Macbeth is widely considered the most-studied Shakespeare play on the GCSE English Literature syllabus, and for good reason. In recent years, it’s been the go-to Shakespeare text for the vast majority of UK students, with around 70% of candidates choosing it across major exam boards. But what is it about this dark, unsettling tragedy that continues to grip young people so strongly?
Ciara Rodwell, Head of English at The Oratory School, believes Shakespeare isn’t just something students have to study: it’s something they can genuinely connect with. We spoke to her about why the play continues to resonate so powerfully with students today – and why seeing it performed live can completely transform the way they understand it.
Why do you think Macbeth continues to resonate so strongly with students today?
What teenager hasn’t been envious of something someone else has? What teenager hasn’t felt greedy, betrayed, manipulated? What human being hasn’t felt it? Macbeth – like so much of Shakespeare’s work – strikes at the heart of what it means to be a human, to love and hate and do the wrong thing sometimes, for reasons even we ourselves don’t understand (or understand too well, but do it anyway). It is what keeps Shakespeare on the curriculum after all these years, and what makes Macbeth such an interesting and important play to study.
What do students most often find challenging about Macbeth – and how can seeing it performed help unlock the text?
Students find Macbeth – and Shakespeare more widely – challenging, because is meant to be seen and not read. Shakespearean English will always pose a problem for students more generally; having to read it monosyllabically with no intonation or gestures or visual aids to help them through it can be understandably difficult. But put the same words in the mouth of an actor – with the help of sets, costumes, music, gesticulation, and any other variety of literal and symbolic aids – and the meaning becomes so much more clear, even if you just listen to the tone the lines are delivered in.
It’s worth reminding students that many of Shakespeare’s audience members – especially the ‘penny stinkards’ in the pit – were illiterate and didn’t have a clue about the symbolic meaning of most of his lines, either. They still understood that Macbeth was a spectacle, and a warning about the disastrous consequences of unchecked ambition. That can certainly be grasped without an in-depth analysis of the text.
In your experience, how does live theatre change the way students understand characters like Macbeth and Lady Macbeth?
It’s hard to fully grasp the shock value of Lady Macbeth’s transformation without seeing it firsthand. When you read Macbeth, all you really know is that one minute she’s a dynamic, composed noblewoman in complete control of her husband, and the next, she is driven mad by what we presume is guilt and failure. But seeing that happen in front of you is even more jarring. The change is almost immediate, as we see her for the final time in Act 3, still composed, but desperately trying to save face as her husband spirals into paranoia, and then we don’t see her at all in Act 4. Act 5 Scene 1 rolls around, and suddenly she is disturbed, sleepwalking, tended to by a doctor. She dies offstage shortly afterwards. It’s such a powerful shift – like a difference actress entirely has walked out on the stage in Act 5. Students have often grasped that change much more keenly in the aftermath of seeing it performed.
Otherwise, live theatre is obviously excellent for dramatic irony. Shakespeare is extremely unsubtle in his love for an aside or a soliloquy that generates some sort of comically ironic moment. You only need look as far as Macbeth’s aside in Act 1 Scene 4, where he asks the stars to conceal his part in Duncan’s murder – swiftly followed by the oblivious Duncan talking about how much he loves Macbeth specifically for his loyalty and trustworthiness. It gets a knowing laugh from the audience every time.
If students are studying Macbeth for the first time, which moments or ideas do you think are most powerful to see on stage rather than on the page?
It’s a cop-out answer but certainly Act 1 Scene 1. ‘Thunder and lightning. Enter three witches.’ Has there ever been an opening scene that was quite as indicative of its historical context than this? Students generally grasp this pretty well even in reading the play, but seeing (and hearing) this scene really sets the tone of tragedy and the uncanny in a way that even the most creative imagination struggles to replicate.
Other than that, I would have to say the Porter scene – it’s a shame that some Macbeth productions take this scene out altogether. It’s a scene so unlike Shakespeare that many scholars think it must have been written by someone else. Experiencing the importance of comic relief as a tragic convention can be vital for students who wish to understand Shakespeare’s intentions for including the Porter in the first place. The Porter comes at a crucial time in the text; Duncan is murdered, an act of transgressive regicide on Macbeth’s part, and the audience is stunned that he has gone through with it. Macbeth is doomed, and they know it. Enter the Porter, to tell some silly jokes about sex, hell and hangovers, and bring the whole mood in the theatre back up again. It’s brilliantly refreshing – but ties to the central themes of the play (the ‘equivocator’) are there if you look for them.
Special thanks for this production goes to Clifton College, whose generous support has enabled us to bring this beloved play back to the TFT stage, ready for the next generation of Shakespeare lovers to discover.
Posted on 17 February 2026
