For audio and visual access, watch a narration of this synopsis. 

THE PROPHECY

Macbeth and Banquo, Scottish generals in King Duncan’s army, are returning victorious from battle. They are hailed by three witches who predict that Macbeth will become Thane of Cawdor and then King of Scotland. They tell Banquo that his descendants will one day be kings. The first part of the prophecy is fulfilled instantly when Duncan rewards Macbeth's loyalty by making him Thane of Cawdor. Macbeth expresses his ambition and confusion when King Duncan names his son Malcolm as his heir.

BECOMING KING

 In Macbeth’s castle, Lady Macbeth reads a letter from her husband about the witches’ prophecy. Encouraged and inspired, she calls on the ‘spirits’ to make her strong enough to persuade Macbeth to murder Duncan while he is a guest at their castle. Macbeth has doubts but goaded by his wife, murders the elderly king in his sleep and frames his guards for the crime. Duncan's sons flee to England for safety but Banquo and fellow lord, Macduff, are suspicious of Macbeth who is crowned king, and his wife, Queen.

A SECOND VISIT

 After Duncan’s murder, the childless Macbeth starts to unravel and grow distant from his wife. Fearing that the witches’ prophecy about Banquo will come true, Macbeth has Banquo murdered to secure his position as king but Banquo's son, Fleance, escapes. After Banquo's ghost appears to him at a banquet, Macbeth visits the witches again for reassurance. They tell him he will not be beaten until ‘Burnham wood comes to Dunsinane’. They also warn him to beware of Macduff, who has also fled to England, but tell him that he cannot be harmed by any man born of woman. Macbeth is encouraged but orders the murder of Macduff's wife and children.

TEST OF LOYALTY

 In England, word of the ‘sickness’ in Scotland has spread and Macduff asks for Malcom’s help to overthrow Macbeth. Malcolm tests Macduff's loyalty by pretending he is not worthy of being king. In a tragic scene,  Macduff hears that Macbeth has murdered his entire family in his absence. Malcolm urges him to use his grief to fight and together, they raise an army to march against Macbeth.

THE PROPHECY COLLAPSES

In his castle, Macbeth, armed with the witches' prophecy, believes that he is invincible. But, as his enemies draw nearer, Macbeth learns that his wife has killed herself. Malcom’s army cut down trees to hide their numbers and Macbeth sees Birnham Wood move towards his castle. He puts on his armour, prepares to fight and when Macduff appears, Macbeth boasts that none of woman born can kill him. Macduff then declares that he was born by Caesarian section (i.e. not 'born of woman'), Macbeth realises the witches have tricked him from the start. He refuses to fight but Macduff pursues him, eventually killing Macbeth. Malcolm is crowned King of Scotland in an ending that suggests hope and healing for the land.

For audio and visual access, watch a narration of this activity. 

“Our director and designer found so many references to the weather and the environment in the text and that wasn’t something they wanted to skip over. This world was crumbling, and this country was in a state of demise and that needed to be reflected in our production. It felt very timely.”

- Lizzie Manwaring, Assistant Director, Macbeth, RSC 2023

This writing and performance activity allows students to explore the story by creating their own world for the play, exploring how specific locations affect key scenes. They can then test these locations out in performance. (It’s best suited to a hall but can be done in a classroom. You will need pens, paper and Resource A: Macbeth in 10 Plot Points from the bottom of this page). 

•  As a group, list the locations that appear in Shakespeare’s Macbeth. Eg: a wild Scottish heath, Macbeth’s Castle, an English Battlefield. Discuss why Shakespeare chose these locations and what they add to the play and its themes.
• Organise your students into groups of 3 or 4 and hand each group paper, pens and a Plot Point from Resource A (groups may use the same point or you might leave some out depending on class size).
• Explain that the groups have 10 minutes to invent ONE location to set their Plot Point in. Encourage them to be as imaginative as they like but their choices must reflect the mood and themes of the play at this moment.
• Ask them to consider:
  • Whether their location is set in the past, present or future.
  • Is it a familiar place that has been ruined or destroyed in some way?
  • What are the new rules of this place? What are the dangers?
•  Give your groups some extra time to rehearse their Plot Point for performance. Encourage them to add narration or sound effects to make the action and location clear.
• Invite your groups to perform their Plot Points in order of how they appear in the play. When all have been performed, invite each group to present their location notes and drawings and answer any questions:
  • Which locations really worked and why?
  • Which locations would be easy or difficult to stage?
  • Did any groups choose similar locations? Could these be developed into the same production, set in the same world?

