“The concept is original and the execution brilliant. This is Dr Seuss meets Shakespeare, with all the joy of the former meshed with all the intrigue of the latter. The rhymes are really clever, and often elicited an actual LOL. The pace and staging are terrific.”
— David Crystal, author of Shakespeare’s Words and Let’s Talk: How English Conversation Works

“Paul Murray has brilliantly adapted Shakespeare’s plays to expose them to an entire generation who might otherwise roll their eyes and miss out. These playful but entirely respectful adaptations stay true to the soul of the original plays while making them easily accessible to the uninitiated. I wish these books had been available when I was young.”
Dean Devlin, Co-writer/producer Godzilla, Independence Day, Owner Electric Entertainment

“I’ve been lucky enough to read three of the resources in this series – consistently engaging, humorous, easy to read and well-graded. I am genuinely trying to hold back the praise with this one – these are top notch resources.”
— Peter Clements, blogger at ELTPlanning and co-author of Start Up

The Silly Shakespeare for Students series of plays simplifies the texts of the famous plays without dumbing them down. They’re perfect for introducing students to the Bard and helping English Language Learners practice speaking and oracy skills while grappling with the classics.

Author Paul Leonard Murray (https://paulleonardmurray.com/), director of the Belgrade English Language Theater, has cut the plays down to an hour or so and made the language more accessible. But all the drama and nuances of plot and character are still there. Also there are jokes. Lots of jokes. And if you think jokes in a version of Macbeth is weird, the plays are also written in rhyming couplets. Not even Shakespeare managed to do that!

Production notes and a summary of each play make putting on Shakespeare easy and fun, even if you’ve never done drama in class before! You can also assign it as Reader’s Theatre or use it as a fun reading to introduce the original language versions!

Looking for something different for drama club, student theater, or speaking class? Want to spice up your literature or reading class and give students a new appreciation for Shakespeare? This is the series for you.

Download Free Bookmarks

Just download and print two-sided at actual size!

Interviews and Press

More Reviews

“What I would have given for Paul Murray’s works (way) back when I was a kid.  What Murray has done brilliantly is make Shakespeare approachable for young people (and the young at heart).“
— Jonathan Glassner Producer, Director, Co-creator Stargate SG-1, The Outer Limits, CSI Miami, CSI: NY, The Ark

“Murray’s rhyming verse trips delightfully on the tongue and is a blast to speak aloud, while also maintaining the heart and soul of the different plays’ content. As an educator myself, I could easily see these scripts holding great value as stand-alone projects — but also being immensely useful if/ when paired with deep-dives of Shakespeare’s original text.”
— Orion Bradshaw, Author of the Shakespeare for Students series, and Shakespeare Expert at Drama Notebook