0:00:22 > 0:00:25Who was William Shakespeare?
0:00:25 > 0:00:28We know he looked something like this, but because he lived
0:00:28 > 0:00:32so long ago we don't know a huge amount about his life.
0:00:32 > 0:00:35But what we do know is that he is one of the greatest
0:00:35 > 0:00:37writers of plays the world has ever known.
0:00:37 > 0:00:40Shakespeare wrote plays about almost everything.
0:00:40 > 0:00:42He wrote about funny things.
0:00:42 > 0:00:45LAUGHTER
0:00:47 > 0:00:49He wrote about scary things.
0:00:49 > 0:00:53Macbeth. Macbeth. Macbeth.
0:00:53 > 0:00:55He wrote about very sad things.
0:00:55 > 0:00:59Death that hath sucked the honey of thy breath
0:00:59 > 0:01:02Hath had no power yet upon thy beauty.
0:01:02 > 0:01:05But in everything he wrote, William Shakespeare explored what
0:01:05 > 0:01:09it's like to be a human being, what it's like to be alive.
0:01:09 > 0:01:11And, even now, when we watch his plays,
0:01:11 > 0:01:15we can learn a lot about our world and about ourselves.
0:01:15 > 0:01:19William Shakespeare was born in the year 1564
0:01:19 > 0:01:21in the town of Stratford upon Avon.
0:01:21 > 0:01:24All those years ago it was just a small town
0:01:24 > 0:01:26surrounded by countryside.
0:01:26 > 0:01:29This is the farm just outside Stratford where William's mother,
0:01:29 > 0:01:32Mary Arden, used to live when she was young.
0:01:32 > 0:01:36When Mary grew up and married a man called John Shakespeare, they moved
0:01:36 > 0:01:40here to this house in Henley Street, where Mary gave birth to William.
0:01:40 > 0:01:44His father was bailiff, which is the equivalent of Mayor of Stratford,
0:01:44 > 0:01:48which gave the Shakespeares a good social status in the town.
0:01:48 > 0:01:51Aged seven, William went to school.
0:01:51 > 0:01:54You had to go to school at 6am in the morning
0:01:54 > 0:01:58during the summertime, and 7am during wintertime.
0:01:58 > 0:02:02And you had two half days off, Thursdays and Saturdays,
0:02:02 > 0:02:04and you had hardly any school holidays.
0:02:04 > 0:02:08When he was 14 or 15, William Shakespeare left school.
0:02:08 > 0:02:11Not long afterwards, he fell in love with Anne Hathaway,
0:02:11 > 0:02:13who lived in this cottage.
0:02:13 > 0:02:16She became pregnant, and in those days that meant
0:02:16 > 0:02:17they had to get married.
0:02:17 > 0:02:21Anne was 25 and William was just 18.
0:02:21 > 0:02:23They had a first child,
0:02:23 > 0:02:27and then a year later they had a set of twins, so Shakespeare
0:02:27 > 0:02:32by the time he was 21 years old was the proud father of three children.
0:02:32 > 0:02:33With a family to look after,
0:02:33 > 0:02:38William needed to find a job so it seems he decided to become a writer.
0:02:38 > 0:02:41He would have heard merchants coming back from London
0:02:41 > 0:02:42arriving in Stratford
0:02:42 > 0:02:45and saying there are amazing entertainments going on in London.
0:02:45 > 0:02:48You can see these great stories, because that's at the heart
0:02:48 > 0:02:51of Shakespeare's plays are great stories.
0:02:51 > 0:02:56So Shakespeare came to London and London was this huge,
0:02:56 > 0:03:01bustling place, and it would have been mucky and horrible and smelly.
0:03:01 > 0:03:03But also it was the place where the Queen was
0:03:03 > 0:03:07so that meant it was the palace and so there would have been
0:03:07 > 0:03:10courtiers and soldiers in the street.
0:03:10 > 0:03:13Certainly when he first came here, it would have been absolutely
0:03:13 > 0:03:15strange and bewildering and amazing.
0:03:15 > 0:03:18This was a world in which William Shakespeare could
0:03:18 > 0:03:21use his great talents to earn him a living.
0:03:21 > 0:03:25He worked as both a writer and a player - in those days actors
0:03:25 > 0:03:28were called players and he was good at both of them.