Reflection Point:

Collect some current newspaper headlines. Shakespeare used important events of his time to inform his writing of Macbeth, including the Gunpowder Plot and bubonic plague. Which headlines might belong to the worlds and locations created in the last activity? How might they reflect the themes in your version of Macbeth? Eg:

• Reports of political or social unrest?
• News about environmental changes or disasters?
• Examples of important figures lying to or misleading the public?

For audio and visual access, watch a narration of this activity.

“We broke every single scene into ‘events’. An ‘event' is a moment which changes everything for every character. For example, when Duncan announces the succession will lie upon Malcolm, there is a temperature shift onstage. There are usually multiple events in a scene. It’s really important to play these so the audience knows what information to latch onto.”

- Lizzie Manwaring, Assistant Director, Macbeth, RSC 2023

This writing and performance activity, in two parts, allows students to explore a specific scene from the play as we did in rehearsal. Experiencing the action from several different perspectives will give them an idea of ‘ensemble playing’ and illustrate how preparation can fuel the conflict of the play. (It is best suited to a hall or large classroom. You will need pens, paper and Resource B: Act 1, Scene 4 - edited from the bottom of this page. There is a primary edit of this scene for younger students.)

Part A: My Personal POV.

• Organise your students into pairs and hand out Resource B, pens and paper. Ask your pairs to find a space in the room, stand back-to-back and read the scene out loud, taking one speech at a time.
• Then discuss as a whole group:
  • Where might this scene take place? Where have the characters just come from and what has just happened?
  • Who has the greatest status in this scene? Who has the lowest?
  • How many ‘attendants’ might Duncan have and what are their roles?
• Ask your pairs to complete the list of ‘events’ in the underlined sectioned, taking their clues from the lines to decide what is happening in the scene.
• Now give each student one character from the scene (including servants, attendants, knights, bodyguards, grooms etc) and explain that they each have ten minutes to write two short paragraphs:

1. A brief backstory to their character. Eg: what role they have, how they got their position, who are they loyal to, who have they met before, do they know the Macbeths or is this their first time to the castle?

• The ‘events' they notice during this scene. Eg: how people are dressed, their behaviour, how they greet each other, what is the castle like, where is the power?

• Invite volunteer pairs to read their work. Discuss the following:
  • What extra ‘events’ have we noticed in this scene? Are there events that certain characters noticed in particular?
  • How much do actors need to know about their characters?
  • What does this preparation work add to the drama of a scene?

Part B: Ensemble Playing

• Organise your students into groups of 8 or 10 and ask them to cast the scene within the group, making sure everyone has a role (these roles may be different to the ones they have just written about).
• Ask them to appoint a director from the non-speaking parts. This director must listen to everyone’s ideas and finalise all decisions so that no character’s point of view gets left out.
• Explain that they have ten minutes to stage this scene, concentrating on the following:
  • What has happened to everyone immediately before this scene.
  • Where and when the scene is set and what is the weather like?
  • How everyone enters and exits and in which order.
  • How they greet each other? Is there a certain saying or gesture they use?
  • Is Duncan old or young, well or ill?
  • Where each character stands in the scene and if they move at any point.
  • What ‘events’ need to be noticed by the audience in this scene. How can certain characters direct the audience’s attention to these moments?
• Invite your groups to perform their scenes and discuss any similarities or differences. Which specific events stood out and why? Which characters have different memories of this scene and why might this be?

For audio and visual access, watch a narration of this activity. 

“Shakespeare lost his son, Hamnet, quite close to writing Macbeth so there is a sense of grief in the play that we wanted to hold on to as an anchor for their relationship. Wils, our director, explored this though improvisations. We had loads of props in the rehearsal room so we could say: ‘let’s use some pots and pans in this or let’s write letters to each other.’”

- Lizzie Manwaring, Assistant Director, Macbeth, RSC 2023

This physical activity in 2 parts allows students to explore the dynamics of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth’s relationship from an actor’s perspective. The first part uses rehearsal room techniques to explore power and connection. The second part builds on physical images and Shakespeare’s text to explore motive and subtext. (It is best suited to a hall. You will need pens & Resource C: The Macbeths - edited scenes from the bottom of the page).

Part A) Who’s Leading Who?

