Rendering on Theatre №1

The article published on the website telegraph.co.uk on March 1, 2013 is headlined “Testing children on Shakespeare can give them 'demons'”. The article reports at length that schoolchildren should not be given rigid tests on Shakespeare, as the Bard leaves pupils feeling culturally inferior and with “demons”.

According to the text of the article, the programme, to be broadcast on BBC Four this autumn and provisionally titled Muse of Fire, shows two young actors travelling the globe with video cameras to find out what people really think of Shakespeare. Moreover, Rylance, a former artistic director of the Globe Theatre, added that the “forced march to an exam test”, with questions that were simply right or wrong, could lead children to feel “culturally inferior” with “all their demons packed around it”.

Speaking of the situation it is necessary to note that the documentary, which would be exhibited at festivals from next month, features interviews with Romeo + Juliet director Baz Luhrman, Ewan Mcgregor, Zoe Wanamaker, James Earl Jones, Ben Kingsley and John Hurt. In this connection it is worthwhile mentioning the fact that Rylance considered one way children met Shakespeare was through was the forced march to an exam test – GCSE or SAT questions about what’s right and wrong.

It’s an open secret that the Bard was the centre of all that actors do as actors but remained intimidating to so many people.

Giving appraisal to the situation, it’s necessary to point out that there was some kind of glory in performing Shakespeare and it didn’t have to be feared.  The article draws a conclusion that the programme, Muse of Fire, was announced as part of the coming season of arts programming on BBC Four.

As for me, I think that it is very good to try making a masterpiece like Shakespeare did it. I like the author’s idea about putting bizarre expressions of nature into an emotional form, as remarkably as Shakespeare. Anyway, he is great, without any doubt and the future programme is something rather interesting.