0:03:28 > 0:03:31But his plays were what began to set him apart from the crowd
0:03:31 > 0:03:35and make him such a success because his plays were massive hits.
0:03:35 > 0:03:38Shakespeare wrote the blockbuster films of his day and people
0:03:38 > 0:03:42from all walks of life could enjoy them at places like this, the Globe.
0:03:44 > 0:03:47But his success made some other writers jealous.
0:03:49 > 0:03:51When he started writing some people were a bit
0:03:51 > 0:03:53snobbish towards him.
0:03:53 > 0:03:56They called him an "upstart crow",
0:03:56 > 0:03:58which is quite a funny thing to call someone.
0:03:58 > 0:04:02It was as if they were saying, "Who do you think you are writing plays?"
0:04:02 > 0:04:04Shakespeare didn't care.
0:04:04 > 0:04:08He continued to write brilliant plays like Romeo and Juliet,
0:04:08 > 0:04:11plays that were enjoyed by everyone, rich or poor.
0:04:14 > 0:04:18You'd only have to pay a penny to stand in the yard around the stage.
0:04:18 > 0:04:22And you could fit about 1,500 people in the yard in those days.
0:04:22 > 0:04:26Then as you move up, you probably pay a little bit more, and then
0:04:26 > 0:04:29you pay another penny to get a cushion so you can sit comfortably.
0:04:29 > 0:04:34And then you have these decorated boxes, the gentlemen's boxes.
0:04:34 > 0:04:36Only gentry could sit in those boxes.
0:04:36 > 0:04:38I see no more!
0:04:38 > 0:04:41Audiences flocked to see plays like Macbeth,
0:04:41 > 0:04:44the story of an ambitious and ruthless man who commits
0:04:44 > 0:04:48ghastly murder so he can become all powerful.
0:04:49 > 0:04:51What? There is this sound.
0:04:54 > 0:04:56Today, more than 400 years later,
0:04:56 > 0:04:59some people say they don't get Shakespeare
0:04:59 > 0:05:03because the old words he sometimes uses are hard to understand.
0:05:07 > 0:05:09Sometimes you think, "Well, what does that mean?"
0:05:09 > 0:05:13But quite a lot of Shakespeare you get almost just from the feel of it.
0:05:13 > 0:05:17Just think about Macbeth. He does these horrible things
0:05:17 > 0:05:19and he goes, "Tomorrow and..."
0:05:19 > 0:05:22.."creeps in this petty pace..."
0:05:22 > 0:05:26"..until the last syllable of recorded time."
0:05:26 > 0:05:28And you might think, "What's a petty pace?
0:05:28 > 0:05:30"And what's the last syllable?"
0:05:30 > 0:05:33But we can feel his misery and then maybe some of those difficult
0:05:33 > 0:05:37words and phrases like petty pace we can fill in later.
0:05:37 > 0:05:41It is a tale told by an idiot...
0:05:42 > 0:05:47..full of sound and fury, signifying nothing!
0:05:50 > 0:05:54Those words were first spoken on a London stage in the year 1606.
0:05:54 > 0:05:57Today, they can still be heard in theatres all over the world.
0:05:57 > 0:06:00Shakespeare's plays have proved to be timeless.
0:06:02 > 0:06:06William Shakespeare's amazing career came to an end in 1613.
0:06:06 > 0:06:11It seems he became poorly, stopped writing and returned to Stratford.
0:06:11 > 0:06:12He died in 1616.
0:06:12 > 0:06:16He was just 52 years old but by Tudor standards
0:06:16 > 0:06:20had lived quite a long life. He left behind 37 plays
0:06:20 > 0:06:22and hundreds of poems and he was buried here
0:06:22 > 0:06:25at the Church of the Holy Trinity.
0:06:32 > 0:06:34Not everyone can be a William Shakespeare,
0:06:34 > 0:06:37but everyone can have a go at writing a play.
0:06:37 > 0:06:40Why not get together with your friends and give it a go?
0:06:40 > 0:06:43It doesn't have to be very long just a few scenes that tell
0:06:43 > 0:06:45a story that means something to you.
0:06:45 > 0:06:47Remember what Shakespeare once wrote,
0:06:47 > 0:06:50"To thine own self be true, and it must follow,
0:06:50 > 0:06:54"as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man."
0:06:54 > 0:06:55He's showing off now.
0:07:03 > 0:07:06To help us learn more about William Shakespeare and his plays
0:07:06 > 0:07:09we need to go back in time to more than four centuries ago.
