Mastering Macbeth
Stage 1: The basics
1. Create a huge word-search based on the characters, themes and
keywords in the play. Make sure you get the spellings right!
2. Make a Who Wants To Be A Millionaire type quiz about the play,
with questions that get progressively harder.
3. Create a board game around the plot of Macbeth.
4. Design the cover to a new computer game based on Macbeth. You
will need to design a front cover as well as write the blurb and
‘pitch’ on the back.
Stage 2: Witchcraft
1. Imagine it is 1606 and you are a witch-hunter. Write a guide for the public about
how to spot a witch. Do some research first (using the questions below) into beliefs
about witches at that time. Present your findings as a leaflet or a poster.
2. Design an information leaflet about witchcraft in Shakespeare’s day for students in
your year group. You can use the questions below to help you.
Research questions
 What new witchcraft law did King
James I introduce in 1604?
 How were witches tortured in order
to confess?
 What powers did people believe
witches had?
 What was the
Devil’s Mark (also
called the witches
mark)?
 Who were the North Berwick witches?
 Why was King James I particularly
interested in witchcraft?
 Who was Matthew
Hopkins?
 What was the name of the book he
published?
 Who was Mary
Sutton?
 What was the ‘swimming of witches’?
 When were the witchcraft laws
repealed (got rid of)?
3. Read the witches’ spell again from Act 4 Scene 1. Write a recipe and method for
your own gruesome spell.
© www.teachit.co.uk 2011
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Mastering Macbeth
Stage 3: Dramatic interpretation
These tasks ask you to create your own version of Macbeth for screen
or stage. It has to be based on the original plot, but can be an
interpretation of the play (think Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo and Juliet).
You can change the historical/social context (bring it up to date); the
setting; the professions of the characters and the language.
1. Imagine you are directing a new film version of Macbeth. Design the film poster to
advertise it. You will need the names of key actors, a tagline, a striking image,
careful use of colours as signifiers, positive quotes from reviewers, a release date and
credits. Look at some professional film posters to see how they are constructed.
2. Imagine you are directing a new stage version of Macbeth. Design a theatre
programme to be sold during the performance which includes information about the
plot, the actors and the characters they’re playing, the choice of historical/social
context, the scenery and props.
3. Imagine you are directing a new stage version of Macbeth. Create a set design for a
significant moment in the play, showing scenery, props, costumes, positions of
characters, special effects. You will need clear diagrams which you should label to
explain your choices.
Stage 4: Past lives
We don’t know much about the lives of Macbeth or Lady Macbeth before
the action of play, but we are given hints. For example, it’s clear from
Macbeth’s reaction to the witches in Act 1 that he is a very ambitious man
who is well respected in his role as a general in the army. There are hints
that Lady Macbeth once had a baby (‘love the babe that milks me’) what
happened to that child? One interpretation of her character is of a
powerful woman who is frustrated with her limited role in society, as she
has failed to fulfil it in the traditional sense by being a mother.
1. Write a diary entry for either Macbeth or Lady Macbeth for a significant day in their
lives prior to the action of the play, i.e. two or three years before the play begins.
Use your inference from the play as well as your own imagination to create their
‘voice’.
2. Write a short story about how Macbeth and Lady Macbeth met and the early years of
their courtship/marriage. You could choose to write it in the first person, as one of
them, or from a third person ‘all-seeing’ perspective.
3. Create a mind-map about the past life of either Macbeth or Lady Macbeth, based on
the clues given in the play and your own ideas. Think about childhood, family life,
upbringing, friendships and experiences.
© www.teachit.co.uk 2011
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