0:00:12 > 0:00:13BELL TOLLS
0:00:20 > 0:00:22- Just keep it down when you get up there.- Shh.
0:00:22 > 0:00:24What if it's still there?
0:00:26 > 0:00:28Shh!
0:00:31 > 0:00:33Is all our company here?
0:00:33 > 0:00:34Yep.
0:00:34 > 0:00:36- Hello.- Yup.
0:00:36 > 0:00:37Hiya!
0:00:37 > 0:00:40- WOH-HOH! - SCREAMING AND LAUGHTER
0:00:42 > 0:00:44HE LAUGHS
0:00:44 > 0:00:47Is all our company here?
0:00:47 > 0:00:51You're best to call them generally, man by man, according to the script.
0:00:51 > 0:00:55Masters, here is the scroll
0:00:55 > 0:00:56of every man's name,
0:00:56 > 0:00:59who is thought fit, through all Athens,
0:00:59 > 0:01:02to play in our interlude before the duke and the duchess,
0:01:02 > 0:01:04on his wedding day, at night.
0:01:04 > 0:01:08First, good Peter Quince, say what the play treats on,
0:01:08 > 0:01:11then read the names of your actors, and so grow on to a point.
0:01:11 > 0:01:13Marry, our play is,
0:01:13 > 0:01:16"The most lamentable comedy
0:01:16 > 0:01:19"and most cruel death of Pyramus and Thisbe."
0:01:19 > 0:01:23Oh! A very good piece of work, I assure you, and a merry.
0:01:23 > 0:01:27Now, read the names of the actors. Masters, spread yourselves.
0:01:27 > 0:01:29Answer as I call you.
0:01:29 > 0:01:32Nick Bottom, the weaver.
0:01:32 > 0:01:34Ready. Name what part I am for, and proceed.
0:01:34 > 0:01:38- You, Nick Bottom, are set down for Pyramus.- Yes!
0:01:38 > 0:01:40What is Pyramus,
0:01:40 > 0:01:42a lover or a tyrant?
0:01:43 > 0:01:48It is a lover who kills himself most gallant for love.
0:01:48 > 0:01:52That will ask some tears in the true performing of it.
0:01:52 > 0:01:56If I do it, let the audience look to their eyes.
0:01:56 > 0:01:58I will move storms.
0:01:58 > 0:02:01I will condole in some measure.
0:02:01 > 0:02:06To the rest. Yet, my chief humour is for a tyrant.
0:02:06 > 0:02:09I could play Ercles rarely,
0:02:09 > 0:02:12or a part to tear a cat in, to make all split.
0:02:18 > 0:02:20The raging rocks
0:02:20 > 0:02:23And shivering shocks
0:02:23 > 0:02:27Shall break the locks Of prison gates.
0:02:27 > 0:02:31And Phibbus' car Shall shine from far
0:02:31 > 0:02:33And make and mar
0:02:33 > 0:02:36The foolish Fates.
0:02:36 > 0:02:38- Bravo! - APPLAUSE
0:02:38 > 0:02:42This was lofty! Now name the rest of the players.
0:02:42 > 0:02:43Francis Flute.
0:02:43 > 0:02:46This was Ercles' vein.
0:02:46 > 0:02:49A tyrant's vein.
0:02:49 > 0:02:51A lover is more condoling.
0:02:51 > 0:02:54Francis Flute, the bellows-mender.
0:02:54 > 0:02:56Here, Peter Quince.
0:02:56 > 0:02:58You, Flute, must take Thisbe on you.
0:02:58 > 0:03:01- What is Thisbe?- A wandering knight?
0:03:02 > 0:03:05It is the lady that Pyramus must love!
0:03:05 > 0:03:10Nay, faith, let not me play a woman. I have a beard coming.
0:03:10 > 0:03:12That's all one.
0:03:12 > 0:03:16You may play it in a mask, and you may speak as small as you will.
0:03:16 > 0:03:19And I may hide my face, let me play Thisbe, too.
0:03:19 > 0:03:22I will speak in a monstrous little voice.
0:03:22 > 0:03:25"Thisne, Thisne!"
0:03:29 > 0:03:33"Oh, Pyramus, my lover dear!
0:03:33 > 0:03:37"Thy Thisbe dear, and lady dear!"
0:03:37 > 0:03:40No, you must play Pyramus. And, Flute, you Thisbe.
0:03:41 > 0:03:43Well, proceed.
0:03:43 > 0:03:45Robin Starveling, the tailor.
0:03:45 > 0:03:46Here, Peter Quince.
0:03:46 > 0:03:50You must play Thisbe's mother. HE LAUGHS
0:03:50 > 0:03:53- Ay, ay, ay, ay, ay. Tom Snout, the tinker.- Here, Peter Quince.
0:03:53 > 0:03:58You, Pyramus' father. Myself, Thisbe's father.
0:03:58 > 0:04:02Snug, the joiner. You, the lion's part.
0:04:02 > 0:04:06- And I hope here is a play fitted. - Have you the lion's part written?
0:04:06 > 0:04:11I pray you, if it be, give it me, for I am slow of study.
0:04:11 > 0:04:15You may do it extempore, for it is nothing but roaring.
0:04:15 > 0:04:16Aar, aar, aar!
0:04:16 > 0:04:18Let me play the lion, too!
0:04:18 > 0:04:21I will roar that will do any man's heart good to hear me.
0:04:21 > 0:04:25I will roar that will make the duke say, "Let him roar again".
0:04:25 > 0:04:29Wooh! "Let him roar again!"
0:04:30 > 0:04:31And you should do it too terribly.
