Walking Shadow by Grin and Tonic

William Shakespeare’s plays are just as relevant today as they were when first written. “Walking Shadow” by Grin and Tonic is an example of how Shakespeare’s work can be adapted into a performance to engage a contemporary young audience. By using different dramatic convents such as audience participation, dramatic tension, mood and contrast in addition to exploring an accessible theme; “The meaning of life” Grin and Tonic were able to captivate the audience and make them interested in the message of the play. Grin and Tonic took different scenes from Shakespeare’s most popular plays and made them relevant to an everyday modern audience.

Audience participation was very important throughout the entire play. From the first scene the audience was invited to be apart of the play and not only spectators. By including the audience, the actors created comedy which made the students relax and have fun. In the first scene, a sonnet was performed for a student. By doing this the actors grabbed the student’s attention and made them feel a part of the performance.

The acting style of the performers also captivated the listeners. The actors knew when to create tension and drama in a scene, in contrast to comedy. By contrasting the two different emotions it engaged the audience and kept them

Interested in the topic. The roles that the characters portrayed also added to the play, the actors added comedy to most of the scenes making it a fun light play to watch. The relationship between the actors both on set and off also added to the atmosphere. The audience could tell that the actors enjoyed acting together and this made some scenes more believable. For example, while performing a scene from “A Midsummer’s Night Dream” the actors actually kissed making the audience wonder if this was an “off set relationship”.

By reconstructing the plays into a way that was understandable and relevant to the contemporary audience Grin and Tonic captured the audience attention.

By carefully selecting scenes from plays such as Macbeth,