•  Ask your students to get into pairs, decide who is A and who is B and to find a space in the room, face to face.
• Explain that A is to imagine they are facing themselves in a large mirror and B is their refection. When A begins to move, B is to copy their movements exactly. Encourage them to start small and slow with these movements.
• After a few minutes, ask them to swap over so A becomes B’s reflection. After a few more minutes, challenge them to continue to swap leadership back and forth but silently. Can they become so in tune with each other’s movements, they lose sight of who is leading who?
•  Now ask the pairs to stand palm to palm and take turns leading each other around the room. Encourage them to swap leadership back and forth as before and to experiment with fighting against this leadership by pushing against their partner’s palm.
• Discuss the activity as a whole group. What was it like to lead or follow? What were the changes of leadership like? Smooth, difficult, frustrating? Did they feel themselves changing character at all? Eg: becoming younger or older, developing relationships such as parent & child or master or servant?

Part B) A MARRIAGE IN FOUR STAGES

• Give each pair a copy of Resource C and a pen. Explain that these four scenes represent four important stages in the Macbeths’ relationship. Ask the pairs to read the short scenes between them and write down any words to describe what has changed in each one. Where does the power lie? Who is in control? Does this change and why?
•  Now ask the pairs to partner up so they form groups of 4 (or 5s if you have a spare pair). Give each group ten minutes to create a frozen image or tableau to represent each of the four stages in the relationship.
• Encourage these images to be as imaginative as possible and to include possible details from the Macbeths’ backstory. Eg: How they met, the child the couple have lost, their love & ambition for each other, the witches, madness?
• Challenge each group to use spoken lines in each image and to decide if they are said by the Macbeths themselves, by other characters or chorally by the group.
• Give the groups a few more minutes to find a creative way to move from one tableau to the next. The transitions can be as simple or as elaborate as they wish and can include details, lines or repeated words from other scenes.
• Invite each group to share their Marriage in Four Stages and discuss the results. Were there any repeated images? If so, what does this tell us about the two characters? Did any group include a supernatural influence? If so, how did it affect the relationship?
•  Ask your groups to reform and create one final image representing the last stage in the Macbeths’ relationship. This can include what they know of the play or be something of their own invention. Invite the groups to share these final images.

Reflection Point:

What can we tell about people and their relationships from what they don’t say? What visual examples are there in our modern world of unspoken power or closeness? Examples might be:

• Donald Trump walking in front of Queen Elizabeth II in his 2018 UK visit.
• Kate Middleton patting Prince William’s bottom at the 2023 BAFTAS
• The kiss that Luis Rubiales, president of the Spanish football federation, gave Jenni Hermoso, after the 2023 World Cup final. 

For audio and visual access, watch a narration of this activity.

“Macbeth is a male-heavy play and we wanted to normalise women in this world. It would feel really wrong in this imagined future not to have women in positions of power and explore what new relationships this creates. It’s important not to glimpse over what any potential relationship is. The text is like a word search to discover new things.”

- Lizzie Manwaring, Assistant Director, Macbeth, RSC 2023

This writing activity allows students to create their very own scene for Macbeth. They will explore the relationships between characters that never or barely meet onstage but whose fates are significantly linked. It will also encourage them to develop their own language to reflect their character’s inner needs and conflict. (You will need Resource D: Character Study from the bottom of this page, paper & pens.]

•  Organise your students into pairs and hand each pair one character from Resource D & pens. Ask the pair to work together and list everything they know about their character from the play.
• Now ask them to invent as much extra information about their character as they can in ten minutes. Prompt questions might be:
  • Where were they born?
  • Who are they closest to?
  • What do they most fear?
  • What is their greatest desire?
  • What was the happiest and saddest moment of their life?
•  Repeat this with another character from the list. (If you are short of time or the students require more support, ask pairs with different characters to join up.)
• Explain they now have fifteen minutes to write a short scene where these two characters meet. Encourage them to consider the following:
  • What do these two people think of each other?
  • Where is this meeting? Choose somewhere that makes the scene more interesting or more challenging for one character than the other. Eg: the porter visiting Duncan’s castle for a job interview.
  • Is this their first meeting or does it follow a specific moment in the play?
  • How have they prepared for this meeting? Have they dressed to impress?
  • What can add to the tension in the scene? Eg: Does Lady Macbeth meet Lady Macduff accompanied by all her children? How would this affect both women?
•  Encourage your pairs or groups to use different methods to create their scene, such as:
  • Planning the beginning, middle and end. Why do they meet, what happens, how must it end?
  • Deciding what both characters want from each other and if they get it.
  • Deciding how they want this scene to affect the audience?
  • Improvising the meeting in character, writing down any lines. They can rewrite these afterwards to make them sharper, funnier or more powerful.
  • Using stage directions where needed.
•  When the scenes are written, invite your pairs to take turns reading their scene to another group and ask for any positive feedback: Are there any lines that could be rewritten or cut? Any moments that could be more dramatic?
•  After this feedback, give the pairs a few more minutes to work on their scenes then invite them to read draft 2 to the whole group. Discuss these changes.
• If you have extra time, they could swap and perform each other’s scenes with props and costumes if you have access to them.

