In partnership with the Foyle Foundation

Drama Games for Teaching Macbeth

Teachers playing games to explore Macbeth.

Introduction

When rehearsing for a Shakespeare play at the RSC, actors and directors employ playful and collaborative activities which enable creative interpretations of the play and its themes. They use inclusive games to make the text relevant by developing embodied knowledge of the characters they play. This resource offers a series of such games directly from RSC rehearsal rooms for teachers to use in their classrooms with students to facilitate the same kinds of learning experiences which our actors and directors undergo when rehearsing a Shakespeare play.

This resource offers games both with and without text for teachers to explore at various points in their students’ learning journeys through Macbeth. These games are especially suited as active lesson starters to use when teaching lessons from the Shakespeare Curriculum. The early games are suitable when introducing the play to students with little or no prior knowledge – just as actors and directors might do early on in rehearsals at the RSC. The late games are suitable for students with strong knowledge of the play to consolidate their understanding – just as actors and directors might do just before a play opens at the RSC. All the games are themed around Macbeth to offer teachers and students a ‘way in’ to Shakespeare’s play.

Games without Text

Early Games

Game 1: Go, Stop, Show Me

This game is best suited to a drama studio learning space. Ask the students to travel around the room. Give them the commands: go and stop.

Add the commands: jump and clap

Inform the students that now the commands are reversed - go means stop, clap means jump and so on.

Next, explain that the commands are back to normal. Introduce a number after stop – e.g. stop 3, and the students get into groups of that number.

Explain that when you add the instruction ‘show me’ then students in their groups should use their bodies to create a still image (or statue or tableaux) inspired by the word or phrase. A good way to start is using bold emotions, e.g. Stop 1. Show me…scared.

As each individual or group of characters is introduced, explain that these are the kinds of characters that you’ll be investigating by studying the play. Examples to introduce understanding of the play in this way include:

Groups of 1 (individuals):

  • Witch
  • Warrior
  • King

Groups of 2 (pairs):

  • 2 friends
  • A husband and wife
  • 2 enemies

Groups of 3:

  • 3 witches
  • A father and 2 sons
  • 3 murderers

Groups of 4:

  • 3 lords and a servant
  • A king and 3 lords
  • A queen and 3 attendants

Groups of 5:

  • 4 people eating dinner and 1 ghost
  • 5 soldiers in a battle on the same side
  • 5 soldiers with 4 on one side and 1 on the other side

Groups of 6 or more:

  • A king and his court
  • Warriors in battle
  • Witches and magic spirits

Depending on your group of students, it may be helpful to introduce these individuals or groups sequentially or randomly.

Invite students to view and comment on each other’s images, speculating about what the image tells them about the nature of the people and their relationships on display. This can be done throughout the game after each key image is explored or as a summative exercise at the end.

Game 2: Usurper’s Footsteps

This game is similar to the classic playground game, Grandmother’s Footsteps (also known as Red Light Green Light or Statues) but with added qualities to support students to begin to understand the world of the play, Macbeth.

Ask one student to play the king. They will stand at the front of the room with their back turned to the rest of the class. The rest of the class begin at the other side of the room, preferably touching the opposite wall. The aim of the game is for the rest of the students to ‘usurp’ the king by tapping them (nicely!) on their shoulder. The person who tapped the previous king becomes the new king for the next round of play.

N.B. Using the term ‘king’ is in reference to King Duncan in Macbeth, but for the purposes of this game you can have the student be a queen or use a non-gendered term such as monarch. Exploring the gendered nature of the world of Macbeth can form part of useful learning for later lessons.

Students begin to move towards the king upon the teacher’s instruction, however the king can – at any point – turn around and look at their potential usurpers. If the king sees any of them move they are exiled from their kingdom and must start their journey again by touching the far wall where they started from. Play continues until one of the students manages to get close enough to the king to tap their shoulder without getting caught, i.e. without being seen moving.

