You have to love Shakespeare – the guy’s a legend. Besides, how could anyone not love Shakespeare’s work when he catered to so many different tastes? He wrote poetry, comedies, tragedies, histories and even one of the greatest love stories of all time. Not to mention that the words he used in his plays are so loaded with meaning that his work is always open to interpretation. And, of course, the themes he tackled cover a broad spectrum of emotions and conditions, which are at the very core of what it means to be human. In short, there’s no denying that the guy was extremely talented.

I was first introduced to Shakespeare at the age of thirteen by a primary school teacher who was so passionate about her subject that I couldn’t help falling in love with Shakespeare’s work. She somehow managed to bring those age-old pages to life. Not to mention that she also gave my whole class some hands-on experience with his work in the form of a practical assignment. We were told to team up and either put on a performance from Romeo and Juliet of their balcony scene, or do the scene from Macbeth where he visits the three witches in their cave. Well, my friends and I quickly opted for the latter and I was nominated as the First Witch. And, boy, did we take our roles seriously.

By the time the day of our performance arrived, we knew our lines off pat, our costumes had been carefully selected to suit our characters and we had even made a clever assortment of props, which included a giant, cardboard cauldron. But, that wasn’t the cherry on top. To add a final hint of authenticity to our role as the three witches, we decided to dye our hair in nice, bright colours using food colouring. Yeah, who knew you could use food colouring on your hair! Wonders never cease.

Now, believe me when I say that we were quite a sight as the three witches. Once we were dressed in our costumes, people all over the school couldn’t help but stop and stare. I wore a long, black, velvet dress and had dyed my hair green and teased it into an abundant mass. (I have very thick hair, so that was rather easy to achieve – and I think it’s safe to say that I took big hair to the next level.) My two friends, who were playing the second and third witches, wore long, navy, velvet dresses and had dyed their hair blue and red, respectively. Add some make-up to the equation and you could barely recognise us for the respectable schoolgirls we had been just moments before. No wonder people were gaping at us.

As it turned out, we were a smash hit as we had taken our task above and beyond the call of duty. Two weeks later, we were asked to perform our play in front of the entire school.

Of course, by this time, the food colouring had long since washed out. So, we had to recolour our hair the night before we were due to perform. Now, I’m not quite sure what happened, but somehow we landed up putting way too much food colouring on my hair the second time. I can vaguely remember that my mom kept pouring more and more of the stuff onto my wet hair, because we couldn’t see anything happening. I suppose the fact that the colour had washed out quickly after the first application had emboldened us – to the point where the bottle was virtually empty by the time we’d finished. Oops! I think that’s called being heavy-handed! Next thing I knew, I was walking around school for several weeks after that with green hair and my teachers couldn’t stop teasing me about it despite my protests that the damn stuff just wouldn’t wash out.

The truth, though, was that I had a blast and I secretly liked being able to walk around school with coloured hair without getting into trouble over it. For a few weeks, everyone knew who I was and they could all spot me a mile away. But, best of all, I had been able to bring part of Shakespeare’s work to life and it has left an indelible impression on my mind that’s become a very fond, childhood memory. I’ll never forget my time as a fictitious witch from Macbeth and it was all thanks to one, fantastic teacher who taught me an appreciation for Shakespeare, which I’ll always be grateful for.

© 2017 Audrey Whyte   All Rights Reserved