Alongside Merri’s slow coming of age, we follow Stuart Macbeth’s rise and fall in the corporate world.

Home from Europe quarter way through her gap year, the only work 19YO Merri finds is as the Macbeths’ nanny. Sexually confused and lonely, she breaks with Mica, her female lover after developing a crush on her employer, the charming Stuart Macbeth.

Lorna, Stuart’s wife, exploits Merri, who overhears Lorna persuade Stuart to follow three Internet Gurus’ advice on taking over as chairman of SA Developments. Stuart uses Merri to confide how he destroys his old boss Duncan, and his best friend Banquo, and buys information on business colleagues.  As the year progresses, still taking the Internet Gurus’ advice, Stuart becomes increasingly obsessed with maintaining power, though always loathing his own excesses…

Reinventing the Classics: Shakespear Now!

The historian Yuval Noah Harari argues that large numbers of strangers only co-operate by a belief in common myths perpetuated in our folk stories and accepted by our religions. These infiltrate into literature and with time, become our guidelines. Though the worlds they describe might be different, they provide a torch for solving present day moral and ethical dilemmas. Immersing students into the great books and ideas of Western civilization is an excellent way of preparing them to meet the challenges of life.

The Guinness Book of Records lists over 500 feature-length film and TV versions of  Shakespeare. Some remain faithful to the original script. Others blend characters, plots and themes into something ‘new and strange.’ Before I took to writing, I was a high school  History and English teacher. Students were often flummoxed by Shakespeare’s wonderful, if archaic language, to the point that plot, character and language became lost in the need to translate.

Some might think me cheeky to attempt to rewrite the classics. But I had already done this twice: once for the middle grade novel ‘Neptunia’, and then in the YA verse novel ‘In Hades’, both loose adaptations of Homer’s ‘Odyssey’. I also wanted to show how timeless Shakespeare is by using vastly different settings.

I began with ‘The Tempest’. What if, instead of a magic island, in some distant future, Prospero and Miranda have been exiled by wicked brother Alonso to a spaceship in some lonely part of the universe?  What if the only other inhabitants are the aliens Caliban and Ariel?  In ‘The Trytth Chronicles’ nineteen-year-old Miranda, along with her father Prospero, the rightful director of the Naples2Meta-Planetory-Corporation, has been exiled by her uncle Alonso, to an isolated spaceship. Also on board are Ariel – a Trytth. And Caliban – a Xrobb. Prospero, using Blue Power, creates a tempest of meteors to destroy Alonso’s small spaceship and brings his brother, his nephew Ferdie and those that help run Alonso’s mega company to his giant starship.  As in the original play, Miranda and Ferdie fall instantly in love. But Alonso’s subordinates have murder on their minds. And evil Caliban, wanting to make Miranda his bride, steals a tube of Blue Power and flies Ariel and four humans to the beautiful but dangerous planet of Trytth. What happens then tests Miranda’s courage to the limit.

My problem with ‘Macbeth’ was relating it from the perspective of a contemporary youngster. It has always struck me that ‘overvaulting ambition’ is universal, and there are many ways to destroy an opponent apart from daggers, swords, bullets or poison. Our media delights in following the rise and fall of our more brazen business entrepreneurs. And don’t many young people have trouble finding employment?  In ‘Gap Year Nanny’, Merri Attwater is home too early from her gap year, the only work she finds is as a nanny where she develops a crush on her employer, the charismatic Stuart Macbeth.  One night she overhears Stuart’s ambitious wife Lorna, persuade him to pay three Internet Gurus for advice on becoming more successful. Using Merri as his sounding board, Stuart admits to destroying his old boss Duncan and taking over the company.  As the year progresses, Merri’s life improves. But Stuart’s overwhelming ambitions start to destroy him.  What I did change from the original play was allowing Lorna Macbeth, who truly doesn’t deserve it, another lease of life.

When it came to the setting of ‘Romeo and Juliet’ I found a building in Berlin only rediscovered in 2008. Originally named ‘The Hummingbird Restaurant and Theatre’, it reached its full glory in 1920’s during the Weimar Republic when Berlin was a centre of cultural Europe but the building fell into disrepute after the 2^nd world war. Twenties Berlin had enormous creativity, strong divisions between rich and poor, a weak government and too many small and aggressive political parties. So many instances still occur of youngsters from different ethnicities and religions falling foul of their conservative families. In Changing History? Melbourne based Taylor and her grandfather, visiting Berlin in July 2017, are exploring this old building now turned into an art gallery.  Though Taylor wants to audition for entry into tertiary dance schools, she’s told she won’t make it.  Worse still, her two closest friends are betraying her. Hit by a chunk of cornice, she regains consciousness in May 1928. Rom, the Hummingbird’s junior manager, takes her home to his impoverished family. Now Taylor only survives by dishwashing, clearing tables, sharing a tiny room with dancer Juliet, and eventually joining her troupe.  Rom and Juliet are deeply in love. But as they come from different religions, both sets of parents are totally against their marriage. When Taylor hears that Hitler is coming to Berlin, she persuades Juliet and Rom to help her poison him and thus prevent the Holocaust and WW2. But can Taylor really change history?

The Sydney based company Five Senses Education took on Shakespeare Now! Three books each averaging 270 plus pages was a mammoth effort, and I worried that a one-fits-all cover would be quickly dismissed. My good fortune was finding the artist Paul Taplin who created some startling results. Now all I can hope is that the youngsters who read these novels will be interested enough to go back to the originals, because there is no way any contemporary author can attempt to reproduce Shakespeare’s wonderful poetry.