Have the students play the game in this way a few times. You may want to point out what tactics they begin to employ as they attempt to be the one who usurps the king. Do any of them begin to cheat? Does any collaboration begin to emerge? Or perhaps there is the opposite and potential usurpers turn on each other? Such discussions can form crucial early understanding of the motivations of characters like Macbeth and Lady Macbeth in this play.

Upon the next ‘usurping’ change the game: this time the students don’t ‘kill’ the king but steal his crown! When the king’s shoulder is touched, all students must freeze where they are (as if the king is looking at them) or risk being exiled back to the beginning. Their goal now is to try to pass the king’s crown back to the starting point without the king ever knowing where the crown is. The king turns around as before, but in addition to trying to catch people moving if they are able to guess where their crown is then it goes back to them and everyone must start again – it is recommended that the king only gets one guess each time they turn around.

It can be helpful to have a prop crown for this part of the game, however if a real crown is unavailable you can also encourage students to use their imaginations and use a substitute such as a paper hat, a book or even a small ball – it is recommended that the prop is not something actually precious as students can be known to be rather rough – just like adult actors in rehearsal!

Late Games

Game 3: Murder and Treason!

This exercise is a variation on a drama game called fruit salad or cornflakes. One person stands in the middle; everyone else sits on chairs in a circle; the circle has one less chair than number of students so that one person will always be left without a chair to become the new person in the middle.

Begin by allocating each student a character from the play: Macbeth, Lady Macbeth, Banquo, Duncan, Witch, Macduff, Malcolm, Lady Macduff, the Porter, Siward, Young Siward, Lennox, Ross and so on until every student has a character. Unless working with a very small group, more than one student should be assigned to the same character, and you can thus choose to focus on several characters or only a few key ones.

The simple version of this game is for the player in the middle to call out the name of a character, and each person assigned to that character must leave their chair and find a different one to sit on – they cannot simply sit on a chair that was next to the one they started in. The player in the middle must also find a chair, thus leaving someone else standing without a chair to sit in to begin the next round of play.

The more advanced version, great for students who know the play and its characters well, is for the person in the middle to call out a character trait or a fact or an action which a character might do. Then every student who thinks the thing said applies to their character must get up and find a new seat – again not one right next to where they were just sat, otherwise the game becomes too easy! This way students must think critically about who their character is, and what they might do both within the action of the play and as part of their wider lives and backstory. Some suggestions for facts or actions to call out include: Whosoever…

  • Eats oatcakes for breakfast
  • Stares into mirrors a bit too long
  • Favourite animal is a raven
  • Doesn’t trust other people
  • Annoys their servants
  • Is loved by their servants
  • Always remembers their friend’s birthday
  • Dies in the play
  • Survives the play
  • Kills someone else in the play

To add another element to the game, at any time, the caller can shout ‘Murder and treason!’ at which point everyone, regardless of which character they are, must find a new place to sit.

Game 4: To Murder, or Not to Murder

This game is a variation of the drama game Zip, Zap, Boing!

Students stand in a circle.

Explain that in this game, students pass energy around or across the circle using one of three phrases/actions: Murder, I Dare Not and No Further.

Murder: passes play along to the next person in the circle. Model a suitable gesture for students to do when ‘passing’ their ‘Murder’. A dagger stabbing or similar usually works well. You could have more advanced students determine a universal gesture everyone can use themselves. The important part is that students say 'Murder' as you do the gesture, and that the gesture clearly indicates the direction of travel around the circle.

I Dare Not: passes play across the circle to anyone except for the people immediately next to the student doing the passing. This also must come with a clear gesture so that students know who play is being passed to. Pointing accusatorily usually works well. Again, the person passing the ‘I Dare Not’ must do the gesture and say the phrase. The person who receives the ‘I Dare Not’ may pass play to their left or right with ‘Murder’ or even do an ‘I Dare Not’ to someone else.

