’s not to enjoy? Would recommend them not being subjected to some old dark black and white film . Would be great if they could see a stage production. It’s not a long play. I expect the teacher will help to bring it to life for their age group.

To be honest I can kind of understand that perspective (even as someone who choose to study English at university, and enjoys Shakespeare, on the whole).

A quarter of kids don't meet "expected standards" for reading at KS2, just before Y7, and while I'm not that familiar with what exactly that means in practice, I'd guess that struggling with reading would make reading actual Shakespeare texts very tricky, even with the normalised spelling and grammar, and copious footnotes, that you get in student editions.

A 400 year old play with archaic language and almost entirely unfamiliar cultural and other references, paced and structured according to C17 expectations and circumstances, doesn't seem like the most versatile text for a mixed-ability group, or the most useful kind of text for practising various skills with. You couldn't reasonably expect the whole cohort to be able to read and understand the full text in the original, so you're looking at summaries, performances, and maybe a little bit of work with the original text here and there.

If "doing" Macbeth means being exposed to some Elizabethan/Jacobean theatre, getting a feel for the broad span of literature and drama in English, looking at how characters and themes are developed, thinking about how literature fits into its historical context, discussing dramaturgy and staging and adaptations, and other types of learning that don't necessarily require reading and understanding the whole play from the words on the page, while other important aspects of English are learnt via more accessible or transparent texts, then that's great.

If it means expecting every eleven-year-old to be able to slog through and understand full-length playtexts written in a highly stylised, allusive, poetic version of Early Modern English, and spending weeks and weeks focusing solely on something that's just going to bore kids to death and put them right off studying literature in general and Shakespeare in particular, then yeah, that sounds dispiriting and not very productive to me.

I assume that secondary school English teachers know perfectly well that "doing Macbeth" with Y7 in the same way you'd "do Macbeth" with A Level literature students (who are able readers and have chosen the subject) would be counterproductive. So while I can kind of sympathise with the idea that it seems crazy, I'd hope that "doing Macbeth" in y7 is something that takes into account the fact that they're young kids with a wide range of reading abilities.

*chose to 😒

Not a film but I bought my DS a graphic novel of Romeo and Juliette when he was doing that. Seemed to engage him well.

Yes, absolutely. But Macbeth is taught in primary schools too - in Y4, 5 or 6.
Nine-year-olds study it. And that’s not “crazy” either. Of course they’re not reading the whole play cover to cover. Lessons are adapted to suit. And that’s the same as for a Y7 child. Some pupils sadly no doubt might end up doing Macbeth every year all the way to GCSE.

Yeah I can see why you’d say that in terms of the content and themes. I think I studied Macbeth in year 9/10 and even then the themes were quite adult to take on board - murder, power, politics etc.

My son has been doing Romeo and Juliet in year 5 and I think that’s a bit young to be discussing romantic love to the point of suicide tbh.

There’s plenty of Shakespeare that could be studied with more child-friendly themes. I did Twelfth Night in year 7 and that was perfect - nothing graphic but still all the splendour and interest of Shakespeare. Even something like the Taming of the Shrew would be more appropriate and easier for children to access.

I think it’s the Tories on a Classics bent influencing the curriculum.

I sort of disagree. Macbeth is great for older primary/younger secondary - full of things that most kids that age like -spooky stories, ghosts, witches, prophecies, death, murder, the supernatural. The book shelves or kids’ TV schedules are full of stuff like this

The Tragedy of Macbeth - Joel Coen directing, looks really watchable - very filmic, but only seems to be available on Apple TV at the moment.

Sure… I never said otherwise. I was just expressing that I can understand why someone would have the opinion that it was crazy for mixed-ability Y7 to be doing Macbeth, if they were interpreting that as necessarily meaning they were expected to read, understand and analyse 17th century playtexts in their entirety.