0:07:11 > 0:07:14Shakespeare was born, grew up and started working
0:07:14 > 0:07:16when Elizabeth I was Queen of England.
0:07:16 > 0:07:20Elizabeth was the last monarch of the period of history
0:07:20 > 0:07:22we call the Tudor age.
0:07:22 > 0:07:25The Tudor Age was a great voyage of discovery.
0:07:25 > 0:07:27There was new discoveries of new lands
0:07:27 > 0:07:30and therefore new wealth pouring into the country.
0:07:30 > 0:07:32Shakespeare would have been aware of these new discoveries.
0:07:32 > 0:07:36This is a pocket atlas printed in 1603.
0:07:36 > 0:07:39It's the sort of book William would have had access to every day.
0:07:39 > 0:07:41You can almost imagine him
0:07:41 > 0:07:45flicking through the pages, deciding where to set his next play.
0:07:45 > 0:07:48Perhaps he would choose somewhere like Verona or Sicily.
0:07:48 > 0:07:50It must have been very exciting times.
0:07:50 > 0:07:54They were exciting times but dangerous, too,
0:07:54 > 0:07:57because people argued violently about religious beliefs.
0:07:57 > 0:08:00England had stopped being a Roman Catholic country
0:08:00 > 0:08:02and become a Protestant one.
0:08:02 > 0:08:05Everybody had to go to church on a Sunday.
0:08:05 > 0:08:07If you didn't you were fined
0:08:07 > 0:08:10because if you didn't, it was thought you were a Roman Catholic,
0:08:10 > 0:08:13and if you were a Roman Catholic in Shakespeare's time, there was
0:08:13 > 0:08:16a possibility that you were an enemy of the state.
0:08:16 > 0:08:19But even though people were told what religion to believe in,
0:08:19 > 0:08:24that didn't mean Elizabethans gave up old ideas and superstitions.
0:08:24 > 0:08:26People talk about good luck and bad luck.
0:08:26 > 0:08:29In Shakespeare's time, people would have really believed
0:08:29 > 0:08:32that you could have bad luck and you would have bad luck
0:08:32 > 0:08:36because you had done something that offended the spirits.
0:08:36 > 0:08:40The most famous of those spirits was a naughty hobgoblin called
0:08:40 > 0:08:42Robin Goodfellow, also known as Puck.
0:08:42 > 0:08:45He messes things up in A Midsummer Night's Dream
0:08:45 > 0:08:49and is told off by Oberon, king of the fairies.
0:09:08 > 0:09:10I go. I go.
0:09:12 > 0:09:14What happens to Romeo and Juliet tells us
0:09:14 > 0:09:17something else about the beliefs shared by Tudor people.
0:09:17 > 0:09:20Romeo and Juliet were the star-crossed lovers
0:09:20 > 0:09:25and the story of their short lives was written across the night sky.
0:09:26 > 0:09:30In plenty of Shakespeare's plays you have the idea that what's
0:09:30 > 0:09:33going on has been scripted before, that's to say that the
0:09:33 > 0:09:38people are doing things because something else is in charge.
0:09:38 > 0:09:41We might call that destiny, we might call it fate.
0:09:42 > 0:09:44And never from this palace of dim night...
0:09:44 > 0:09:48So in Romeo and Juliet, yes, it is their fate to die
0:09:48 > 0:09:53and you have a sense it is their destiny, that it is going to happen.
0:09:53 > 0:09:57Here will I set up my everlasting rest
0:09:58 > 0:10:05And shake the yoke of inauspicious stars from this world wearied flesh.
0:10:05 > 0:10:06Eyes look your last...
0:10:09 > 0:10:13Most people probably believed in ghosts of some sort or another.
0:10:13 > 0:10:16Whether they believed that you could actually see the ghost or
0:10:16 > 0:10:19the ghost was present, that's quite an interesting debate,
0:10:19 > 0:10:22it happens in quite a few of Shakespeare's plays.
0:10:22 > 0:10:24Macbeth kills King Duncan
0:10:24 > 0:10:27and then pays murderers to kill his friend Banquo.
0:10:27 > 0:10:32Afterwards he is haunted by Banquo's ghost and driven almost mad.
0:10:32 > 0:10:34You cannot say I did it!
0:10:35 > 0:10:39- Never shake they gory locks at me! - Gentlemen rise.
