Watch our British Sign Language synopsis of All's Well That Ends Well.

Set in France and Italy, All's Well That Ends Well is the story of one-sided romance, based on The Decameron, a tale by Italian poet, Boccaccio. In Shakespeare’s version, Helena, the orphaned daughter of a doctor, is under the protection of the widowed Countess of Rossillion. Helena is desperately in love with the Countess’ son, Bertram, and follows him to the French court when he leaves home to become a soldier. In France, Helena cures the sick king of an apparently fatal illness and claims a reward: the husband of her choice. The king agrees and Helena names Bertram. Bertram is horrified, he enjoys his bachelor freedom and considers Helena to be beneath him. When the king forces him to marry her, Bertram refuses to sleep with Helena and, accompanied by his boastful friend Parolles, leaves for the Italian wars. In a letter, he tells Helena that he will only accept her if she obtains a precious family ring from his finger and becomes pregnant with his child, both things he believes to be impossible.

Believing she has pushed Bertram into going away to war and risking his life, Helena travels to Italy disguised as a pilgrim. However, when she arrives, she discovers Bertram is nearby and has been trying to seduce a young local girl, Diana who refuses to sleep with him. Helena teams up with Diana and her mother, the Widow, to set up a 'bed trick' whereby she will take the place of Diana, as Bertram takes her to bed.

Meanwhile, the king’s lords are tired of Parolles’ lies and plot to reveal his true nature to Bertram. Disguised as the enemy, they ‘kidnap’ Parolles who immediately turns coward, gives up all his army’s secrets and badmouths his comrades. Bertram disowns him and then hears news that Helena has died. Despite this, he gives Diana his precious ring and takes her to bed, unaware that Diana has swapped places with Helena, who is still alive. The ‘bed trick’ works and Helena fulfils Bertram's conditions, as she ends up pregnant and gets the ring. In the French Court, Helena reveals she is alive and has managed to secure Bertram’s ring and child – making her his wife, to his Mother’s delight.

• Organise your students into 10 groups and give each group ONE of the 10 scenes from the resource and pens and paper. (With smaller numbers, you can give groups more than one scene.)

• Ask each group to plan how they would turn their plot point into a social media article or post. This can be in the form of a news bulletin (with or without adverts), TikTok video, Twitter thread, podcast episode, even a series of Instagram photos. Explain that they will have 15 minutes for this.

• Encourage them to think about the following: What is the most important piece of information in the Plot Point? Who is the most important person/people in their Plot Point? What would an audience be most interested in hearing about?

•  Ask each group to design this online content. They can draw storyboards, make a list of photos to take, write their own headlines and soundbites. What will each post or page look like? What effect do they want it to have on their audience?

•  Invite the groups to read their Plot Point to the rest of the group and then to share their ideas and explain why they chose their particular app or medium to get their information to the public.  

• If appropriate, let your groups prepare their content on their computers or mobile devices. Explain that they will not actually be posting or uploading any of this but can draft posts, create videos for content and snapshot or record the results to share with the group as examples of telling their Plot Point online.

• Invite each group to share their results. If possible, the content could be projected onto a whiteboard or shared computer screen.

• Discuss the impact of this online content: did it bring any particular plot points to life? What effect might these posts or videos have on the characters if they were real and alive today? 

• Using the ten groups you organised in the previous activity, give each group a different Plot Point. (Again, with smaller numbers, you can give groups more than one scene.)

• Explain that they will have ten minutes to bring their scene to life and to perform it to the other groups. Encourage them to use different performance methods to tell their scene: Narration, Improvisation, Tableaus, Mime. They could even create a live interview with witnesses or film a news bulletin.

• Choose an area of the room to be the stage and organise the rest of the groups to be the audience. Explain that after each group has performed, the audience are to point out what has happened to Helena in the scene and who they think has made it happen; and what has happened to Bertram and who they think has made it happen. Eg: Helena decides to follow Bertram.(Helena is responsible). Bertram is forced to marry Helena. (Helena and the King are responsible).

• Invite each group to perform their scene in order of the plot points and ask one student to keep a record of the results.

• After all groups have performed, make a list of all the things that happen to Helena and Bertram and write the names of the person or people responsible for each. Display this list on a whiteboard or large piece of paper on the wall.

• Discuss the results. Who has the worst or most surprising journey in the play? What are the most shocking or funny events and who do they happen to? Who do they think is in control of the action? Are there any times when this changes? What do they think this this story is mainly about?

