Bouncy Castle Hamlet is a hit with teens

Boring, old-fashioned, inaccessible? Is Shakespeare out of reach for today's text-messaging, Playstation-crazed teenagers?

Hardly a month goes by without threats of removing the Bard from the exam syllabus, accusations of 'dumbing down' requirements, or even the discovery that some students seem unable to spell Shakespeare, in an exam paper called 'Shakespeare in Context'.

So how do you interest today's youth in Hamlet? By staging it on an inflatable bouncy castle, forsooth.

'We've definitely had more young people in than you'd expect for Hamlet,' said Joe McGuiness, publicist for the Bouncy Castle Hamlet, surprise hit of this year's Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

'It's a real crowd-pleaser. Everyone who watched it thought it was absolutely hilarious.'

Packing 'em in is one thing, but would the Bard be ballistic at the thought of his most celebrated tragedy being played out on a giant inflatable?

The play's director William Seaward disagrees. 'I think Shakespeare had a sense of humour. He might not have approved, but I think we could have talked him round.'

Coming next: Coriolanus on roller-blades? That is the question.

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