Reflection Point:

In our 2023 production, all of these five characters are played by women. How might this change of gender affect the relationships in the play? Eg: Duncan as Queen of Scotland, Macbeth murdering a woman. Banquo as a female soldier and friend of Macbeth. A female porter joking with male lords. Does gender change our notions of friendship, leadership or class? How different are these views in modern times compared to Shakespeare’s world, 400 years ago? 

For audio and visual access, watch a narration of this activity.

“The best part of theatre is going to the bar afterwards to discuss what you’ve just seen. I hope the audience discuss that final moment in our production (the witches turning to Fleance) and ask: ‘Does that mean Fleance is going to kill Malcolm? What does this mean? How is he going to ascend to power?”

- Lizzie Manwaring, Assistant Director, Macbeth, RSC 2023

This physical and writing activity allows students to study the motives of the most ambitious characters in the play, exploring performance beyond words and ways of making the text theatrical. (You will need: a large, clear space, copies of Resource E: Ambitions from the bottom of this page, pens.)

•  Ask your students to get into pairs and hand out copies of Resource E. Explain that these are speeches from four characters who show a sense of ambition in Macbeth.
• Give your pairs ten minutes to read the speeches out loud to each other and fill in whatever ambitions they think this character has, together with any evidence in the text and from what they know of the play.
• Now ask your pairs to create images to illustrate each of the four characters, as if the images were statues of 'ambition’ in a city square.
• Invite the pairs to share their written results and compare statues. Does any character have positive ambitions? Which characters act on them? What are the consequences of these actions? Who do they affect? Are there any other examples of ambition in the play?
•  Now organise your students into four larger groups and give each group one of the characters to work on.
• Explain that they have 15 minutes to create a short presentation of their character’s ambitions using any theatrical style they choose. Eg: tableaus, mime, movement or dance. Encourage them to experiment with the text: speaking as a chorus, repeating key words, using rhythm, adding or writing additional text.
• Remind the groups to consider the consequences of their character’s ambitions, how they act or do not act on them, who they affect in the play. How might they incorporate these things in their performance?
•  Invite your groups to share their presentations of ‘ambition’.

Reflection Point:

Ask your students to think of examples of ambitious individuals in the modern world and whether their ambitions have a positive or negative impact on them or on society. Examples might be:

• Greta Thunberg
• Boris Johnson
• Donald Trump
• Kim Kardashian
• Elon Musk

Discuss how the press and social media treat these individuals. Why do good ambitions sometimes attract bad press or trolls? How do people with questionable or harmful ambitions find success? Does a person’s gender, age or class change how we respond to their ambition?

Which Shakespeare characters are these modern examples most like? Who is our modern Lady Macbeth? Or Iago?

For audio and visual access, watch a narration of this activity. 

This physical & writing activity, in two parts, gives students an opportunity to deep dive into Macbeth’s ‘vaulting ambition’ and the fall that follows it. (It’s best suited to a large hall or clear classroom. You will need paper & pens.)

Part A) Corridor of Conscience

This physical activity explores the ambitions and motives of Macbeth by allowing students to work on each other’s morality in the same way the characters do. (This is best suited to a big hall or clear classroom.)