0:04:31 > 0:04:34You would fright the duchess and the ladies
0:04:34 > 0:04:38that they would shriek, and that were enough to hang us all.
0:04:38 > 0:04:40ALL: They would hang us, every mother's son?!
0:04:40 > 0:04:42Granted, friends,
0:04:42 > 0:04:45if we were to fright the ladies out of their wits,
0:04:45 > 0:04:49they would have no more discretion but to hang us.
0:04:49 > 0:04:51- But- I- will aggravate my voice,
0:04:51 > 0:04:56so that I will roar you as gently as any sucking dove.
0:04:58 > 0:05:00Rurr!
0:05:00 > 0:05:02Rurr!
0:05:02 > 0:05:07I will roar you, as 'twere any nightingale. Rurr!
0:05:07 > 0:05:10You can play no part but Pyramus!
0:05:13 > 0:05:16For Pyramus...
0:05:16 > 0:05:19Pyramus is a sweet-faced man.
0:05:19 > 0:05:21He's a proper man,
0:05:21 > 0:05:24as you shall see on a summer's day.
0:05:24 > 0:05:30A most lovely, gentleman-like man.
0:05:32 > 0:05:34Therefore, you must needs play Pyramus.
0:05:39 > 0:05:41Well, I will undertake it.
0:05:41 > 0:05:43What beard were I best to play it in?
0:05:43 > 0:05:44Why, what you will.
0:05:44 > 0:05:48I will discharge it in either your straw-coloured beard,
0:05:48 > 0:05:53your orange-tawny beard, your purple-ingrained beard,
0:05:53 > 0:05:56or your French crown-coloured beard, your perfect yellow.
0:05:56 > 0:05:59Some of your French crowns have no hair at all,
0:05:59 > 0:06:01and then you may play bare-faced.
0:06:01 > 0:06:02Bare-faced!
0:06:02 > 0:06:04HE LAUGHS
0:06:04 > 0:06:06Ha-ha-ha! Bare-faced!
0:06:10 > 0:06:15Masters, here are your parts,
0:06:15 > 0:06:18and I must entreat you,
0:06:18 > 0:06:22request you, and desire you,
0:06:22 > 0:06:25to con them by tomorrow night.
0:06:25 > 0:06:27Rurr, rurr, rurr.
0:06:27 > 0:06:32And meet me in the palace woods a mile without the town, by moonlight.
0:06:32 > 0:06:35There will we rehearse. If we meet in the city,
0:06:35 > 0:06:39we shall be dogged with company, and our devices known.
0:06:39 > 0:06:42In the meantime, I'll draw up a bill of properties,
0:06:42 > 0:06:44such as our play wants.
0:06:44 > 0:06:45I pray you fail me not.
0:06:45 > 0:06:48We will meet, and there may we rehearse more obscenely
0:06:48 > 0:06:50and courageously.
0:06:50 > 0:06:52Take pains, be perfect. Adieu!
0:06:52 > 0:06:55At the duke's oak we meet.
0:06:55 > 0:06:58Enough! Hold, or cut bow-strings.
0:06:58 > 0:07:00ALL: Cut bow-strings!
0:07:16 > 0:07:19I think status is an issue in life in general.
0:07:19 > 0:07:23You always need to know where you are in a group, I think.
0:07:23 > 0:07:28As animals, we kind of want to know how we relate to somebody else,
0:07:28 > 0:07:29what our position is.
0:07:29 > 0:07:32OK, so what I think would be a good idea is if we,
0:07:32 > 0:07:34just for an exercise, briefly,
0:07:34 > 0:07:38stand in a line from high status, over there, to lowest status, here,
0:07:38 > 0:07:41of where you think your status is within the group
0:07:41 > 0:07:43- at the beginning of the scene. - In this first...?
0:07:43 > 0:07:46Absolutely, the beginning of this scene.
0:07:47 > 0:07:51I think we were almost sat in status.
0:07:51 > 0:07:54I'd argue that.
0:07:54 > 0:07:55That's probably right.
0:07:55 > 0:07:58OK, so if this is the highest status,
0:07:58 > 0:08:00then this is the lowest.
0:08:00 > 0:08:03There's even a gap between us. This is an important gap.
0:08:03 > 0:08:05- There's not much of a gap. - The gap IS important.
0:08:05 > 0:08:09What does Bottom think the status is?
0:08:09 > 0:08:12I'm at the top, then there's Quince. and then everyone else.
0:08:12 > 0:08:15- LAUGHTER - So, literally, in a group.
0:08:15 > 0:08:17It doesn't matter. It doesn't really matter where they are.
0:08:17 > 0:08:19- This is the battle... - Yeah, I think so.
0:08:19 > 0:08:22..between Quince and Bottom.
0:08:22 > 0:08:24What about Snug then, Chris? Where would you think
0:08:24 > 0:08:27everybody's status is, and where's your status?
0:08:27 > 0:08:32I am going to take this personally, if you don't.
0:08:32 > 0:08:34I'd put Quince at the top.
0:08:36 > 0:08:38Just from the evidence of within the scene,
0:08:38 > 0:08:42he has a little moment when he has a concern
0:08:42 > 0:08:45about what he's doing in the play, and it's Quince he talks to,
0:08:45 > 0:08:47because he knows Quince is in charge,
0:08:47 > 0:08:50and then this is about right.
0:08:50 > 0:08:52I think he sees himself at the bottom.
0:08:52 > 0:08:55- Yeah. But you together with...- Yeah.
0:08:55 > 0:08:58I think it would be interesting now to try this scene,
0:08:58 > 0:09:01and let's try playing with the status a bit.