0:10:39 > 0:10:40His Highness is not well.
0:10:40 > 0:10:44Not only does Macbeth kill a king he also comes face to face
0:10:44 > 0:10:45with witches.
0:10:45 > 0:10:49They seem to predict that Macbeth is destined for greatness,
0:10:49 > 0:10:51which encourages him to commit dreadful murders
0:10:51 > 0:10:54but the predictions are not quite what they seem.
0:10:54 > 0:10:57The clever trickery of the witches leads him to his own death
0:10:57 > 0:11:00when Macduff fights him and cuts his head off.
0:11:01 > 0:11:03Hail, King of Scotland!
0:11:04 > 0:11:06Did people believe in witches?
0:11:06 > 0:11:11Well, yes, they were persecuting witches in Shakespeare's time
0:11:11 > 0:11:13because they believed that the woman
0:11:13 > 0:11:16at the end of the street because she was a bit old or because she had
0:11:16 > 0:11:21said something the wrong way, was a witch and she had power over you.
0:11:21 > 0:11:26Hubble bubble, toil and trouble, fire burn and cauldron bubble...
0:11:26 > 0:11:31Shakespeare enjoyed exploring old ideas and new ideas -
0:11:31 > 0:11:34and his genius weaved them into something very special.
0:11:34 > 0:11:37He was a fantastic story teller.
0:11:37 > 0:11:41He knew how to make people gasp, he knew how to make people laugh
0:11:41 > 0:11:43and cry,
0:11:43 > 0:11:46just by standing and sitting in a theatre like this. So you would sit
0:11:46 > 0:11:52here or stand over there, look at the play and go, "That's a ghost!"
0:11:52 > 0:11:54What? There is this sound!
0:11:56 > 0:11:59Or someone would come on and do some mucking around of some sort...
0:11:59 > 0:12:02INDISTINCT
0:12:02 > 0:12:04LAUGHTER
0:12:04 > 0:12:07..and you would laugh, you would weep with laughter.
0:12:07 > 0:12:09HE SHOUTS
0:12:09 > 0:12:11LAUGHTER
0:12:11 > 0:12:13Then other times, say in a play like Romeo and Juliet,
0:12:13 > 0:12:16you would be crying, you would be desperate.
0:12:16 > 0:12:17And let me die.
0:12:21 > 0:12:22Ugh!
0:12:22 > 0:12:25In Shakespeare's plays all these ideas are there.
0:12:25 > 0:12:28You've got witches and fairies and ghosts and people
0:12:28 > 0:12:33cursing each other and a new kind of theatre is being invented.
0:12:37 > 0:12:38Eye of newt and toe of frog
0:12:38 > 0:12:42Wool of bat and tongue of dog...
0:12:43 > 0:12:45Suppose you are living in Shakespeare's time
0:12:45 > 0:12:47and writing about witches.
0:12:47 > 0:12:50Could you come up with a spell like that one?
0:12:50 > 0:12:51What would you put in your cauldron?
0:12:51 > 0:12:54Could you list all the things just as Shakespeare did
0:12:54 > 0:12:55and write them down in a poem?
0:12:55 > 0:12:59And if you have a vision of the future in which Ricky becomes
0:12:59 > 0:13:00a powerful king.
0:13:00 > 0:13:03Don't bother telling me because I like my head.
0:13:03 > 0:13:05I'm rather attached to it.
0:13:12 > 0:13:15What was it like going to the theatre
0:13:15 > 0:13:17when William Shakespeare was writing plays?
0:13:17 > 0:13:21And so everyone according to his cue.
0:13:21 > 0:13:24We can take a pretty good guess because, here in London,
0:13:24 > 0:13:27is a reconstruction of the Globe Theatre, the theatre
0:13:27 > 0:13:32Shakespeare himself helped to pay for when it was built in 1599.
0:13:34 > 0:13:36In Shakespeare's time more than 200,000 people
0:13:36 > 0:13:38lived in London.
0:13:38 > 0:13:4120,000 of them would go to the theatre every week,
0:13:41 > 0:13:44despite the weather, which gives you an idea of how popular it was.
0:13:44 > 0:13:47Even in the wind and the rain, it didn't matter
0:13:47 > 0:13:50if you were rich or poor - everybody wanted to go to the theatre
0:13:50 > 0:13:54because it was the most exciting entertainment of its day.