•  Organise your students in two lines facing each other like a long corridor across the room, with enough space for one person to walk through the corridor and ask them to sit down.
• Explain that one line is Macbeth’s Ambition (who wants him to kill Duncan) and the other side is his Conscience (who does not).
• As a whole group, brainstorm reasons why Macbeth thinks he should murder Duncan (eg: the witches’ prophecy, his wife has planned the murder) and reasons why Macbeth thinks he should not murder Duncan (eg: Duncan is a God-appointed king, Macbeth is his host and subject).
• Ask for two volunteers to play Macbeth and King Duncan and ask them to stand at opposite ends of the corridor. Explain that if Macbeth hears a persuasive reason to murder Duncan, they must take a step forward towards Duncan and if he hears a good reason why he shouldn’t murder the king, they must take a step back.
• If Macbeth makes it to Duncan, they are to touch him on the shoulder and Duncan must say “Sleep no more” and fall to his death dramatically. You may then recast your Macbeth and Duncan and start another game. If Macbeth does not make it to Duncan after 5 minutes, end the game and recast.
• Encourage your corridor of Conscience and Ambition to think of as many reasons as possible and to wait until Macbeth is near them to voice their reason. They must remain seated and not touch Macbeth. Remind them if everyone shouts out together, Macbeth will not hear.
• After each game, ask your Macbeth which reasons made them move back or forward. What are the most powerful things their Ambition or Conscience can say to make Macbeth move either way? What does this say about Macbeth as a character? 

Part B) Trial of a Hero

This writing activity gives students an opportunity to put the motives they used in Part A into words and explore the consequences of ambition in the play.

• Hand out paper and pens and explain that Macbeth is now on trial. The students in the Conscience line from Part A are his prosecution lawyers. They think Macbeth is guilty of murder and could have stopped his crimes at any time. The students in the Ambition line are Macbeth’s defence lawyers who consider him innocent, a man driven to evil by other things or people.
• Organise your lawyers into pairs so they can work together on writing a short paragraph defending or prosecuting their client.
• Encourage the lawyers to consider all the motives and influences mentioned in Part A. Can they think of any additional details from the play that might prove Macbeth’s guilt or innocence?
•  Invite some pairs to deliver their prosecution or defence speeches to the rest of the group.

Reflection Point:

Gather some modern examples of people who have committed high profile crimes (you can pre-choose examples from history, such as the Gunpowder Plot, to make these age appropriate). As a group, list anything that is known about the individuals responsible. Eg - their backgrounds, their circumstances, their influences.

Discuss the following:

• Can a person’s experiences ever excuse their behaviour? What about their state of mind or beliefs?
• What are the differences between a crime of passion and one that is planned?
• Can others be guilty of a crime, even if they did not commit it personally? What examples are there of this in modern life?

For audio and visual access, watch a narration of this activity.

“There was one time when Reuben (playing Macbeth) started flipping a stool and the sound of it, the knocking against your head… It felt like a physical manifestation of what was going on within him, that then spiraled into him tipping up the place. As an actor, use what’s in front of you, never lose the sense of creativity, curiosity and imagination.”

- Lizzie Manwaring, Assistant Director, Macbeth, RSC 2023

The following physical and writing activity allows students to explore the unsettling world the characters are in through the methods our movement director, Julia Cheng, used in rehearsal. (It is best suited to a large hall or clear classroom. Pens & paper. If possible, use a variety of music to inspire your students as they move. Eg: film soundtracks, classical tracks, different tempos, moods, etc.

•  Organise your students into pairs. Ask the pairs to face each other and place one palm against the palm of their partner. Challenge them, without speaking, to establish who is leading and who is following with a gentle ‘push/pull’ between their palms.
• Invite your pairs to move around the room, palm to palm, without speaking or colliding with other pairs. Challenge them to swap who leads by following the elasticity of the ‘push/pull’. Alternatively, this activity can be done on the spot, using just palms or holding a length of material between them and exploring a smaller space in detail.
• Now get your students into groups of 3. Ask them to repeat the exercise but with one person using both hands, the other two using one hand. Can they find this push/pull movement as before? Is it harder with 3 people or easier? Again, this step can be done on the spot to explore the shifts of movement and leadership in detail.
• Next, organise your students into larger groups of 8-10 and ask them to connect palm to palm (some can use both hands so it’s more of a group ‘creature’, not one long chain). Ask them to move as one ‘creature’, to find a fluidity, a smoothness as they try to cross the room.
• Challenge the ‘creature' with different ways of moving, such as:
  • getting as low as possible, dropping their centre of gravity
  • responding to different tempos: fast and slow
  • nominating leaders to safely steer everyone across the room
•  Now ask your students to get back into pairs and travel across the space back-to-back, remaining in contact at all times. Repeat this with two pairs only, whilst the others move as fast as possible around the space (without running). Encourage them to do this as safely as possible, remaining aware of each other. Alternatively, students can explore this without moving across the room, by connecting with their partner through just their backs or with different parts of the body, shoulders, elbows or knees.
• Discuss how the different pairs felt, being surrounded by this movement. Which words best describe these feelings?
•  Ask your students to imagine they are a surviving soldier from Duncan’s war. Give them 5 minutes to write their feelings down about the ‘battle’ they have just fought in. Encourage them to use their senses to inform their writing: what did they smell? Hear? Feel? See? Ask your students to swap paragraphs with someone else and invite volunteers to read out each other’s work.

