Shakespeare is one of those rare authors who can produce two completely opposite reactions in students: either genuine delight or a kind of glazed-over endurance. The difference usually comes down to how you approach the plays.

The best approach is a two or three-pronged one, combining reading, watching, and acting. Leave any one of these out and you’re likely leaving something important on the table.

Read the Plays

Reading is where most students start, and for good reason. The text rewards close attention. Shakespeare’s language is dense with wordplay, ambiguity, and ideas that deserve to be sat with rather than rushed through. Reading gives students the space to pause, re-read a passage, and actually think about what’s being said.

The Oxford School Shakespeare editions are particularly well-suited for students new to the plays. They offer line-by-line help with archaic language alongside maps, illustrations, and sidebar context that genuinely bring the world of the play to life. These are the editions we include in the Veritas Press catalog for good reason.

For younger readers who find the text visually overwhelming, there are also comic book adaptations of many of the plays worth considering. They preserve more of Shakespeare’s language than you might expect while giving the eye something to follow alongside the words. Think of them as a bridge, not a shortcut.

Watch the Plays

Here’s where Shakespeare study often diverges from standard reading advice. Normally, you’d tell students to read before they watch. With Shakespeare, younger students frequently understand the text better when they’ve seen the story first. The plays were written to be performed, and watching a skilled cast bring the language to life answers a lot of the questions that stall young readers before they even get started.

Live theater is the gold standard whenever you can find it. A local production, even a modest one, does something a screen simply cannot. But when live performance isn’t available, there are some excellent films worth knowing about.

A few recommendations, play by play:

Hamlet: The 1990 Mel Gibson version holds up well. It’s more accessible than Kenneth Branagh’s 1996 adaptation, which relocates the action to a Victorian setting and runs a formidable four hours. Gibson is an underappreciated actor in this role. Note that some scenes may require previewing for younger students.

Macbeth: The 1971 Roman Polanski version is visually striking and dramatically serious. It’s rated R and leans into the play’s violence, so parents should preview before showing it.

Othello: The 1952 Orson Welles version is a genuine classic of cinema, not just of Shakespeare on film. The 1995 version with Laurence Fishburne is another strong choice, though it’s better suited to older students.

King Lear: The Masterpiece Theatre version with Ian Holm is excellent and arguably the most accessible film version of this notoriously difficult play.

Julius Caesar: The 1953 film with Marlon Brando and John Gielgud remains the standard against which other versions are measured. Brando’s Mark Antony is a revelation.

A note on “experimental” adaptations: there’s a whole category of Shakespeare films that lift the plays from their original setting and transplant them into a new one. The 1995 Richard III with Ian McKellen, set against a 1930s fascist Britain, is a good example of this genre done well. For older students, debating whether the artistic choice works (and why or why not) can make for a genuinely interesting discussion. For younger students, the shift in setting tends to confuse more than it illuminates.

As a general rule, parents and teachers should always preview any film version before showing it to students. Performances vary widely in quality, tone, and appropriateness.

Act the Plays Out

This is the prong that gets skipped most often, and the one that arguably delivers the most.

There is something that happens when students have to stand up and speak Shakespeare’s words aloud that no amount of reading or watching can replicate. The rhythm of the language becomes physical. The choices an actor has to make about emphasis and intention turn abstract lines into concrete meaning. Students who have performed a scene almost always understand it better than students who have only read or watched it.

This doesn’t require a stage or a formal production. Scenes can be acted out in a living room or around the kitchen table. The Dover Publications coloring book Great Scenes from Shakespeare’s Plays is a charming entry point for younger students: it pairs famous scenes with brief text excerpts and illustrations to color, making the plays feel approachable and even festive. It’s the kind of thing that can turn a school evening into something the whole family wants to participate in.

And that’s perhaps the best argument for taking all three prongs seriously. Done well, Shakespeare stops being an assignment and starts being an event.