No Further: changes the direction of travel of the ‘Murders’ around the circle. A ‘stop’ gesture with a hand, palm facing out or similar would be suitable.

After some practice rounds, begin play.

When someone makes an error, hesitates or says/gestures the wrong thing, they are out and must sit down to demonstrate this.

Play continues until there are only two students left who can either both win, or determine a winner through some other challenge.

A way to extend this game to be more challenging is to replace Murder, I Dare Not and No Further with longer quotes from the play which communicate similar things. There are plenty of lines from the dialogue between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth in Act 1 Scene 7 which are suitable for this. For example:

  • He’s here in double trust
  • against his murderer shut the door, / Not bear the knife myself
  • Vaulting ambition
  • We will proceed no further in this business.
  • Art thou afeard
  • I dare do all that may become a man. / Who dares do more is none.
  • Be so much more the man.
  • screw your courage to the sticking place

Games with Text

Early Games

Game 5: Kings, Witches and Murderers

This game is an active twist on the classic Rock-Paper-Scissors game, sometimes also known as Giants, Wizards and Elves. This version gives the game a distinct Macbeth theme.

Divide the class of students into two teams, and then divide the space into two areas, one for each team.

Explain that there are three characters to choose from: Kings, Witches and Murderers. Model how to demonstrate the three characters in the game using these actions and lines of text:

  • Kings stand tall, move and speak heavily and slowly, make direct hand gestures and say: Signs of nobleness, like stars, shall shine / On all deservers.
  • Witches crouch down, move and speak lightly and quickly, make indirect gestures and say: Fair is foul, and foul is fair; / Hover through the fog and filthy air.
  • Murderers stand with a wide stance close to the ground, move heavily but quickly, make direct hand gestures and say: To know my deed ’twere best not know myself.

For more advanced groups, you can have the students collaboratively determine actions, gestures for each group of characters. You may also allow students to select their own quotes which associated characters speak; Duncan or Malcolm for Kings, the Witches for Witches, or Macbeth or the Murderers for Murderers.

Explain that in this game, Kings execute Witches, Witches trick Murderers, and Murderers murder Kings. Just like rock, paper, scissors!

Teams should secretly choose one of the characters to all play as a team, choosing secretly so as to not alert the other team to their choice.

When each team have made their decision, they meet along a line in the middle of the room, facing the opposing team.

The teacher counts down from three. When you say ‘go’, everyone should show which character they’ve chosen to be without leaving their side of the line, using the actions and speaking their text.

Everyone should keep doing their action until you announce the winning team. Rounds should only last for a few seconds, after which teams return to their area for the next round. The winning team should get one point.

Play as many rounds as you like. The winning team is the one with the most points at the end.

Game 6: A King and his Court

This game is particularly effective if played following Game 1: Go, Stop, Show Me.

Split the students into two or three large groups – around 10 students per group is suitable, depending on the size of the room you are working in and your specific cohort of students.

Ask the students to make a freeze frame (tableaux or still image) of a King and his court. Students should think about what characters they will ‘play’ – in statue form – and can adopt relative freedom to interpret what kind of people would be in a king’s court.

Share the images and invite students to interrogate each other’s ideas by discussing what they see represented in each freeze frame.

Each group is now given a line from the play. Some potential examples include:

  • Look like the innocent flower but be the serpent under it.
  • False face must hide what the false heart doth know.
  • I dare do all that may become a man.
  • Where we are, there’s daggers in men’s smiles.
  • Myself should be the root and father of many Kings.

Now ask students to remake their image using that line to describe what is happening in their king’s court. Encourage students to read the text aloud and not to worry about meaning or ‘getting it right’ – they should go with their first impressions.

Once they have made their images, ask students to find a way of speaking their line, moving from their still image into moving and speaking, then returning to a still image.

Share the still-move-still images and facilitate student discussion on what sort of world the play is in.

Late Games

Game 7: A Meeting of Witches

This game helps consolidate students’ understanding of who the Witches are in this play, and how we can interpret them in ways which challenge stereotypes.

