Every year Magdalen participates in a unique event. No other college does this, anywhere.

We partner up with the Coram Shakespeare Schools Foundation, and bring Year 10 pupils from four schools – schools with virtually no history of sending students to Oxford – to spend two unforgettable days at Magdalen. They live as students, work as students, eat as students. And at the climax of their stay, these schools put on an evening of Shakespeare: four plays, specially cut to half an hour each.

We’d like you to come and watch the show.

We never know what the schools will do with the plays. They can perform them straight; they can reimagine them for modern life; sometimes they convert them into dance. Sometimes they are incredibly polished and professional; sometimes they are rough, ready and unpredictable.

One thing we can always be sure of though: it’s a magical experience. These performances are the culmination of months of work in which young people of all backgrounds and abilities have been finding their voices in school rehearsal rooms. The impact on their lives is profound and far-reaching. And the event is both thrilling and moving.

This year the schools will be performing mini versions of:
Macbeth
The Tempest
Much Ado About Nothing
A Midsummer Night’s Dream

So please join us on 28th March. Immerse yourself in some of the greatest plays ever written. And support young people with great aspirations as they take to the stage.