A Schools Edition of Men Should Weep by Scottish playwright Ena Lamont Stewart, a popular set text for SQA Higher English.
Set in the 1930s, Men Should Weep centres on the challenges faced by the Morrison family. This riveting portrayal of life in Glasgow’s slums explores themes such as poverty, love and the role of women.
This edition includes:
– An educational introduction with an overview of the play and playwright
– The full playscript
– Notes on the text, key quotations and questions to improve students’ understanding of the play
– Tasks and activities designed to support study/revision and build the skills of analysis and evaluation
– Assessment advice for the Critical Reading question paper
Set in the 1930s, Men Should Weep centres on the challenges faced by the Morrison family. This riveting portrayal of life in Glasgow’s slums explores themes such as poverty, love and the role of women.
This edition includes:
– An educational introduction with an overview of the play and playwright
– The full playscript
– Notes on the text, key quotations and questions to improve students’ understanding of the play
– Tasks and activities designed to support study/revision and build the skills of analysis and evaluation
– Assessment advice for the Critical Reading question paper
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Reviews
I have taught 'Men Should Weep' as a set text at Higher for the last few years and at times it had been a struggle to get copies of the play so I am really pleased that this new edition is out.
It begins with a brief introduction and context, including a bit about the language used in it. The play is then presented in full.
After the play there are lots of notes, revision and practice. Firstly, it takes you step by step through each scene, using a revision question as a focus, with notes on several quotations (and page numbers) to support pupils with them. There are tasks pertaining to the context, to the structure of the play (with key terms like 'exposition' explained), the main characters (supported by a web with Maggie in the centre), relationships and conflict, the ending and themes.
There is also some general advice for using it as a text for both the Set Text and Critical Essay sections of the final exam. There is one set of exam questions for both sections, which is always handy. There are revision questions too, which are always helpful.
It would be great to see in future editions more translation of the Scots - a lot of pupils studying this will not be familiar with the Glaswegian dialect and maybe not much Scots at all.
Overall, the detailed scene notes and revision prompts will be useful to any pupil studying this play.