Computer Relieves the Pain of Plays : For Those Learning Shakespeare, the Game’s the Thing

An array of daggers hovered menacingly over Julius Caesar, and the youngster’s eyes never left the computer screen. With the fate of William Shakespeare’s hero depending upon his answer, Kamal Razak gingerly keyed in a response.

“Caesar praises you,” intoned the grateful Roman spared from the dagger, while 15-year-old Razak’s classmates clamored for a turn.

Tired of watching exam-weary students struggle through Shakespearean drama without a glint of enjoyment, English teacher Steven Herbert has come up with video games aimed at making the plays fun.

No longer bored with the Bard, the new Shakespeare buffs are even tackling his other works on their own.

Herbert found wading through texts line by line essential to comprehension but woefully uninspiring. After five classes a day there was little time for individual attention.

“It was just painful,” Herbert said. “Some of them were struggling so hard.”

Shakespearean prose is particularly difficult for Singaporeans who speak Chinese or Malay at home, with English their second language, Herbert noted.

The absence of any drama groups performing the plays here was offset in Herbert’s mind with Singapore’s high-tech orientation. Personal computers here are household musts.

“I figured once they started enjoying Shakespeare, studying wouldn’t be such a grind,” said Herbert, 36, a New Zealand native teaching in a public school. “What better way to remove the pain than with a video game?”

A computer novice, it took Herbert a year to learn programming and assemble a package that was both entertaining and educational.

“It took all my free evenings,” he said. “When I couldn’t figure out what to do next, I’d dash to a computer store.”

Since exams require detailed knowledge of key speeches, character identification and plot lines, Herbert said he decided on a menu that would “help students enjoyably learn what they have to know.”

To gauge the initial reception, Herbert invited teen-agers to his home to try the Shakespeare game. At first skeptical, they were soon fighting to get at the keyboard and did not want to leave.

“That’s when I knew it would work,” Herbert said. “I finally had a motivating tool.”

Herbert’s first disk concentrates on “Julius Caesar,” required reading for literature students. The drama climaxing with the fatal stabbing of the emperor provided the perfect fodder for a video game.

Intrigued by the action-oriented format, youngsters who used to rush out to play soccer are now opting to “Save Caesar” from the flying knives unleashed by incorrect character, plot or scene identification.

“Oooh, that hurts,” groaned Caesar after one jab. “You Brute” followed another slash. “I have stabbing pains in my chest,” he groaned after a third blunder. Finally the right answer evoked a proclamation of “Excellent.”

Herbert said he packed the program with a barrage of questions and choices to keep the selection informative even when tackled many times by the same participants.

Players said remembering who said what and memorizing speeches are no longer dreary chores but come naturally with mastery of the game. Prompted to delve back into the play when stumped, the students say they still regard Shakespeare as challenging but no longer intimidating.

Noorulhudah Yusof, 15, admitted that she was initially overwhelmed by the Elizabethan language. With dreaded college entrance exams looming, she said, “Shakespeare was just plain scary.”

“Then I started to relax with the games, and the play started to seem interesting.”

Interspersed with the games are summaries of each scene, guides to understanding Elizabethan English and pointers to help with themes. A colorful time-line highlights events in Shakespeare’s life, and the game also provides vivid interior and exterior illustrations of the Globe Theater where Julius Caesar was first performed in 1599.

Mulling over missing words in Mark Antony’s famed funeral speech while his friends shouted hints, Kamal said it was the game “that really got me into the play.”

“Without even realizing it, I’ve been memorizing whole passages I never thought I could remember,” he said.

On his own, he later went on to read “King Lear,” “Macbeth” and “The Taming of the Shrew.”

Demand for the Shakespeare game has taken off. It is sold for $2 through a computer school--and Herbert is working on another game based on “Macbeth.”