0:13:58 > 0:14:00See how she leans her cheek upon her hand.
0:14:01 > 0:14:04Ow!
0:14:04 > 0:14:10That I were a glove upon that hand that I might touch that cheek.
0:14:10 > 0:14:13Theatres were open to the elements
0:14:13 > 0:14:18but even if it snowed, plays made fantastic things seem real.
0:14:18 > 0:14:20Londoners couldn't get enough of it.
0:14:22 > 0:14:26- So here we are.- It's magnificent. - This is The Globe.
0:14:26 > 0:14:31- It's amazing.- Bigger than you thought?- It is.- Amazing, isn't it?
0:14:31 > 0:14:35In Shakespeare's day it may have held up to 3,000 people.
0:14:35 > 0:14:37Love looks not with the eyes but with the mind.
0:14:37 > 0:14:41And therefore is winged cupid painted blind.
0:14:41 > 0:14:44We have 600, 700 people standing in this yard, there's
0:14:44 > 0:14:47a fantastic atmosphere, because when you stand you have all this energy.
0:14:47 > 0:14:51That's why children sit at desks at school, to stop them having energy,
0:14:51 > 0:14:54so when you stand you've got quite an uncontrollable energy, so people
0:14:54 > 0:14:58didn't stand like this as if they were at church, they moved around.
0:14:58 > 0:15:01And they allowed their emotions to go.
0:15:03 > 0:15:07Just like the modern theatre, how comfortable you were and what sort
0:15:07 > 0:15:11of view you had depended on how much money you could afford to spend.
0:15:12 > 0:15:13Who would be down here?
0:15:13 > 0:15:16Shakespeare called them the groundlings and they paid
0:15:16 > 0:15:19a penny and they stood on the ground they were ground-ling.
0:15:19 > 0:15:21That was the cheapest place,
0:15:21 > 0:15:24probably the equivalent of £6 or £7 today, so even cheaper
0:15:24 > 0:15:28than going to the cinema, so this was real popular entertainment.
0:15:28 > 0:15:31It was like a game. It was a play house, it was a house for play.
0:15:34 > 0:15:36So it was quite cool
0:15:36 > 0:15:39Sometimes in theatres you see classes of children
0:15:39 > 0:15:42and they're thinking, "How can I get out without my teacher noticing?"
0:15:42 > 0:15:44In Shakespeare's day it was,
0:15:44 > 0:15:47"How can I get IN without my teacher noticing?"
0:15:47 > 0:15:49Who else would be filling the seats in the theatre?
0:15:49 > 0:15:52As you went higher up you paid more money.
0:15:52 > 0:15:56At the top you were actually removed from the smelly yard.
0:15:56 > 0:15:59Sometimes the groundlings were called penny stinkards,
0:15:59 > 0:16:02so the higher you went, the higher you were in society.
0:16:02 > 0:16:05But the most expensive seats were up there,
0:16:05 > 0:16:07what we call the lords' rooms.
0:16:07 > 0:16:09The audience were allowed to sit behind the stage?
0:16:09 > 0:16:11Wouldn't they just get the view of an actor's head?
0:16:11 > 0:16:15They might do but the point is they could be seen.
0:16:15 > 0:16:18- They were showing off!- There was a bit of showing off.
0:16:19 > 0:16:21All the actors who worked at the Globe
0:16:21 > 0:16:25were known as the Lord Chamberlain's Men when Elizabeth I was alive.
0:16:25 > 0:16:30When she died and James VI of Scotland became James I of England,
0:16:30 > 0:16:31they changed their name to the King's Men.
0:16:31 > 0:16:35And that's the thing - they were just men, all of them.
0:16:35 > 0:16:38Women didn't act in Shakespeare's day - it was thought to be
0:16:38 > 0:16:40unladylike and just not done.
0:16:40 > 0:16:44But that meant all the women's parts were played by men.
0:16:44 > 0:16:47So how did the men play women's parts?
0:16:47 > 0:16:49Well, I'm about to find out.
0:16:49 > 0:16:51We need to sit you down first of all.
0:16:51 > 0:16:55The stockings will fall down if we don't add something to them.
0:16:55 > 0:16:57They've got no elastic.
0:16:57 > 0:16:59A cross-garter. Under your knee, over the knee
0:16:59 > 0:17:02and then ties on.
