That said, not even Liv could make Shakespeare less boring. Because, sorry: his plays were so boring. All those long soliloquies and iambic pentameter that were so difficult to understand. Maya hated having to study him. Like Zac said, why was she wasting her time studying some old, dead white guy? He had no relevance to what was happening today. Saying that, old white guys seemed to be running the world these days.

Maya said as much to Liv when they were sitting in the audience, waiting for the curtain to go up, but Liv had simply smiled, like she was in on some secret. Maya wished she was at Zac’s. She hadn’t heard from him all day; he was busy updating the protest group’s website and trying to organize a new rally. He’d wanted her to help, but she told him she had to stay home revising. She felt bad lying, but Zac said the theatre was just for luvvies and the bourgeoisie. Thing is, the woman next to her in a hoodie and trainers didn’t look like a luvvy. She looked quite normal. In fact most people in the audience did.

The first scene was the one with the witches. Maya tried not to roll her eyes. Seriously, were they supposed to be scary? Hasn’t anyone got Netflix? The first twenty minutes dragged on forever and she tried not to fidget or look at her phone to see if Zac had texted back. But then something weird happened: she totally forgot they were actors dressed up onstage, and somehow the words they were saying, which had never made sense when she read them in class, suddenly seemed to make perfect sense and the play immediately came to life for her.

It was the strangest thing. She’d expected to sit there for two hours being bored to tears, but instead she found herself gripped and on the edge of her seat. The time flew by. It was like she was right in the action. It was epic.

Why had no one ever told her that Shakespeare’s plays weren’t meant to be read, that they’d been written to be performed? No wonder she hadn’t got it. But watching it onstage was a game-changer. Lady Macbeth was a badass. And the whole bit about Macduff and the C-section. That was sick.

Maya couldn’t believe how wrong she’d been. Talk about being relevant today. It was all about the corruption of power – about people being motivated by greed and ambition, and jealousy and revenge. All the flaws of human nature. She’d been blown away. Seriously, it was better than anything she’d seen on Netflix. The end was so shocking and gruesome; when they appeared onstage with Macbeth’s severed head, she’d had to hide behind her hands. Who would have thought it?

Well, Liv – because she whispered when it was safe to look again.

Wait till she told Zac! Maya hadn’t told him she was going to the theatre, after he was so dismissive about it. She didn’t want an argument, but now she couldn’t not share her experience. So as soon as they left the theatre, she called him as they were walking through the city centre. Across the street were several bars and they were a bit rowdy, so she held her phone to her ear to hear it ringing.