0:09:01 > 0:09:04Let's try playing it with Quince top status,
0:09:04 > 0:09:08- and with Bottom with the low status. - Bottom down the bottom?- Yeah.
0:09:08 > 0:09:11Have you the lion's part written?
0:09:11 > 0:09:14I pray you, if it be, give it me, for I am slow of study.
0:09:14 > 0:09:17You may do it extempore, for it is nothing but roaring.
0:09:17 > 0:09:19- Rarr!- Rarr!
0:09:19 > 0:09:21Let me play the lion, too.
0:09:21 > 0:09:24I will roar that will do any man's heart good to hear me.
0:09:24 > 0:09:26- Rarr!- I will roar you.- No, he's playing the lion.
0:09:26 > 0:09:30That'll make the duke say, "Let him roar again".
0:09:30 > 0:09:33You should do it too terribly, you would fright the duchess and
0:09:33 > 0:09:36the ladies that they would shriek. That were enough to hang us all.
0:09:36 > 0:09:39ALL: That would hang us, every mother's son.
0:09:39 > 0:09:42Granted, friends, if we were to fright the ladies
0:09:42 > 0:09:46out of their wits, they would have no more discretion but to hang us.
0:09:46 > 0:09:50I WILL roar you as 'twere any sucking dove.
0:09:50 > 0:09:52As 'twere any nightingale.
0:09:52 > 0:09:55No, no, no. You must play Pyramus.
0:09:55 > 0:09:57And Flute, you, Thisbe!
0:09:59 > 0:10:02I rather liked the sort of submerged...
0:10:02 > 0:10:04That was really weird!
0:10:04 > 0:10:07So weird, and so awkward.
0:10:07 > 0:10:11So awkward. If I was to play really in the lower status there,
0:10:11 > 0:10:14I wouldn't speak. The scene wouldn't move.
0:10:14 > 0:10:16And the others would have cut him off.
0:10:16 > 0:10:19No, I know what you're going to say.
0:10:19 > 0:10:21There's something about Bottom.
0:10:21 > 0:10:24People say, "That's absolute rubbish," all the time to him.
0:10:24 > 0:10:27And he says, "Yeah, but this."
0:10:27 > 0:10:29He's enough of a bluffer
0:10:29 > 0:10:33to speak quickly and get himself out of the hole that he's in.
0:10:33 > 0:10:36The roar. "No, you'd frighten ladies". "Well, I do it like this,
0:10:36 > 0:10:37"and then do that".
0:10:37 > 0:10:39He's always protecting himself,
0:10:39 > 0:10:44which, if you are playing low status, it's really hard to do.
0:10:44 > 0:10:45Giving Quince high status
0:10:45 > 0:10:47seemed to work on a certain level.
0:10:47 > 0:10:50It becomes very overbearing.
0:10:50 > 0:10:55- I- think Quince is much more into coercing people, persuading,
0:10:55 > 0:10:58or sneaking up on them,
0:10:58 > 0:11:01if you like but not imposing.
0:11:01 > 0:11:04I don't think he imposes.
0:11:04 > 0:11:07But he just niggles away at people until they give in,
0:11:07 > 0:11:09or find themselves doing it despite themselves.
0:11:09 > 0:11:13What would be interesting now, if we could try flipping it.
0:11:13 > 0:11:14Quince low status?
0:11:14 > 0:11:18- Quince low status, and Bottom... - I'll never get a word in edgeways!
0:11:18 > 0:11:19LAUGHTER
0:11:19 > 0:11:21Oi!
0:11:22 > 0:11:24Have you the lion's part written?
0:11:24 > 0:11:28I pray you, if it be, give it me, for I am slow of study.
0:11:28 > 0:11:32Erm, you may do it extempore, for it is nothing but roaring.
0:11:32 > 0:11:35Let me play the lion, too.
0:11:35 > 0:11:37- I- will roar you, as 'twere...
0:11:37 > 0:11:40I will roar that will make the duke say "Let him roar again".
0:11:40 > 0:11:42"Let him roar again!"
0:11:42 > 0:11:43APPLAUSE AND WHOOPING
0:11:43 > 0:11:45If you should do it too terribly,
0:11:45 > 0:11:49you would fright the duchess and the ladies that they would shriek.
0:11:49 > 0:11:51But that would be enough to hang us all.
0:11:51 > 0:11:53BOTH: That would hang us, every mother's son(!)
0:11:53 > 0:11:55Granted, friends,
0:11:55 > 0:11:57if we were to fright the ladies out of their wits,
0:11:57 > 0:12:00they would have no more discretion but to hang us.
0:12:00 > 0:12:04- But- I- will aggravate my voice.
0:12:04 > 0:12:07- I- will roar you as 'twere
0:12:07 > 0:12:09- any sucking dove.- BOTH: Yeah!
0:12:09 > 0:12:13I will roar you as 'twere any nightingale.
0:12:15 > 0:12:19You can play no part but Pyramus.
0:12:19 > 0:12:24Pyramus...is a sweet-faced man.
0:12:26 > 0:12:31He's a proper man, as you shall see on a summer's day.
0:12:31 > 0:12:33He's a most lovely...
0:12:33 > 0:12:35Gentleman?
0:12:35 > 0:12:38..gentleman-like man.
0:12:38 > 0:12:41Therefore, you must needs play Pyramus.
0:12:41 > 0:12:43- And the lion.- And Thisbe.
0:12:43 > 0:12:45- Yeah, whatever you want to play. - He can do them all.