@ElmtreeMama @JarByTheDoor thankyou i think as you said starting with a film that introduces the themes/ story to get him engaged and then moving on to one that's more in keeping with the orginal.

I think there's a lot of things for Year 7s to enjoy, agree. But basically, it is complex language and sophisticated themes and quite a hard slog at the best of times. I personally would introduce Shakespeare perhaps with a comedy or even poetry. As a PP points out, not all children will have particularly sophisticated reading levels by year 7.

I do agree that the teachers are doing a great job of trying to make it accessible and fun. But I'd argue that they could do that with an easier intro work and do so in a way that's a lot less effort for everyone.

Another vote for the BBC ShakespeaRe-told version with James McAvoy for the themes.

Judi Dench version for the full play.

Never understand why they go for Macbeth. I found MSND so much more engaging at that age.

The nice thing about Macbeth is that it's quite short.

IMO the tragedies are easier to understand and appreciate, on at least some level, than the comedies.

The tragedies have got things like plots you can feasibly convey in a couple of sentences, big eternal themes like betrayal and revenge, universally-understandable motives like lust for power, characters with interesting personalities, and most of the really famous speeches.

The comedies tend to be more convoluted and wordplay-heavy, often have fairly bland characters, rely on a lot on tropes like mistaken identity or miscommunication which can get pretty tedious IMO, revolve around everyone getting matched up to the right person in the end, and any vaguely amusing parts are rendered almost entirely unfunny by years of cultural and linguistic change that needs deciphering. You need to be able to understand the wordplay, witticisms and irony to get anything much out of them. I'll admit AMND is one of the more bearable ones from a plot point of view and could probably be managed with a KS3 class, but unless you could somehow turn it into some kind of heated classroom discussion on trans rights I can't imagine getting Y9 to give even the slightest crap about Twelfth Night.

If not the 2015 film with Michael Fassbender, then look to see if the BBC version from the 80s is available.

I think year 11 at a school I worked in until recently were doing Macbeth. I do think yr 7 is young for Macbeth. There's a lot of weirdness (Wyrdness? Arf arf) and gore for 11yos imo.

But that aside, there was one set among gangs in a Glasgow council estate. It's quite old but a modern version.

I can thoroughly recommend this version by Joel Coen made in 2021. The performance of Kathryn Hunter playing the witches is hands down the best acting performance i've ever seen in my life.

BBC animated Shakespeare is the one to go for - a lot of them can be found on YouTube (not ‘little kid’ versions but 30 min edits of the original language with some narration and beautiful animation)

and kids of any age can ‘do’ Shakespeare - it’s just about the appropriate scaffolding. What they get in terms of confidence with a set of texts which are known to be linguistically complex and which (rightly or wrongly) still leverage so much cultural capital globally can be worth its weight in gold.

we were talking to our y8’s English teacher about this at a parents eve recently. I did find it quite hard to find a non-15+ rated Macbeth that was engaging - so many of the good recent films are ramping up the bloody gore and have 15 ratings. She recommended the 2021 joel coen one as well (hadn’t been out when we’d been looking for them for eldest a few years ago).
We had watched the 2010 Patrick Stewart one - it was pretty good but did lose the interest of my 12 year old at a few points. Plus it’s (deliberately) quite bleak looking.
We looked at the 2015 fassbender one but it just seemed too gory. I think we also looked at the 1971 Roman Polanski one but discounted it - I can’t quite remember why but I think v bloody and lots and lots of nudity. Obv I can see why - but mine was quite a young 12 and would def not have seen anything approaching that gore level before and would have been mortified at the nakedness.
School told them to watch clips of the 1979 judi dench / Ian mckellan one on YouTube but it was just talking head soliloquies on a black background - not the super engaging for not seen Shakespeare before pre teen stuff.

All the most exciting ones were not quite ok for my youngish 12 yr old, basically. I’d try the joel coen one. Maybe it being in black and white might make the gore a bit less gory! Plus it’s 105 minutes which is a bit easier than some.