The Primary Shakespeare Company uses drama as a teaching tool to help raise children’s attainment overall, but specifically in literacy. Their work also stimulates kids' imagination and boosts their confidence.

Our funding is enabling professional directors, composers and theatre practitioners to go into four Islington schools, collaborating with children to write and perform their own unique interpretation of Hamlet.

The children are asked to imagine the story from the perspective of the Travelling Players: a group of characters in Hamlet who put on a play-within-a-play. Each school writes part of the musical, with the script and lyrics being made up entirely of young people’s own words and ideas.

Each school rehearses the musical weekly before joining together to perform for friends and family. Portal Trust staff were delighted to see students from Laycock Primary School in rehearsal and at their final performance this year.

Laycock is a mainstream primary school with a specially resourced provision that supports young people who are deaf or hard of hearing. We joined them for one of their Friday afternoon rehearsals, just two shows before the big performance.

Over the last few weeks, the children had been learning about Hamlet and its context. They then set about writing their own scripts, with each budding playwright composing their own lines and taking ownership of the new story, imagining how the Travelling Players felt when meeting the troubled Prince of Denmark and being asked to put on a special performance for the Royal family.

The new lines were then combined into a script by the young people. They explored a wide range of emotions, teamwork, themes and brought lots of fun and humour into the story. It was incredible to see the young people take ownership of the piece and produce something every single student in the room contributed to and was proud to perform.

The final performance brought together over 120 children and teachers, with parents and carers from across the schools attending this celebration. The production was big and exciting, and even included a live band that the children sang along to with professional lighting and sound.

Despite pockets of affluence, Islington is an unequal Borough with child poverty and high levels of students eligible for free school meals. The Primary Shakespeare Company and other performing arts charities are making the arts more accessible, and helping young people from all backgrounds build creativity and confidence to make learning more fun and engaging.

Their project goes beyond the play itself, giving children the chance to see themselves in new ways – as performers, creators and writers with something valuable to say.

Although the curtain has come down on this unique performance, the Primary Shakespeare Company will keep on running projects in schools so that other children can enjoy learning about Shakespeare, and reimagine his timeless work in a whole new way.

Want to learn more? Visit their website here.

If you have a great project helping young people in London discover their creativity, why not take our quick eligibility quiz to see if you could apply for Portal Trust funding?

Photo credits: Lidia Crisafulli for the Primary Shakespeare Company