0:12:47 > 0:12:51That was really interesting about the persuading him
0:12:51 > 0:12:54to play the part. All of you then joined in the persuasion of him
0:12:54 > 0:12:56to please play this part.
0:12:56 > 0:12:59I think is there is something in that.
0:12:59 > 0:13:01I think we do want to give Bottom that status,
0:13:01 > 0:13:04we do need him, in that sense.
0:13:04 > 0:13:07Status needs everyone else to give it to you.
0:13:07 > 0:13:12You can't believe in your own status, and have that be true.
0:13:12 > 0:13:14If you want to be top status,
0:13:14 > 0:13:16everyone has to be giving that to you.
0:13:16 > 0:13:19It's such a flexible thing.
0:13:19 > 0:13:25We're all in the scene. When it's at its best. We're all flexing
0:13:25 > 0:13:30within our bounds, but it's still a moveable thing.
0:13:30 > 0:13:33I think it would be interesting now to try it with you guys
0:13:33 > 0:13:36fighting the top status between you two,
0:13:36 > 0:13:39or passing it between you and whether you are passing it
0:13:39 > 0:13:41or taking it from each other.
0:13:41 > 0:13:45I will roar that will make the duke say, "Let him roar again.
0:13:45 > 0:13:46"Let him roar again!"
0:13:48 > 0:13:49And you should do it too terribly,
0:13:49 > 0:13:53you would fright the duchess and the ladies that they would shriek.
0:13:53 > 0:13:56That were enough to hang us all.
0:13:56 > 0:13:59ALL: That would hang us, every mother's son.
0:13:59 > 0:14:00Granted, friends,
0:14:00 > 0:14:02if we were to fright the ladies out of their wits,
0:14:02 > 0:14:05they would have no more discretion but to hang us.
0:14:05 > 0:14:08- But- I- will aggravate my voice.
0:14:08 > 0:14:13- I- will roar you as gently as any sucking dove.
0:14:13 > 0:14:14Rurr!
0:14:14 > 0:14:17I will roar you as 'twere any nightingale.
0:14:17 > 0:14:22You can play no part but PYRAMUS!
0:14:25 > 0:14:29Nick, look... For Pyramus is a sweet-faced man.
0:14:29 > 0:14:34He's a proper man, as you shall see on a summer's day.
0:14:34 > 0:14:39A most lovely, gentleman-like man.
0:14:39 > 0:14:43Therefore, you must needs play Pyramus.
0:14:49 > 0:14:51I will undertake it.
0:14:52 > 0:14:54So how did that feel, then?
0:14:54 > 0:14:55It's funny for us.
0:14:55 > 0:14:58I feel like it's watching Mum and Dad argue, or something.
0:14:58 > 0:15:00Exactly that, that's what I felt.
0:15:00 > 0:15:03We're keeping ourselves out of it a bit more,
0:15:03 > 0:15:04letting them get on with it.
0:15:04 > 0:15:06What WAS interesting,
0:15:06 > 0:15:09was having to collude with Bottom,
0:15:09 > 0:15:12on the persuading him.
0:15:12 > 0:15:14Instead of doing it in front of everybody, it was saying,
0:15:14 > 0:15:16"You and I know what it is.
0:15:16 > 0:15:19"You've got to do this, cos look at that lot, they can't do it".
0:15:19 > 0:15:22- And it makes me feel very special. - Yes.
0:15:22 > 0:15:25It's pumping my status up.
0:15:25 > 0:15:29I think in some senses, you've given it to him for the rest of the scene.
0:15:29 > 0:15:31I felt the status shift very much between you.
0:15:31 > 0:15:32It did, yes.
0:15:32 > 0:15:37I felt very easily led as to which one to listen to,
0:15:37 > 0:15:39so I would be like, "Now I'm going to listen to you".
0:15:39 > 0:15:43I feel that you have status for your project.
0:15:43 > 0:15:46You want the best for your work,
0:15:46 > 0:15:49and you want the work to serve you, as an actor, as a star.
0:15:49 > 0:15:52And that happens in our line of work a lot.
0:15:52 > 0:15:53Some people are team players,
0:15:53 > 0:15:56and really want to make the piece the best it can be.
0:15:56 > 0:15:59Some people want to be the stars, and to stand out.
0:15:59 > 0:16:02That's playing out very neatly in this scene.
0:16:07 > 0:16:12I think almost immediately, there is a certain sense of the clown
0:16:12 > 0:16:14about the six of them.
0:16:14 > 0:16:17About how they enact with other.
0:16:17 > 0:16:21I think you've had a very serious scene just previously,
0:16:21 > 0:16:25and so there is this sense of tension, which they come into.
0:16:25 > 0:16:26We have it in this scene,
0:16:26 > 0:16:28when we come out the trap the door slams,
0:16:28 > 0:16:31and people are uproarious with laughter. They're like,
0:16:31 > 0:16:34"I know this bit, that bit's really funny."
0:16:34 > 0:16:38I think their expectations are telling them, to start with,
0:16:38 > 0:16:40that it should be funny.
0:16:40 > 0:16:41It's like a release,
0:16:41 > 0:16:44but then I think, if you're not funny,
0:16:44 > 0:16:47they'll stop laughing pretty quickly.
0:16:47 > 0:16:48Think of what's gone before.
0:16:48 > 0:16:51A very steamy scene, and then suddenly, us,
0:16:51 > 0:16:52and it's a kind of...
0:16:52 > 0:16:53HE WHISTLES
0:16:53 > 0:16:55Is all our company here?
0:16:55 > 0:16:57You're best to call them generally, man by man,
0:16:57 > 0:17:00according to the scrip.