Reviews

Gap Year Nanny
Reviewed by Anastasia Gonis — Booklover, Writer, Reviewer & Interviewer

In Gap Year Nanny, adapted from Macbeth, we see corruption, lust for power, and dissipation which accompany the betrayal, ruin and death of loved ones.

While Merri is on holiday in Europe, her belongings are stolen at the backpacker’s hostel. To repay the debt incurred for her return home, she becomes nanny to the three children of the very rich Lorna and Stuart.

Lorna is obsessed with money and status. In order to increase their income, she manipulates Stuart into taking advice from three company gurus that communicate through a TV screen. Stuart loses control of his life to them, deteriorates physically and emotionally, and then falls apart after playing a decisive role in the destruction and death of his best friend. His end is expected.

Meanwhile, Merri, obsessed with Stuart, is struggling with her conflicting sexuality after breaking-up with girlfriend Mica. Totally responsible for the children and as a constant observer of their parents’ detachment, growth, change and maturity is inevitable in an ever-evolving Merri as she tries to make sense of her life and the role she’s participating in.

Written in a complex but easily followed storyline, and set in a fantasy world of warring creatures and threats from amazing composite animals and the elements, that include the emotional turmoil of the characters, Alexander creates a riveting and imaginative read.

An intelligent, knowledgeable writer and former teacher of Shakespeare,
Goldie Alexander’s trilogy is presented with depth and credence. The trilogy also comes in an Anthology.

Gap Year Nanny
Reviewed by Ella (ellalamb.blogspot.com)

“Part of the Shakespeare Now! trilogy (also available as an anthology), Gap Year Nanny takes Macbeth from historic Scotland and brings it to modern Melbourne.

During her gap year, Merri watches the rise and fall of her employers, corporate climber Stuart Macbeth and his wife Lorna, while looking after the couple’s young children. The familiar tale of greed and corruption plays out against Merri’s day-to-day problems, such as getting her charges to trust her, losing old friends, making new ones, and balancing a social life with the demands of her job.

Placing Macbeth’s main themes and characters in a modern setting (the witches make a memorable appearance as internet gurus) makes this book a great introduction for young people studying “the Scottish play” for the first time.

I look forward to reading the other two books in the trilogy – The Trytth Chronicles based on The Tempest and set in the future, and Changing History? a time-slip novel set in 1928 Berlin based on Romeo and Juliet.”

Shakespeare Now!
Reviewed by Jan Bottcher

Goldie Alexander’s ability to bring the past, present and future to life is realised in her latest astute retellings of popular Shakespeare plays that will captivate secondary school students.

This trilogy consists of:

‘The Trytth Chronicles’ – The Tempest

‘Gap Year Nanny’ – Macbeth

‘Changing History?’ – Romeo and Juliet

‘The Trytth Chronicles’ uses ‘The Tempest’ as a springboard for spine chilling adventures in space. Prospero, and his young daughter Miranda have been banished to a deserted space-ship where the aliens, Ariel and Caliban live. When Miranda and her cousin Ferdie meet they immediately fall in the love. But wicked Caliban, seeking revenge on Prospero, sends the lovers to the distant planet of Trytth and puts their life in danger.

‘Changing History?’ Dance student Taylor is thrust back in time into the Weimar Republic – a period of political turmoil, violence and economic hardship but also one of new social freedoms and vibrant artistic movements.  The seedy Hummingbird restaurant and dancehall provides a gritty background as Taylor tries to  help a couple in love, and  prevent WW2 and the Holocaust from happening.

In ‘Gap Year Nanny’ the major characters are as unpleasant as in the original play! Ambitious Stuart Macbeth is persuaded by three internet gurus into destroying his opponents and finally himself. Merri’s account of his rise and fall and her interaction with the Macbeth family provides an interesting counterpoint to her own growing maturity.

The concept behind these novels is to demonstrate how classic characters and plots can be transformed into stories young adults will find intriguing by morphing them into contemporary settings. This is not unfamiliar territory as Goldie has already tackled the magical elements of ‘The Odyssey’ as a middle grade novel and a YA verse novel.

The Shakespeare Trilogy is a narrative introduction to the original plays with the intent that they become more accessible for students who find Shakespeare difficult. Students will be motivated to explore the plays and perhaps even write their own versions. Yet even without any previous knowledge of Shakespeare, these three novels provide enjoyable stories very suitable for YA readers.

Shakespeare Now!
Reviewed by Virginia Lowes

“Making Shakespeare accessible and relevant to today’s kids, who often groan about having to ‘do’ Shakespeare, Goldie has written thoroughly modern stories with the same theme and message. See her website for full details.

I especially loved the world of Trytth – the world Ariel came from originally. It’s another planet world – a bit like those invented by the late Ursula Le Guin, where the people and the world run on an arrangement like a hive, with everyone doing their jobs and no fighting. That’s the one about The Tempest and the first part takes place on a space ship which is Prospero and Miranda’s Island. (John, in proofreading, thought it was odd that the modes of transport [ship wreck/space ship] and the lands [the Island and the planet Trytth] didn’t represent each other) but it’s quite logical in the book, I assure you.)

The other two are equally engaging. If you are thinking of becoming a nanny for a while, read Gap Year Nanny and investigate Macbeth’s world translated into the corporate world of today – backstabbing thrives still. And Romeo and Juliet again battle with their families with disastrous results in Changing History? Of course, in pre-war Germany with Nazis on the rise, the ‘fault in their stars’ is that they are Jewish and Christian – how can they marry? How can they be safe?”

‘SHAKESPEARE NOW! A TRILOGY ’

www.goldiealexander.com

www.fivesenseseducation.com.au

This novel is also available as an Anthology which contains all three books.

Price for individual books: $ 15.26
Shakespeare Now: An Anthology: $ 31.46

Published 6th November 2018

ISBN: 981760322601