Shakespeare for the terminally terrified

And Breathe Do you know the play? No getting round that one, I'm afraid. You need to know the story and who's who. ( AO1 ) You can't write about what you don't know.    Ah - you do know the play? Excellent news. What now? You can make better sense than this, honest.   OK - this is a general guide. I don't know which play you've studied or what the question will be in May, but I do mark the paper and I know what makes a good answer.  Read the question carefully and find the key words . They tell you what to write about. It will always say: 'Starting with the extract, explore how Shakespeare presents ( key word/s ) in the extract and the play as a whole'. The extract/speech will focus on the key word/s in the question. No-one is trying to trick you.   Good news - unless it helps you to get going, you don't need to write an introduction .  In any case never write 'In this essay I am going to write about key word/s in th

If the comedies end in church, tragedies end in the churchyard. Spoiler alert - the protagonist/eponymous hero dies. All the tragedies are named for the anti/hero. Titus Andronicus - 1592 . First known performance Jan 1594 at The Rose for Sussex's men. Usually considered to be a collaborative play with George Peele (and Vickers makes a very good case for this).  No-one ever does this in school. Romeo and Juliet - 1595 . For The Lord Chamberlain's Men at The Rose as the company did not have access to The Theatre.1596. Boy meets girl. Boy and girl fall in love. Boy and girl are separated by a series of unfortunate events and the  attitudes of their families. They get married anyway and die at the end by mistake. The two families make up.  Adaptations : West Side Story - 1957. Film - 1961 (Bit of trivia: George Chakiris who played Bernardo was paid $100 a week.) There are lots more adaptations - too many to list. Best film version : Zeffirelli - 1968 Globe version