0:17:00 > 0:17:04Masters, here is the scroll of every man's name,
0:17:04 > 0:17:07who is thought fit, through all Athens, to play in
0:17:07 > 0:17:09our interlude, before the duke and the duchess,
0:17:09 > 0:17:11on his wedding day, at night.
0:17:14 > 0:17:18The language begins to become slightly wrong.
0:17:18 > 0:17:22It's like they're being self- contradictory as they go along.
0:17:22 > 0:17:25"You're best to call them generally, man by man,
0:17:25 > 0:17:28"according to the script", is a contradiction.
0:17:28 > 0:17:31"Call them all at once, but individually".
0:17:31 > 0:17:32Which you can't do.
0:17:32 > 0:17:35And so, there's this sort of sense of fun.
0:17:35 > 0:17:38All of them are using language, or trying to use language,
0:17:38 > 0:17:40- above themselves. - Above their station.
0:17:40 > 0:17:44- Like, "Discharge it". - And getting it slightly wrong.
0:17:44 > 0:17:47And Bottom, "I will condole in some measure."
0:17:47 > 0:17:48He doesn't mean that.
0:17:48 > 0:17:51The very first things you say often get a laugh which is ,
0:17:51 > 0:17:54"On his wedding day, at night".
0:17:54 > 0:17:56It tickles you slightly.
0:17:56 > 0:17:59Then, the tragical comedy.
0:17:59 > 0:18:00Lamentable.
0:18:00 > 0:18:02It should be, "LAM-entable",
0:18:02 > 0:18:05but I actually bend the word, so, "la-MENT-able."
0:18:05 > 0:18:10Our play is, "The most lamentable comedy,
0:18:10 > 0:18:13"and most cruel death of Pyramus and Thisbe".
0:18:13 > 0:18:17A very good piece of work, I assure you, and a merry.
0:18:17 > 0:18:20Then you say, "It's a good play, and a merry."
0:18:20 > 0:18:22I go, "Hang on, but it's about death, and it's merry
0:18:22 > 0:18:25"and it's lamentable and it's a comedy?"
0:18:25 > 0:18:27- "Lamentable comedy." - That often gets a laugh.
0:18:27 > 0:18:30In all Shakespeare's comedies, there are jokes
0:18:30 > 0:18:33that you read and go, "Oh, that's a joke."
0:18:33 > 0:18:37- They're really inaccessible.- But I have no idea what that's about.
0:18:37 > 0:18:40Absolutely. I think there is one particular joke in this scene
0:18:40 > 0:18:43- which is Quince's. - The straw-coloured beard.
0:18:43 > 0:18:46- What beard were I best to play it in?- Why, what you will!
0:18:46 > 0:18:49I will discharge it in either your straw-coloured beard,
0:18:49 > 0:18:53your orange-tawny beard, your purple-ingrained beard,
0:18:53 > 0:18:56your French crown-coloured beard, your perfect yellow.
0:18:56 > 0:18:58Some of your French crowns have no hair at all,
0:18:58 > 0:19:02then you may play bare-faced. BARE-faced!
0:19:02 > 0:19:03HE LAUGHS
0:19:03 > 0:19:06Ha-ha-ha! Bare-FACED!
0:19:06 > 0:19:09I would have no idea what that joke was,
0:19:09 > 0:19:12but because it sounds like a joke, it's paced like a joke.
0:19:12 > 0:19:15It goes, da da da da da dum, da dum, punch line,
0:19:15 > 0:19:18and people react, even though they don't really know
0:19:18 > 0:19:20what they're laughing at.
0:19:20 > 0:19:21A lot of comedy is about rhythm.
0:19:21 > 0:19:24It's about how a line is structured, and sounds on the ear.
0:19:24 > 0:19:28You know you're communicating through that to an audience,
0:19:28 > 0:19:30that they know when to laugh.
0:19:34 > 0:19:37Let's have a look at a bit of this scene,
0:19:37 > 0:19:42when Felix, as Bottom, did the "raging rocks and shivering shocks",
0:19:42 > 0:19:45and whether you consciously play that thinking,
0:19:45 > 0:19:47"I'm going to be funny as an actor."
0:19:47 > 0:19:49- We'll try a few different options. - OK.
0:19:49 > 0:19:51Shall we get on our feet?
0:19:51 > 0:19:55Let's try it, with you trying to be funny.
0:19:55 > 0:20:01The raging rocks And shivering shocks
0:20:01 > 0:20:05Shall break the locks Of prison gates
0:20:05 > 0:20:08And Phibbus' car
0:20:08 > 0:20:11Shall shine from far
0:20:11 > 0:20:13And make and mar
0:20:13 > 0:20:18The foolish Fates.
0:20:18 > 0:20:20Very good!
0:20:20 > 0:20:21THEY LAUGH
0:20:21 > 0:20:24- I quite like that. - It was the leg.
0:20:24 > 0:20:27It was like some sort of funky chicken.
0:20:27 > 0:20:29- So what did that feel like to do? - It felt weird.
0:20:29 > 0:20:32I felt very self-conscious because I was...
0:20:32 > 0:20:34- Just making silly voices. - Yeah, slightly.
0:20:34 > 0:20:38A bit trying too hard, as if I was trying to be funny.
0:20:38 > 0:20:41What makes that speech funny, though?
0:20:41 > 0:20:43I think what makes that speech funny
0:20:43 > 0:20:47is the attempt to do it as well as you can.
0:20:47 > 0:20:51It's like a kind of honest misunderstanding, almost, isn't it?
