Prospero’s Island
Joan Swann and Professor Teresa Cremin of the Open University report on Prospero’s Island in Hackney and describe how it promoted students’ active engagement with the plot, characters and themes in The Tempest.
for English and, one might argue, familiarizing students with such classic texts gives them access to an important part of their cultural heritage. Yet we also know that Shakespearean texts are not easy, and his theatrical world may seem remote from the concerns of contemporary teenagers. The scholar Salvatore writes of the ‘fear and resistance’ teachers may experience when introducing Shakespeare to young people.1
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Learning objectives for English acknowledge that students need, not simply to read dramatic texts but also to experience these as theatre. Key Stage 3 students are expected to understand ‘how the work of dramatists is communicated effectively through performance’, as well as engaging in role-play themselves, ‘improvising, rehearsing and performing … in order to generate language and discuss language use and meaning’.2
Nevertheless, the challenge remains
for teachers to develop active and interactive classroom approaches that bring Shakespeare to life and capture their students’ imagination – approaches that position students as participants in learning, not simply passive recipients.
In the light of such concerns, we were delighted to have the opportunity to evaluate a theatrical initiative called Prospero’s Island, which aimed to do just this. Prospero’s Island was designed by Punchdrunk Enrichment, the educational wing of the immersive theatre company Punchdrunk. In immersive theatre, audiences become part of theatrical productions, moving through the set and participating in the dramatic narrative. Punchdrunk Enrichment applies these principles in schools, with the aim of ‘giving pupils rich and unexpected experiences, providing fuel for their imaginations and empowering them to create3
.’
Prospero’s Island was developed in collaboration with Hackney Learning Trust and a secondary academy in Hackney. As its name suggests, the immersive experience was designed to support the
s part of their reading in English, secondary school students in England have to study Shakespeare – two plays in Key Stage 3 (ages 11-14) and another in Key Stage 4 (ages 14-16). Shakespeare is a ‘statutory requirement’
English department’s teaching of Shakespeare’s The Tempest. We were able to follow three groups from Year 7 (aged 11-12) as they took part in Prospero’s Island and associated English lessons.
Our field-notes record students’ arrival in The Hub, an utterly transformed school Reading Room that served as the centre of their theatrical experience. The room was quite dark, a single light hanging low over a circular table around which the students sat on stools. There was a buzz of excitement, as they wondered what was going to happen next. They were greeted by the disembodied voice of the ‘Games Master’ and discovered they were immersed in a digital game. The Games Master announced:
I have a simple challenge for you. Hidden in the darkness of this room, somewhere in the shadows, is the story of a storm, an island, and a man with unfathomable powers. Your task is to unlock that story, and you have two hours to do it, piece by piece. Do you think you are capable of completing the challenge?
As the students called out ‘yes’, the room darkened further and they were surrounded by the wild cacophony of a storm at sea. The voices of panic-stricken sailors could be heard, building to a crescendo then dying away. In the room, the Games Master’s three assistants introduced themselves and the students were told they were at Level 1 of the game – they had to work together to unlock seven levels and complete the Games Master’s challenge. The students were now in the dramatic world and seemed completely absorbed – as observers we could hear their exclamations: that’s sick, wow, oh my God! The students’ tasks involved puzzling through extracts from The Tempest; solving riddles and codes secreted in cupboards, pictures, and other artefacts that were slowly revealed in the Hub; and going on missions to transformed spaces around the school: Miranda’s locker, Prospero’s Magic Lab (see photo), the Nobles’ Camp, the Forest Room, Caliban’s Lair. It became clear that the school was Prospero’s Island, the Games Master was Prospero, his assistants Aerial, Miranda and Caliban. The digital game format and the blending of the everyday world of the school and the fictional world of the island engaged the students and encouraged them to explore the language of Shakespeare’s play, its characterization and important themes such as freedom and captivity.
Prospero’s Island was a high-quality theatrical experience in its own terms and students voiced their enthusiasm for the experience in interviews with researchers. This was ‘astonishing’, ‘amazing’, ‘very, very exciting’, ‘surprising’, ‘fascinating’, ‘fantastic’, ‘wonderful’, ‘mysterious’, ‘unexpected’, ‘puzzling’, ‘totally different’, ‘it was one in a lifetime’, ‘the best thing ever’. However both students and teachers also commented that it increased their knowledge, understanding and appreciation of The Tempest, as in the sample quotations below.
4 Books for Keeps No.217 March 2016
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