0:17:02 > 0:17:04- A pair of shoes.- Yeah.
0:17:04 > 0:17:06These are deerskin with a pattern on them.
0:17:06 > 0:17:08One of the shape-changers.
0:17:08 > 0:17:10It actually gives you a false figure.
0:17:10 > 0:17:12It's not very feminine.
0:17:12 > 0:17:14- This is bizarre! - Hips and bum.- Hips and bum.
0:17:14 > 0:17:16OK, give me my bum.
0:17:20 > 0:17:22- This will make a conical shape.- OK.
0:17:22 > 0:17:23We've got a petticoat going on.
0:17:26 > 0:17:28This is called a partlet.
0:17:28 > 0:17:29Partlet. OK.
0:17:29 > 0:17:31It's got a bit of lace trimming on it.
0:17:31 > 0:17:33Waistcoat. Sounds manly.
0:17:34 > 0:17:35Oh, my goodness!
0:17:35 > 0:17:38You've been working out, haven't you?
0:17:38 > 0:17:39You can get away with using this.
0:17:39 > 0:17:42I think it will create the look.
0:17:43 > 0:17:45Ricky...
0:17:46 > 0:17:47There you go.
0:17:47 > 0:17:49I'm dying to see how I look.
0:17:50 > 0:17:51HE LAUGHS
0:17:51 > 0:17:54It's not a perfect fit.
0:17:54 > 0:17:56It's not. I'm not sure about the hat.
0:17:56 > 0:17:57I think I'd prefer a wig.
0:17:57 > 0:18:00Just like today when we watch TV and movies,
0:18:00 > 0:18:04Shakespeare's audiences wanted to see amazing things happen.
0:18:04 > 0:18:07For I must now to Oberon.
0:18:07 > 0:18:09CYMBAL REVERBERATES
0:18:09 > 0:18:11LAUGHTER
0:18:11 > 0:18:14If you're sitting somewhere like where we are now, you can't
0:18:14 > 0:18:16really see that there's a trap door in the ceiling.
0:18:16 > 0:18:20When shall we three meet again?
0:18:20 > 0:18:22You can't really see that there's a trap door in the floor.
0:18:25 > 0:18:29So if some devils emerge from the hell area underneath the stage,
0:18:29 > 0:18:34they'd emerge with a puff of smoke and loud banging noises.
0:18:34 > 0:18:38Or you might see a god being lowered from the stage canopy and that
0:18:38 > 0:18:42would be quite spectacular as well, with fantastic costumes and make-up.
0:18:42 > 0:18:46Shakespeare's plays at the Globe were as much about showmanship
0:18:46 > 0:18:51and excitement as they were about beautiful writing and great stories.
0:18:51 > 0:18:54The amazing thing about Shakespeare is we've got these great big books
0:18:54 > 0:18:58full of plays and I sometimes think it's like you've got a special
0:18:58 > 0:19:02magnifying glass where you can look into this time in the past and see
0:19:02 > 0:19:06how people thought and behaved. You can come to a place like this
0:19:06 > 0:19:09and see it acted out in front of you.
0:19:09 > 0:19:11Hail, King of Scotland!
0:19:11 > 0:19:15- ALL:- Hail, King of Scotland!
0:19:15 > 0:19:17I think it's pure magic.
0:19:18 > 0:19:22Suppose you were creating a theatre in Shakespeare's time.
0:19:22 > 0:19:25What would it look like? How would the actors appear and disappear?
0:19:25 > 0:19:28What other special effects would you have?
0:19:28 > 0:19:29Why not give it a go?
0:19:29 > 0:19:32Grab some paper and a pencil and, just like Shakespeare,
0:19:32 > 0:19:34let your imagination rip.
0:19:36 > 0:19:37CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
0:19:41 > 0:19:45Shakespeare wrote the play Romeo and Juliet early in his career.
0:19:45 > 0:19:49It was one of his most popular plays throughout his lifetime.
0:19:49 > 0:19:52First performed in London in the winter of 1594,
0:19:52 > 0:19:56it's the story of young lovers who are doomed to die.
0:19:56 > 0:20:03My true love is grown to such excess I cannot sum up half my worth...
0:20:03 > 0:20:08I find sometimes when I watch Romeo and Juliet I feel so sad.
0:20:08 > 0:20:12For never was a story of more woe than this of Juliet
0:20:12 > 0:20:14and her Romeo.