0:20:51 > 0:20:56It's what he believes an actor should be.
0:20:56 > 0:20:59I've seen a few. That's what they do, they stand there and they,
0:20:59 > 0:21:02they stand at the front and put their arms like this
0:21:02 > 0:21:03and then they do the speech.
0:21:03 > 0:21:06Because if it isn't an honest misunderstanding,
0:21:06 > 0:21:10- then he just becomes rather dislikeable, doesn't he?- Yeah.
0:21:10 > 0:21:13There's a sort of disjunction between his idea of his own talent
0:21:13 > 0:21:16and the execution of it. I suppose that's what's really funny.
0:21:16 > 0:21:19As soon as you have an actor who suddenly becomes
0:21:19 > 0:21:21a little self-aware, or a Bottom that becomes self aware
0:21:21 > 0:21:23that it's not going that well,
0:21:23 > 0:21:26or that it isn't the best performance he could have given,
0:21:26 > 0:21:28then that's not funny, or not so funny.
0:21:28 > 0:21:31But if he believes he's doing the best he possibly can,
0:21:31 > 0:21:33and that he might win an Oscar at the end,
0:21:33 > 0:21:35that's going to be priceless.
0:21:38 > 0:21:41DRUMS PLAY
0:21:53 > 0:21:57Ill met by moonlight, proud Titania.
0:21:57 > 0:22:01What, jealous Oberon?
0:22:01 > 0:22:03Fairies, skip hence.
0:22:03 > 0:22:07I have forsworn his bed and company.
0:22:07 > 0:22:08Tarry, rash wanton!
0:22:08 > 0:22:10Am not I thy lord?
0:22:10 > 0:22:13Then I must be thy lady.
0:22:13 > 0:22:19But I know when thou hast stol'n away from fairy land,
0:22:19 > 0:22:23And in the shape of Corin sat all day,
0:22:23 > 0:22:28Playing on pipes of corn and versing love to amorous Phillida.
0:22:30 > 0:22:33Why art thou here, come from the farthest step of India?
0:22:33 > 0:22:37But that, forsooth, the bouncing Amazon,
0:22:37 > 0:22:43Your buskined mistress and your warrior love,
0:22:43 > 0:22:45To Theseus must be wedded.
0:22:45 > 0:22:49And you come to give their bed joy and prosperity?
0:22:49 > 0:22:53How canst thou thus for shame, Titania,
0:22:53 > 0:22:55Glance at my credit with Hippolyta,
0:22:55 > 0:22:58knowing I know thy love to Theseus?
0:22:58 > 0:23:02Didst not thou lead him through the glimmering night
0:23:02 > 0:23:04from Perigenia whom he ravished?
0:23:04 > 0:23:07And make him with fair Aegles break his faith
0:23:07 > 0:23:10with Ariadne and Antiopa?
0:23:10 > 0:23:12These are the forgeries of jealousy,
0:23:12 > 0:23:15and never since the middle summer's spring met we on hill,
0:23:15 > 0:23:17in dale, forest or mead,
0:23:17 > 0:23:19by paved fountain or by rushy brook,
0:23:19 > 0:23:21or in the beached margent of the sea
0:23:21 > 0:23:24to dance our ringlets to the whistling wind,
0:23:24 > 0:23:28but with thy brawls thou hast disturbed our sport.
0:23:30 > 0:23:32Therefore the winds,
0:23:32 > 0:23:34piping to us in vain,
0:23:34 > 0:23:39as in revenge, have sucked up from the sea contagious fogs,
0:23:39 > 0:23:43which falling in the land hath every pelting river
0:23:43 > 0:23:49made so proud that they have overborne their continents.
0:23:49 > 0:23:53The ox hath therefore stretched his yoke in vain,
0:23:54 > 0:23:56the ploughman lost his sweat,
0:23:58 > 0:24:02and the green corn hath rotted ere his youth attained a beard.
0:24:04 > 0:24:08The fold stands empty in the drowned field,
0:24:08 > 0:24:12and crows are fatted with the murrion flock.
0:24:12 > 0:24:15The nine men's morris is filled up with mud,
0:24:15 > 0:24:18and the quaint mazes in the wanton green
0:24:18 > 0:24:22for lack of tread are undistinguishable.
0:24:22 > 0:24:25The human mortals want their winter here.
0:24:27 > 0:24:31No night is now with hymn or carol blessed.
0:24:32 > 0:24:36Therefore the moon, the governess of floods,
0:24:36 > 0:24:42Pale in her anger, washes all the air,
0:24:42 > 0:24:45that rheumatic diseases do abound.
0:24:45 > 0:24:51And thorough this distemperature we see the seasons alter,
0:24:51 > 0:24:57hoary-headed frosts fall in the fresh lap of the crimson rose,
0:24:57 > 0:25:01and on old Hiems' thin and icy crown
0:25:01 > 0:25:08an odorous chaplet of sweet summer buds
0:25:08 > 0:25:13is, as in mockery, set.
0:25:14 > 0:25:17The spring, the summer,
0:25:19 > 0:25:23the childing autumn, angry winter,
0:25:23 > 0:25:26change their wonted liveries,
0:25:26 > 0:25:29and the mazed world by their increase
0:25:29 > 0:25:33now knows not which is which.
0:25:33 > 0:25:39And this same progeny of evils comes from our debate,
0:25:39 > 0:25:41from our dissension.
0:25:41 > 0:25:45We are their parents and original.
0:25:45 > 0:25:47Do you amend it then,
0:25:47 > 0:25:48it lies in you.
0:25:49 > 0:25:53Why should Titania cross her Oberon?
