Romeo and Juliet at Kapanda Community Day Secondary School

Posted on: 09/04/10

Kapanda form 3 performing Romeo and Juliet

For reasons best known to themselves the Education Department in Malawi have decreed that of the four books to be studied by Secondary School Forms 3 and 4 (MCSE), one shall be a play by Shakespeare. Moreover as of this year English Literature has been made compulsory, whereas previously it has been optional. Now I love Shakespeare, and am always happy to extol his virtues to anyone who will listen. However, for these kids, who struggle with modern English (as, indeed do many of their teachers), and whose priority must surely be to learn how to get along in the 20th century, it seems ludicrous that they should have to study 17th century iambic pentameter, not to mention 17th century English culture.
However, that is how it is, and although I had originally intended to teach younger children, when I was asked to assist in the teaching of Romeo and Juliet to the Form 3 kids I could hardly refuse.
The magnitude of the task I has taken on soon became clear, and after a few weeks I decided to relinquish all my other teaching (I was already realising that school teaching is not my strength anyway) and concentrate solely on Romeo and Juliet. So from February until Easter I taught Bill to Form 3 for three double lessons a week.
It quickly became apparent that Shakespeare's English would present a well nigh insurmountable hurdle for most if not all of the pupils, so I decided to dispense with the script and concentrate on the story. To this end I set to and produced a six page summary of the story (available here if anyone is interested). I have to say that although I did not take to secondary teaching in general, I did enjoy my literature lessons (most of the time!). I introduced the kids to the Montagues and the Capulets (the "two households, both alike in dignity") from "fair Verona" and likened them to two villages who hated each other for so long that they had forgotten why - a concept which they seemed able to relate to!
Kapanda form 3 performing Romeo and Juliet

I have always believed that Shakespeare is intended to be acted not read, so I got off to a good start by getting them all outside and roleplaying Act 1 Scene 1, in which members of the Montague and Capulet families brawl in the street, and soon had them biting their thumbs and shouting "down with the Montagues" and "We hate Capulets", much to the consternation of the other classes. This worked well and I repeated the exercise later with the fight scene from Act 3 Scene 1, and later still, with the help of Scott and Ralph (both "proper" teachers) we split up the class into groups and got each group to perform a scene of their choice.
I was lucky enough to be joined at Ripple Africa by Sarah, a professional actress, who was a great help, and the two of us even acted out the bedroom scene for the class, to their great amusement (in Malawian culture no public show of affection at all takes place between husbands and wives or boy and girlfriends - while it is normal for men to hold hands in the street, a man and a woman would never do so, and you never see a man and a woman kissing, so the love scenes caused a great deal of shocked amusement).
At some point I suggested jokingly that perhaps the Ripple volunteers could actually stage a production, and the idea was taken up with unexpected enthusiasm. I have to say that, having put forward the idea, I was very dubious about whether it could actually be done, and suspected that they had all hugely underestimated the amount of work that would be involved. To cut down a Shakespeare play to under an hour and from 22 characters to six actors is a huge job, on top of which getting all the volunteers together at one time (other than to eat) is virtually impossible, and I have to admit that I was extremely skeptical about the whole project.
Sarah and I perform the love scene for the class

Sarah and I perform the love scene for the class

However, everyone else decided that it was going to happen. The play was duly hacked (by Scott, as I had completely lost my bottle at this stage) and the remaining scenes interspersed with liberal dollops of narration taken from my summary. The Mwaya gardeners were dispatched to cut branches to make into swords. Somehow or other we managed to get everyone in one place at one time sufficiently often to have some rehearsals and do some basic blocking (lines were not memorised, I hasten to add - this was to be a "rehearsed reading"), mostly after supper by the light of headtorches. The school was appraised of our plans, and it was agreed that the last two lessons on Thursday 1st April (an auspicious date! and the last day of school before the Easter break) would be cancelled and the entire school (not just form 3), plus teachers and Ripple Africa staff (and, in the event, a large section of the Matete community) would assemble to watch our production.
So many things could have gone wrong, and several did. The day before the production Lauren (Friar Lawrence, Lady Capulet and Benvolio) was struck down with tonsilitis. Linsey, who did not want to take part at all, and had only with great reluctance been persuaded to do the narration, was emotionally blackmailed into playing Lady Capulet and Benvolio, while I added Friar Lawrence to my portfolio of Prince Escales, Old Capulet and Balthazar.
The production team at work

The day of the production, which conveniently coincided with my final literature lesson and the completion of my Romeo and Juliet course, dawned overcast and thundery, and as I arrived at school at 730 the heavens opened to let fall probably the worst downpour since I've been here. Paths became streams and our stage area was a quagmire. However, by ten the sun had come out again, and at 11:30 the cast assembled with their books, props, scripts and with their characters names hung round their necks so the audience could tell who was who at any given moment..
I have to say, my misgivings were proved completely misplaced. The show went wonderfully. Everyone gave inspired performances, and the audience loved it. Linsey was an absolute brick, despite being utterly terrified, Scott, Cathy and Ralph, despite no acting experience, gave their all, and Sarah was magnificent as Juliet. I was proud to have been a part of it, and I hope we gave Kapanda Secondary School an hour that they will remember all there lives, or at least until they take their exams in 2012.

Rehearsals at Mwaya: Linsey, Scott, Ralph, Cathy, Sarah

Rehearsals at Kapanda: The balcony Scene! Sarah, Ralph

Performance at Kapanda: Cathy, Scott, Ralph, Linsey

So may I take this opportunity to say a huge thank you to all the members of

The Ripple Africa Theatre Company
in
Romeo and Juliet
by
William Shakespeare

Romeo, Abram	Ralph Brocklebank
Juliet, Sampson	Sarah Noah
Old Capulet, Friar Lawrence, Prince Escales, Balthazar	Dave Midgley
Tybalt, Paris	Scott Lewis
Old Montague, Mercutio, Nurse, Apothecary	Cathy Horwood
Lady Capulet, Benvolio	Linsey Bell
Narration	members of the cast

What next?

Sadly Ralph, Scott and Cathy completed their stay with Ripple at Easter and headed their separate ways - we miss them sorely. I have decided that school teaching is really not for me and, although I have extended my three months at Ripple by another four weeks, I have finished at Kapanda and am now spending most of my time looking for what I am going to do next. A few opportunities are arising, so watch this space!

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