Reflection Point:

• Discuss as a whole group, the meaning of ‘shell shock’ and ‘PTSD’. What are the common symptoms? What could cause this type of experience? Are we more aware of this type of trauma today, compared to in Shakespeare’s time or even 50 years ago?
•  Ask your students to research any written accounts of shell shock from war veterans and ask volunteers to share or read out any examples they find.
• Do they notice any common words or feelings used in these accounts? Does any imagery get used in the descriptions such as: Animals? Nature? The supernatural?

For audio and visual access, watch a narration of this activity. 

“One thing we did was translate the text into modern English to make sure that we always understood what was saying, then we went back and re-read the scene before we explored it in the space". 

- Lizzie Manwaring, Assistant Director, Macbeth, RSC 2023

This performance & writing activity, in 2 parts, allows students to explore the power of Shakespeare’s language in the play and to experiment with their own examples. (It’s best suited to a large clear classroom.)

Part A) Distorted WORDS

(You will need: large pieces of material (preferably stretchy), pens & paper. Resource E: The Witches from the bottom of the page)

• Organise your students into groups of 3 and hand each group one of the four speeches in Resource E and some material.
• Explain that each group is a coven of witches. They have 10 minutes to decide how to perform their speeches using their pieces of material.
• Encourage them to work together to experiment with their imagination. Eg. Do they split up the text? Speak chorally? Speak through the material? Dress themselves as one creature? How will they appear, move, disappear?
• Invite the covens to share their work and discuss the results.

Extension Activity:

• If you have the facilities, ask students to film each other’s performances, either very simply on their devices or adding music and lighting effects. They could even be edited together using simple editing apps.

Part B) KNOCK KNOCK…

“The Porter monologue is one of the earliest records of stand-up comedy. But we don’t have the same references as they did in the 1600s. At one point, ‘French geese’ are mentioned and I have no idea what that means. Shakespeare wrote Macbeth very much in response to the corruption and equivocation in his time so we asked: where do we see that in 2023? ”

- Lizzie Manwaring, Assistant Director, Macbeth, RSC 2023

(It’s best suited to a large hall or clear classroom. You will need: pens & paper. Resource F: The Porter: ‘Knock, knock!’)

• Organise your group into a big circle and hand out copies of Resource F. Read both the Shakespeare and Stewart Lee version of the porter scene in turn.
• Discuss the examples that Shakespeare uses of the people knocking on hell’s doors. Why were these jokes funny 400 years ago? What does it mean to us now? Why does the porter speak in prose and not verse?
• Discuss what decisions Stewart Lee has made in his rewriting of this scene. Eg: Using modern examples of people we want to make fun of and who might end up in hell. How the Porter addresses the audience. Why has this rewrite been done for this production and do they think it is effective?
• Ask your students to get into pairs and explain that they have 20 minutes to write their own version of the Porter speech, using the same structure, sound effects & the 3 jokes delivered to the audience.
• Challenge them to experiment with the following:
  • How does the Porter enter and exit?
  • How do they speak to the audience?
  • Which 3 examples of modern people might we want to make fun of, who might end up in hell?
  • What is their version of hell like? Fire and brimstone? A really bad party?
• Invite your pairs to read out their rewritten scenes.
• Once all the jokes have been heard, take a vote on which 3 jokes are the most effective and put these together in one speech.
• Invite any volunteer Porters to perform this new scene.

Reflection Point:

• Collect and compare some examples of comedian’s jokes that target current people in modern times. Who is main focus of these jokes: Celebrities? Politicians?
• Do any of these jokes target serious subjects? Are these jokes fair or unfair? Do they go too far or not far enough and why?
• Why is it important to make jokes about serious matters?