0:25:53 > 0:25:56I do but beg a little changeling boy
0:25:56 > 0:25:58to be my henchman.
0:26:00 > 0:26:03Set your heart at rest.
0:26:07 > 0:26:11The fairy land buys not the child of me.
0:26:15 > 0:26:18His mother was a votress of my order,
0:26:18 > 0:26:23And in the spiced Indian air by night
0:26:23 > 0:26:27Full often hath she gossiped by my side,
0:26:27 > 0:26:32and sat with me on Neptune's yellow sands,
0:26:32 > 0:26:37Marking th'embarked traders on the flood,
0:26:37 > 0:26:42when we have laughed to see the sails conceive
0:26:42 > 0:26:47and grow big-bellied with the wanton wind,
0:26:47 > 0:26:49which she,
0:26:49 > 0:26:55with pretty and with swimming gait following
0:26:55 > 0:27:00her womb then rich with my young squire
0:27:00 > 0:27:04would imitate, and sail upon the land,
0:27:04 > 0:27:09to fetch me trifles, and return again
0:27:09 > 0:27:15as from a voyage, rich with merchandise.
0:27:15 > 0:27:20But she, being mortal, of that boy did die.
0:27:22 > 0:27:28And for her sake do I rear up her boy,
0:27:29 > 0:27:34and for her sake I will not part with him.
0:27:34 > 0:27:37How long within this wood intend you stay?
0:27:37 > 0:27:40Perchance till after Theseus' wedding day.
0:27:40 > 0:27:41FAIRIES LAUGH
0:27:43 > 0:27:45If you will patiently dance in our round
0:27:45 > 0:27:48and see our moonlight revels, go with us.
0:27:48 > 0:27:53If not, shun me, and I will spare your haunts.
0:28:03 > 0:28:07SHE WHOOPS
0:28:07 > 0:28:09Give me that boy, and I will go with thee.
0:28:09 > 0:28:12Not for thy fairy kingdom.
0:28:12 > 0:28:13Fairies, away.
0:28:13 > 0:28:16We shall chide downright, if I longer stay.
0:28:18 > 0:28:19Well, go thy way!
0:28:19 > 0:28:24Thou shalt not from this grove till I torment thee for this injury.
0:28:34 > 0:28:37What is your want during that speech?
0:28:37 > 0:28:39What do you want to achieve?
0:28:39 > 0:28:41- I want to awaken him.- Mmm.
0:28:41 > 0:28:43I want to shake him.
0:28:43 > 0:28:46- Which is why you show him all those images?- Yeah.
0:28:46 > 0:28:49Somehow it feels like the world,
0:28:49 > 0:28:51the worlds,
0:28:51 > 0:28:54are centred around Titania and Oberon.
0:28:54 > 0:28:55so when nature is happy
0:28:55 > 0:28:58that's because there is peace between them,
0:28:58 > 0:29:00and when they are at war,
0:29:00 > 0:29:05the effect and consequence of that is world disaster.
0:29:05 > 0:29:07Therefore the winds,
0:29:07 > 0:29:10piping to us in vain, as in revenge,
0:29:10 > 0:29:14have sucked up from the sea contagious fogs.
0:29:14 > 0:29:17She says that the wind,
0:29:17 > 0:29:18it's the winds that are angry
0:29:18 > 0:29:21and so they have caused these contagious fogs
0:29:21 > 0:29:24that then have poisoned the land
0:29:24 > 0:29:28and therefore the crows are now eating the dead animals
0:29:28 > 0:29:30and again, there's poison within their own body.
0:29:30 > 0:29:34The ox hath therefore stretched his yoke in vain.
0:29:35 > 0:29:38The ploughman lost his sweat,
0:29:38 > 0:29:43and the green corn hath rotted ere his youth attained a beard.
0:29:43 > 0:29:46It's interesting that Shakespeare does that thing
0:29:46 > 0:29:47of making them into people. For example,
0:29:47 > 0:29:51the young corn is rotted in the field
0:29:51 > 0:29:53before his youth has attained a beard.
0:29:53 > 0:29:56- Before he's aged.- So there's the interesting idea
0:29:56 > 0:29:59that you get through to him
0:29:59 > 0:30:01by making him think of
0:30:01 > 0:30:05the seasons and the corn as human beings who are being damaged
0:30:05 > 0:30:08rather than trying to get people to care about corn.
0:30:08 > 0:30:12Titania personalises it for him on this sort of epic scale.
0:30:12 > 0:30:15We see the seasons alter,
0:30:15 > 0:30:21hoary-headed frosts fall in the fresh lap of the crimson rose,
0:30:21 > 0:30:25and on old Hiems' thin and icy crown,
0:30:25 > 0:30:33an odorous chaplet of sweet summer buds.
0:30:33 > 0:30:35There's lovely images of things like...
0:30:35 > 0:30:37- Yeah...- What is it? The hoary-headed frost...
0:30:37 > 0:30:39The hoary-headed frost falls
0:30:39 > 0:30:41in the fresh lap of the crimson rose.
0:30:41 > 0:30:44The idea that the rose is full of frost...
0:30:44 > 0:30:47- Yeah.- And, of course, what's so astonishing is,
0:30:47 > 0:30:51now we all really can connect with that because of climate change.
0:30:51 > 0:30:56- Yeah.- The idea that you're going to get ice during the summer or...
0:30:56 > 0:30:59then the next one is about old Hiem's winter.
