Shakespeare Week 2017
Event Name: Fact or Fiction? Shakespeare and the Battle of Wakefield
Location: Wakefield Museum or In School
Audience: Key Stage 2
Dates: 20, 21, 22, 23 & 24 March 2017
Start Times: Morning and afternoon sessions available – start times by request
Duration: 1 hour 30 minutes (Wakefield Museum) or 1 hour (In School)
Focus Text: Henry VI, Part III
Cost: When delivered at Wakefield Museum the cost per session is £58; When delivered in
school the cost for one session is £102, the cost for two sessions (delivered on the same
day) is £153 and the cost for three sessions (delivered on the same day) is £179.
Celebrate Shakespeare Week 2017 with Wakefield Museums
William Shakespeare set several of his plays against the backdrop of history – including our
own local history in the form of The Battle of Wakefield! But how much of what he wrote
was fact and how much was fiction?
In this fun and engaging workshop your class will hear excerpts from the play Henry VI, Part
III (as performed by pupil volunteers following in the footsteps of the finest Shakespearean
actors!) in which Shakespeare gave his account of the Battle of Wakefield - a vicious battle
fought between Yorkist and Lancastrian troops at Sandal Castle over 550 years ago. The
class will then discover how much of Shakespeare’s version of events is fact and how much
is fiction before working in small groups to write their own poems in the style of William
Shakespeare explaining how and why the Bard might have got so much wrong. Did he not
know the facts himself, was he told to twist the truth for the purposes of propaganda or was
he simply trying to spin a good yarn?
For sessions delivered at Wakefield Museum, pupils will have the opportunity to visit and
view the museum displays.
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