  PRODUCTION NOTES

  This is a play dominated by one woman’s actions and male and female behaviour is discussed and examined constantly throughout the play. Amongst the older characters, the Widow and the Countess have clear maternal duties and the the male French King is given much authority. In our production, we introduce other interesting roles for women that show a very different world from that of Shakespeare’s 400 years ago:

  • Rinaldo is played by an actress, bringing a much more feminine environment to the Countess’ World, compared to the maleness of the King’s Court.
  • The Duke of Florence (the King’s opposition) is shown as a female high ranking army figure and her death is shown via a screened news bulletin, showing women as main players on the political and military arena.
  • Many army figures, including the Young Dumaine are female, reflecting the reality of the modern armed forces.

• Organise your students into two equal lines, facing each other. Hand one line the HELENA quotes and the other the BERTRAM quotes.

• Ask the first person in Helena’s line to say Quote 1 to her Bertram (standing opposite). Explain that ‘her Bertram’ will then respond by saying Quote 1 from Bertram’s list and so on, down the line. (If you run out of quotes, start again from the beginning.)

• Challenge each Helena and Bertram to add ONE gesture or physical movement to go with their line as they say it. If their partner does not hear the quote clearly, they are allowed to say: “Quote me again” and their partner will repeat the line.

• When all students have performed their quote, ask them to face their partner, in pairs, and read all the quotes between them to make a small scene.

• Explain that all the pairs will be doing this together, but this time, either character must take a step forward when they feel they are ‘scoring a point’ or to take a step back if they feel injured or insulted in any way.

• When the ‘quote exchange’ is finished, ask the pairs to examine the journeys made: Who has gained the most ground? Was it an equal journey? Which lines took the biggest or firmest steps? What do these journeys tell us about these two characters? 

• Give each student ONE quote from either list. (If you have a smaller group, use quotes from the Helena list and then repeat the activity with the Bertram quotes.)

• Explain that they now have 5 minutes to choose a space in the room for themselves and add at least TWO gestures or still images to the line as they say it. Add that they do not have to memorise this line but just keep the quote to hand so they can read it easily.

• Now ask all the Bertrams to sit down to one side of the room and explain that they are about to visit Helena’s Instagram Page. As they go up to each Helena, she will say her line, along with her gestures. Then, they can move to the next Helena who will do the same, building up a visual impression of her feelings towards Bertram.

• When the Bertrams have visited all the Helenas, swap around so that the Helenas have a chance to visit Bertram’s Instagram.

• Discuss this experience as a group. Did anyone get an insight into the character’s private feelings? What were the main differences in both characters? Did the performances change when they went ‘public’?  

• As a whole group, discuss the meaning and use of the ‘Bed Trick’ in the play. Shakespeare uses this device in other plays such as: Measure for Measure and similar tricks in Much Ado About Nothing and Two Noble Kinsmen -  where characters (usually male) pretend to be other people in order to sleep with someone (usually a young woman).

• Discuss how audiences might have felt about such a plot device in Shakespeare’s times and how we feel towards them today. Does this change when the trick is played by a woman on a man?

• What challenges does Helena’s Bed Trick on Bertram bring to a production of the play in 2022? Is there any way to stage it so that it is justified or is it always going to make this a ‘problem play?’

Research in psychology and child development suggests that the impulse to nurture and curate a self-image is particularly strong during adolescence. Adolescents like Helena and Bertram are articulately susceptible to the influence of others around them.

Christopher Barrie, RSC Programme, All’s Well That Ends Well, 2022. 

The following is a design activity exploring the key characters of the play through the image they project. You will need 'Character Biographies' from the Resources section at the end of this page and pens and paper.

• Give your students some extra time to research ONE of their characters in more depth. What background do they come from? Where do they live? Who are they most like?

•  Ask them to collect images from this research to create a moodboard using a collage or photoshop app on their device.

• Share these designs in printed out pages on the wall or group webpage and discuss the results.  

Parolles has this hyper-masculinity and this idea that he has to be this incredible survivalist person and by the end, he learns that he can just be himself. A big idea of the production is how we live in the fantasy but have to deal with the mass of reality.

Júlia Levai, Assistant Director, All’s Well That Ends Well. 2022. 

This is a writing and performance activity to explore the character of Parolles and why he feels the need to lie. You will need pens & paper.