0:20:14 > 0:20:18Because I think at the heart of it is a girl who is brave
0:20:18 > 0:20:19and courageous...
0:20:19 > 0:20:21Romeo, Romeo.
0:20:23 > 0:20:29And she's prepared to do things even though everybody has told her
0:20:29 > 0:20:32that she mustn't because she loves somebody.
0:20:35 > 0:20:37LAUGHTER
0:20:40 > 0:20:44The saints do not move though grant for prayer's sake.
0:20:44 > 0:20:46Then move not, while my prayer's effect I take.
0:20:48 > 0:20:51AUDIENCE: Oooh!
0:20:51 > 0:20:53LAUGHTER
0:20:53 > 0:20:55They are from opposing families in Verona,
0:20:55 > 0:20:59the Montagues and the Capulets are at daggers drawn.
0:20:59 > 0:21:01The Montagues...
0:21:03 > 0:21:05Start!
0:21:08 > 0:21:11And Romeo and his friends gatecrash a Capulet party.
0:21:13 > 0:21:15What lady's that which did enrich the hand of yonder knight?
0:21:15 > 0:21:19Where he sees Juliet and falls in love at first sight.
0:21:19 > 0:21:22Ah, she doth teach the torches to burn bright!
0:21:22 > 0:21:25Romeo's a bit older and they decide secretly to get married.
0:21:27 > 0:21:30Come, come with me
0:21:30 > 0:21:32and we will make short work for by your leaves you shall not
0:21:32 > 0:21:34stay alone...
0:21:34 > 0:21:36LAUGHTER
0:21:36 > 0:21:39..till holy church incorporates two in one.
0:21:43 > 0:21:48Romeo fights with Juliet's cousin, Tybalt, and he's banished,
0:21:48 > 0:21:51but not before he manages to spend his wedding night with Juliet
0:21:51 > 0:21:53and leaves in the early hours of the morning.
0:21:53 > 0:21:56She's forced into another marriage to a man she doesn't
0:21:56 > 0:21:57want to marry by her father.
0:22:11 > 0:22:14And she agrees to do this but manages to escape
0:22:14 > 0:22:18through taking a potion, which makes it look like she's died.
0:22:29 > 0:22:31She's buried in the family vault.
0:22:31 > 0:22:33Romeo, in his banishment, hears that she's died,
0:22:33 > 0:22:37comes back, intends to kill himself, sees his dead Juliet.
0:22:41 > 0:22:43He thinks she's dead, kills himself.
0:22:53 > 0:22:57She wakes up, finds Romeo dead, and kills herself.
0:23:10 > 0:23:11The families come back together again
0:23:11 > 0:23:15because they are so devastated at the waste of young life.
0:23:15 > 0:23:18I will raise her statue in pure gold that
0:23:18 > 0:23:23while Verona is by that name known, there shall no figure at such
0:23:23 > 0:23:28rate be set as that of true and faithful Juliet.
0:23:28 > 0:23:33So this is a play about what should young people be allowed to do.
0:23:33 > 0:23:36Tell me, daughter, Juliet.
0:23:43 > 0:23:47So part of it is to say, it's the older people,
0:23:47 > 0:23:51the mums and dads in the play, who are wrong
0:23:51 > 0:23:55because they try to control the feelings of their children.
0:23:55 > 0:23:57Therefore stay yet.
0:23:57 > 0:23:59Here's a challenge for you.
0:23:59 > 0:24:02Suppose you're a 21st-century news reporter
0:24:02 > 0:24:04in the time of Romeo and Juliet.
0:24:04 > 0:24:06How would you tell their story?
0:24:06 > 0:24:08Pretend you're writing it for the Newsround website.
0:24:08 > 0:24:10You'll need to get all the background of the Montagues
0:24:10 > 0:24:12not getting on with the Capulets
0:24:12 > 0:24:16and explain how it ends in the terrible deaths of the young lovers.
0:24:16 > 0:24:19Come up with a grabby headline - something like...
0:24:22 > 0:24:26Or maybe love story ends in teen tragedy?
0:24:26 > 0:24:27Or that. Have fun.
0:24:30 > 0:24:32- It's really good.- It's very important how you deliver...
0:24:37 > 0:24:40A Midsummer Night's Dream was much loved by Tudor audiences
0:24:40 > 0:24:41and it was a massive hit.
