Macbeth (No Fear Shakespeare) (Volume 1)

I was recently offered a role in a local community theater production of William Shakespeare’s “The Tragedy of Macbeth.” The play’s director encouraged all actors to gain a deeper understanding of Shakespeare’s words, to better perform each part. He suggested a book entitled “SparkNotes No Fear Shakespeare – Macbeth” as a guide. I purchased a paperback copy of “No Fear Shakespeare – Macbeth,” and I am very pleased with it. This wonderful little book is set up with Shakespeare’s original words on each left-hand page; on each right-hand page is a modern English paraphrase of the original script. While I was memorizing my lines from the left-hand pages, I quickly discovered I could learn my character’s deeper motivations for what he was saying by referring to the modern English paraphrase. As a result, I learned my lines more quickly, and am more effectively portraying my character during rehearsals. “No Fear Shakespeare – Macbeth” also includes a full list of main characters with their descriptions, as well as occasional footnotes that help clarify the meaning of some words, phrases, and situations. I’ve always loved reading the works of William Shakespeare for simple enjoyment, and I found that “No Fear Shakespeare – Macbeth” not only helped me greatly in preparing for our upcoming performances of our local production of “Macbeth;” it also gave me tremendous enjoyment in reading the play itself. I plan on buying many more volumes in the “No Fear Shakespeare” series. Highly recommended.

God bless the fine minds at No Fear Shakespeare for making an amazing learning tool to help my students understand the plot of Macbeth. This version makes the play much for accessible for them and I have several copies on hand in my classroom for those who need help. Highly recommended!

I am a Special Education teacher in a high school. I used this book to get my students through their Language Arts class.

Had to read it for school and it ended up being better than I thought!