Rapspeare Live: Shakespeare Brought to Life Through Rhythm, Story and Performance
Rapspeare Live begins like a friendly dispute you will recognise from your own corridors. One performer arrives set for Shakespeare in the traditional way, ready with The Globe on screen, props laid out, and a sense of reverence for the canon. The other bursts in with headphones, contemporary beats and the confidence that Shakespeare still belongs to students now, not just to the past. Their clash becomes the hook for students because it mirrors the question many pupils quietly hold. Why does Shakespeare matter to me. The answer unfolds through story, performance and playful participation as the pair take your cohort on a fast paced journey through Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, showing how Shakespeare’s plots, themes, language and characters are the blueprint for the narratives students already love in film, television and music.
As the session builds, Shakespeare’s verse is treated like living speech rather than a museum exhibit. Students hear famous lines delivered to hip hop beats, they explore rhythm and rhyme as a bridge into meaning, and they see how gesture and staging unlock comprehension. They do not just watch, they join in. Volunteers step forward, props appear, moments become mini performances, and suddenly challenging language becomes something they can inhabit. Along the way, the show demystifies terminology you want students to command, including genre, tragedy and comedy, character types, and big thematic ideas such as ambition, power, betrayal, identity, fate, love and conflict. The result is a high energy, curriculum aligned experience that strengthens reading for meaning, builds confidence with quotation and interpretation, and gives reluctant learners a way in, while offering high attainers richer conceptual hooks for analysis and context.
Perfect for celebrating Shakespeare Week, Enrichment Days or Arts Weeks.
Performance length: 40 minutes
Number of students per session: 180
Maximum number of shows across a school day: 4