Organise students into groups of three. If working with a cohort not divisible by three, then some groups of four are fine: inclusion is more important than exactness.

Ask students to create a freeze frame (still image or tableaux) of three witches. Make students do this in a very short amount of time (5 or 10 seconds) so that they don’t overthink what they’re doing and instead engage with their creative instincts.

Share some witch freeze frames so that students can see the different (or similar) choices made. Now ask them to consider:

  • What assumptions* have they made?
  • Are any of these images stereotypes?
  • What do we need to know to avoid stereotypes which lead to prejudice or discrimination?

*N.B. To scaffold this learning, ask what assumptions have been made about warmth and competence: harmful biases are usually associated with warmth (how kind or similar a group or individual is to yourself) or competence (how fit or skilled a group is). Warmth is associated with co-operative groups and denied to competitive groups. Competence is associated with high-status groups and denied to low-status groups. Assumptions around warmth and competence can thus lead to stereotypes. For example, age-based stereotype associates old people with high warmth but low competence eliciting pity and sympathy. Stereotypes, no matter the type, can lead to harmful prejudice.

Now invite students to rework their images to avoid any stereotypes they identified, but still communicating who these characters (the Witches) are. Share choices again to allow students to reflect on their own, and others’, interpretations.

Next ask students to consider what people believed about witches at the time Shakespeare wrote the play: that they were outsiders, that they could disrupt the natural order and create storms, that they could shape shift and predict the future. Midwives and healers were also held in suspicion and targeted. You may refer to the Witches and Supernatural in the Jacobean Era Teacher Guide for further information. Invite students to rework their images using this information.

Lastly, distribute the following lines from the play to each group and ask them to bring their freeze frames to life by adding movement and speaking the lines – either together or one line each: 

 When shall we three meet again? In thunder, lightning or in rain. 
 When the hurly burly’s done, when the battle’s lost and won. 
 Where the place? Upon the heath. There to meet with Macbeth.

Conclude this game by consolidating the performance choices which each group of students made to communicate their interpretation of the characters of the Witches.

Game 8: Macbeth Insults

This is a twist on the classic drama game, If You Love Me Honey Give Me A Smile, but themed around Macbeth and using quotes from the play.

Allocate one student to play Macbeth. If playing in a studio classroom have them stand in the centre of a circle; if in a desk classroom have them come to the front of the class. Their goal, as Macbeth, is to determine which of their servants or Thanes (played by the rest of the class) are truly loyal to them. They do this by trying to make the others students laugh or smile.

The student playing Macbeth approaches another student and says one of the following insults from the play to them:

  • You egg!
  • Thou cream-faced loon!
  • Go prick thy face, and over-red thy fear.
  • Armed rhinoceros
  • Hyrcan tiger
  • Tyrant, whose sole name blisters our tongues
  • Lily-liver’d boy
  • Rump-fed runion
  • Young fry of treachery!

(Not all of these insults are said by Macbeth – in fact at least one is said about him! – but that doesn’t really matter for the purposes of this game.)

The other student (playing a servant or Thane) must reply to Macbeth: What’s your gracious pleasure? But they must not smile or laugh, or else they risk revealing their disloyalty!

If the student playing Macbeth manages to make a student playing a servant/Thane smile or laugh, the servant/Thane is executed for treason and is thus out of the game. If they do not smile or laugh the student playing Macbeth must move on and try someone else.

N.B. A key aspect of this game is that it should involve absolutely no touching. The student playing Macbeth must use their voice, facial expression, movement, focus and gestures to reveal any traitors by making the other students smile or laugh. The student playing Macbeth stays as Macbeth until they can make someone smile or laugh.

You can conclude the game with a summative reflection on the tactics used by the students playing Macbeth and the servants/Thanes, and what that has revealed about the world the play is set in. What is it like to live in a world where the slightest wrong can result in execution or murder? What is it like to have power but not know who you can trust?