• Divide your students into pairs and give everyone a copy of Act 1 Scene 3. Ask your pairs to sit face to face and read the scene out loud to each other.

• When they have finished reading, ask them to discuss how both characters feel towards each other at the beginning of the scene. Does Helena think the Countess knows about her feelings? Has the Countess planned to ask Helena the truth? What is at stake here for Helena to reveal her feelings? Will the Countess blame her, ridicule her, send her away?

•  Explain to the pairs that they have ten minutes to write TWO diary entries for Helena, imagining her feelings before and after this scene. They can work on both entries together or choose one each. Encourage them to think about: the status of their character, what kind of a relationship they have, how easy it is to discuss their feelings with each other.

• Invite pairs to volunteer to show their work by reading the ‘Before’ diary entry, reading the scene together and then reading the ‘After’ entry.

• Discuss, as a group, the relationship between Helena and the Countess. How is it represented in the RSC production? How else could it be performed? What if the Countess was a different kind of character - less approachable, stricter, really grieving? 

• Give your pairs a copy of Act 2 Scene 3. This time, ask them to stand back-to-back and read the scene out loud to each other.

• When they have finished reading, ask them to discuss how this scene might be staged. Who else is on stage at this point? How public is it? Are any of Bertram’s friends watching?

•  Explain to your pairs that they have ten minutes to write a list of Bertram’s inner thoughts throughout this scene. The things that he dares not say or cannot say. Encourage them to write these directly onto the scene between the lines being said.

• Ask your pairs to think about why Bertram does not say these things and why he decides to obey the King instead. What does this say about the character of the King and what is at stake for Bertram? Could he be thrown out of court?

•  Invite pairs to rehearse their new scene, including the added lines that Bertram wants to say but can’t. Challenge them to find a way to add these lines in so that the King does not hear them, but the audience does. Eg: could he write things on pieces of paper and hold them up? Could he stand to one side and scream his inner thoughts? Could he whisper them as asides?

• Invite pairs to show this new scene and discuss the results. What does Shakespeare want the audience to feel towards Bertram here? Amusement? Frustration? Anger? Shock? Pity? How could the actor playing Bertram show his inner feelings to the audience without angering the King or getting into trouble? Does Helena pick up on any of this? How might this affect her behaviour? 

It’s unusual in Shakespeare for characters to say the title of the play in their dialogue, and in All’s Well they do so three times… With each repetition, the sense that things are coming to a happy ending appears to weaken. 

Dr Erin Sullivan, RSC Theatre Programme, All’s Well That Ends Well. 2022. 

This is a comedy of discomfort. What happens when the fairytale goes wrong? You laugh at it but then think “should I be laughing?” There is a lot of ‘cringe’ in this production but it also makes you feel quite ‘seen’ as an audience member.

Júlia Lavai, Assistant Director, All’s Well That Ends Well. 2022.

The physical activities below are designed to help students explore Helena’s pursuit of Bertram from both perspectives. You will need copies of OBSESSION from the Resources section at the end of this page.

Invite two volunteers to play Bertram and Helena. Give Helena a copy of the speech from the Resource. 

• Organise your students into a big circle and hand out the Resource. Explain that this is the very ending of the final Act of the play. Read the scene out loud, taking one line each around the circle.

• Discuss as a group what decisions Shakespeare has made to wrap up the stories of its main characters. How do they think he wants his audience to feel at the end of his play? What challenges to the director and cast does this ending create?

• Divide your students into groups of 4 and explain that they will have ten minutes to add any stage directions, lines or speeches to this scene to alter the ending of the play. Ask them to pay particular attention to the lines in BOLD. What happens after these lines are spoken? Eg: 

• Give your groups another five minutes to cast and rehearse their scenes starting from the stage direction halfway through the scene: Re-enter Widow, with HELENA, including all the new material and actions they have added.

• Invite groups to show their alternative endings and discuss the results as a group: Did any particular moments stand out or change the play significantly? How different would these moments be for an audience in Shakespeare’s time? What is the most satisfying version for today’s audience? 

• As a group, discuss the options that a modern director has to change Helena and Bertram’s story at the end of the play: eg. adding lines, adding movement, spotlighting actors etc.  

• Take a vote on these options. Which do the group think would be the most effective in a modern production and why? What argument is there in keeping the text as it is and letting the audience decide for themselves?