You’re working on a Shakespeare play and want to give it some theatrical life, so what do you do? Well, you shove the chairs and tables aside and get up and do it, of course. But what about costumes? And the effects of changing settings? And what about those pupils who aren’t happy about getting up and performing in front of their peers? That may be where Kar2ouche comes in.

Immersive Education has released a remarkable piece of software based on the storyboarding of Shakespeare’s plays. Hamlet, Macbeth, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Romeo and Juliet are available so far, and I have spent a week or so playing with the latter two packages. Playing, because they are addictive and fun.

The software gives you a selection of settings, and all the characters available in a range of poses. You can add props and create special effects. The whole play text is included, both as a text file and as audio recordings of real actors. So, select your scene, choose a setting, add the characters, pose them as you wish, add a speech sound clip, then move on to the next frame. Soon, you have composed the entire scene, and can run it together in the program or export it as a QuickTime video.

A wide range of activities is suggested in the hefty ring-bound resources packs, suitable for various levels. All the activities are linked to national curriculum learning objectives, and guide students to a more thorough knowledge of the play and an appreciation of its theatricality. Simpler approaches for younger pupils include summary of action and construction of static storyboards to highlight key elements of the acts.

At key stage 4, the suggestions move on to exploration of points of view with the addition of captions or thought bubbles to frames to indicate subtext and character motivation.

AS and A2 students are catered for too, encouraged to use the software to present a specific theoretical interpretation of the play to an imaginary production meeting. This demands that pupils not only have to do wider research, but also get under the hood of the software to use its more advanced features, such as altering the colour balance, lighting of backgrounds and adding a soundtrack.

Users can create their own backgrounds, but producing scenery would be difficult. It isn’t possible to change costumes; though the characters are crudely drawn, the defaults are effective.

One oddity is the range of fairies from A Midsummer Night’s Dream, from mini-skirted floozie to gangly monster, who seem to have come from other productions.

The character manipulation may not have the zip and zap of computer games, and scaled close-ups result in unsightly pixellation, but the software does invite consideration of the plays at several levels. It is enjoyable to use and opens up important aspects of Shakespeare - pupils I tried it on were engrossed. The software is an excellent way of bringing Shakespeare and his drama to imaginative life.

Noel Cassidy Noel Cassidy teaches English at St Albans school, Hertfordshire