You might have heard of this guy William Shakespeare. He wrote a lot. Pretty popular a few hundred years ago.

Last summer I visited Stratford-upon-Avon with my son Jedd. He bought tickets for us to see Macbeth at the Royal Shakespeare Company theatre. I’ve seen several of Shakespeare’s plays but never this one, so I asked Jedd for a quick summation of the plot line. He smiled and I could see his brain thinking, “My Dad the business major…poor guy.”

The play itself was wonderful. All of the actors were top notch, and of course the theatre is great. Jedd and I went to the hotel bar afterward and saw the star of the show himself…it was like having drinks with Macbeth! Well, okay, maybe not. We also saw Cameron Diaz and Jedd spoke to her briefly (she was not in the play, merely visiting the area). A great night.

Not long after the trip Jedd gave me a paperbook of the play that had accompanying chapters on the introductions, analysis, character profiles, historical relevance, etc. I really enjoyed going a bit deeper into the story this way. A Shakespeare play is hard to follow if you don’t speak old English, so having the time to read each line helped me realize just how powerful the story really is.

Good stuff. If you have a choice between reading it and seeing it, do both. You’ll get way more out of it.