0:24:41 > 0:24:45It was fast and funny and a brilliant example of what
0:24:45 > 0:24:48we would call today a romantic comedy or a romcom.
0:24:48 > 0:24:52It also took place in a world which lots of Tudor people really
0:24:52 > 0:24:56believed in, a world of sprites and fairies,
0:24:56 > 0:25:00some of whom loved nothing more than playing practical jokes on humans.
0:25:00 > 0:25:03THEY SING
0:25:03 > 0:25:06In A Midsummer Night's Dream there are four lovers.
0:25:06 > 0:25:08But it's all a bit confusing.
0:25:08 > 0:25:13Demetrius loves Hermia but Hermia loves Lysander.
0:25:13 > 0:25:16Hermia's dad wants her to marry Demetrius
0:25:16 > 0:25:18but Hermia has other ideas.
0:25:18 > 0:25:20This makes Hermia's dad really cross
0:25:20 > 0:25:22and he goes to complain to the Duke about Lysander.
0:25:29 > 0:25:33Lysander does not want to know and comes up with his own solution.
0:25:40 > 0:25:41Then there's Helena.
0:25:41 > 0:25:45Helena was engaged to Demetrius but Demetrius dumped her.
0:25:45 > 0:25:49But unfortunately Helena is still madly in love with Demetrius
0:25:49 > 0:25:51and Lysander knows this.
0:25:59 > 0:26:02Hermia and Lysander decide to make a break for it
0:26:02 > 0:26:04so they run off into the woods together.
0:26:13 > 0:26:17Anyway, before all of this happened, Oberon, king of the fairies
0:26:17 > 0:26:21and his wife, Titania, have an enormous row and Oberon
0:26:21 > 0:26:24decides to play a trick on Titania.
0:26:24 > 0:26:28He orders his hobgoblin Puck to prepare for some magic.
0:26:28 > 0:26:29Fetch me that flower.
0:26:44 > 0:26:47I'll put a girdle round about the earth in 40 minutes!
0:26:47 > 0:26:49Now it gets even more complicated
0:26:49 > 0:26:51because there are some other people in the woods.
0:26:51 > 0:26:54This is a group of working men who are planning to put on a play
0:26:54 > 0:26:57and deciding who will play all the parts.
0:26:57 > 0:26:58One of these men is called...
0:26:58 > 0:27:01Nick Bottom, the weaver.
0:27:01 > 0:27:05Ready. Name what part I am for, and proceed.
0:27:05 > 0:27:10You, Nick Bottom, are set down for Pyramus.
0:27:10 > 0:27:13SHOUTING
0:27:22 > 0:27:24What is Pyramus?
0:27:24 > 0:27:25LAUGHTER
0:27:25 > 0:27:29Oberon overhears Helena saying how sad she is that Demetrius
0:27:29 > 0:27:31doesn't love her and he decides to help her out.
0:27:31 > 0:27:34With the magic potion made from the special flower
0:27:34 > 0:27:38he can help Demetrius change his mind.
0:27:44 > 0:27:48Unfortunately, Puck makes a right mess of it and puts
0:27:48 > 0:27:53the potion on Lysander's eyes who then falls in love with Helena.
0:27:53 > 0:27:58Oberon puts the potion on Demetrius' eyes and he realises he is madly
0:27:58 > 0:28:01in love with Helena - so now she's got both of them chasing her.
0:28:01 > 0:28:06Have you not set Lysander to follow me and praise my eyes and face?
0:28:06 > 0:28:09And made your other love, Demetrius...
0:28:09 > 0:28:10LAUGHTER
0:28:10 > 0:28:12And then, to keep Oberon happy,
0:28:12 > 0:28:15Puck gives Nick Bottom a donkey's head.
0:28:26 > 0:28:29Then Oberon puts some of the love potion on Titania's eyes
0:28:29 > 0:28:30so when she wakes up
0:28:30 > 0:28:34and sees Nick Bottom with a donkey's head, she falls in love with him.
0:28:43 > 0:28:46It is a complete mess but Oberon
0:28:46 > 0:28:50starts to feel sorry for Titania so he breaks the spell
0:28:50 > 0:28:51that he put on her to make her
0:28:51 > 0:28:55fall in love with Bottom, and he orders Puck to make everything right.
0:29:07 > 0:29:11Oh, and by the way, Nick Bottom is turned back into a man again.