0:30:59 > 0:31:03Old Hiem's winter, and so on his thin and icy crown
0:31:03 > 0:31:07that I see, like, a patch of snow,
0:31:07 > 0:31:09and from that snow
0:31:09 > 0:31:12all of a sudden there are these beautiful summer flowers
0:31:12 > 0:31:13that have budded.
0:31:13 > 0:31:17So winter is an old man who has this crown of roses
0:31:17 > 0:31:19and so it's mocking his winteriness.
0:31:19 > 0:31:21Yeah. It's a mockery on our seasons
0:31:21 > 0:31:24and particularly like you know living in England
0:31:24 > 0:31:26we get to see the seasons so clearly,
0:31:26 > 0:31:31- and it's like they have been... - Altered.- ..fiddled with, altered,
0:31:31 > 0:31:33because of our arguments.
0:31:33 > 0:31:37These are gods, and the fact that they have these kind of human foibles
0:31:37 > 0:31:42means that they fall out and that it affects the seasons.
0:31:42 > 0:31:45It affects everybody in the universe.
0:31:45 > 0:31:49The spring, the summer,
0:31:49 > 0:31:51the childing autumn,
0:31:51 > 0:31:56angry winter, change their wonted liveries, and the mazed world
0:31:56 > 0:32:01by their increase now knows not which is which.
0:32:01 > 0:32:05And this same progeny of evils comes from our debate,
0:32:05 > 0:32:07from our dissension.
0:32:07 > 0:32:10By the end of the speech she actually says
0:32:10 > 0:32:12they're our progeny, our children.
0:32:12 > 0:32:16- What if we said that these were your children?- Yeah.
0:32:16 > 0:32:19And let's say that it's like a couple who are divorcing
0:32:19 > 0:32:22or arguing a lot
0:32:22 > 0:32:25and the children are now becoming quite ill.
0:32:29 > 0:32:33But with thy brawls thou hast disturbed our sport.
0:32:35 > 0:32:38Therefore the winds,
0:32:38 > 0:32:41piping to us in vain,
0:32:41 > 0:32:46as in revenge, have sucked up from the sea contagious fogs,
0:32:46 > 0:32:49which falling in the land
0:32:49 > 0:32:55hath every pelting river made so proud
0:32:55 > 0:32:58that they have overborne their continents.
0:33:01 > 0:33:06The ox hath therefore ploughed his field in vain...
0:33:07 > 0:33:11..the ploughman lost his sweat,
0:33:11 > 0:33:15and the green corn hath rotted ere his youth attained a beard.
0:33:15 > 0:33:18Did it feel any different or was it just an interesting...?
0:33:18 > 0:33:22It did feel different, I wanted to go into more of the details.
0:33:22 > 0:33:23Things, like, I can imagine
0:33:23 > 0:33:26their teeth would probably be falling out.
0:33:26 > 0:33:28You know, their stomachs were rumbling with hunger.
0:33:28 > 0:33:31It makes you think of all those
0:33:31 > 0:33:33- terrible images of famine, doesn't it?- Yeah.
0:33:33 > 0:33:35Yes, exactly. Famine and disease.
0:33:35 > 0:33:39The fold stands empty in the drowned field,
0:33:39 > 0:33:44and crows are fatted with the murrion flock.
0:33:44 > 0:33:49The nine men's morris is filled up with mud...
0:33:51 > 0:33:55and the quaint mazes in the wanton green
0:33:55 > 0:33:58for lack of tread are undistinguishable.
0:33:58 > 0:34:00I remember studying it at school
0:34:00 > 0:34:02and for me, probably, that speech went for nothing,
0:34:02 > 0:34:05because you read it and you sort of don't understand it
0:34:05 > 0:34:08so then having a physicality to it
0:34:08 > 0:34:11and being able to see each of those images
0:34:11 > 0:34:14as the children of them,
0:34:14 > 0:34:16because I think that, in some ways,
0:34:16 > 0:34:19Titania and Oberon are mother and father earth.
0:34:19 > 0:34:21- Mother and father nature.- Yeah.
0:34:21 > 0:34:23And to be able to have that association
0:34:23 > 0:34:25with each of those images
0:34:25 > 0:34:29allows you to unlock that speech.
0:34:29 > 0:34:31If you do an improvisation like that,
0:34:31 > 0:34:35it means that the actors, they've, they've experienced it together.
0:34:35 > 0:34:38When they talk about those things later when doing the play,
0:34:38 > 0:34:43they have such strong visual and physical and central memories
0:34:43 > 0:34:45of what it feels like to feel
0:34:45 > 0:34:47that these things are their children.
0:34:47 > 0:34:51We've tasted it, we've touched it, we've, we've lived it.
0:34:51 > 0:34:53I still think that when people hear it in performance,
0:34:53 > 0:34:56they probably don't understand everything,
0:34:56 > 0:34:58but hopefully, they'll have a feel and go,
0:34:58 > 0:35:01"My goodness, you know, this person really cares
0:35:01 > 0:35:05"about all of these images and it's having an effect on this person",
0:35:05 > 0:35:08and, actually, at the end of going,
0:35:08 > 0:35:11"All of this disaster has come because of us,"
0:35:11 > 0:35:14hopefully then people will go, "Oh, yes. I understand."
0:35:19 > 0:35:21Titania and Oberon are fighting over a baby.
0:35:21 > 0:35:24It's very important to them.
0:35:24 > 0:35:27Oberon wants it but Titania has the child
0:35:27 > 0:35:31and it's her way of having some power over him.
0:35:31 > 0:35:34At the beginning of the play, it's terribly important,
0:35:34 > 0:35:37the fact that she has the boy, he wants the boy,
0:35:37 > 0:35:39this is what they're arguing about.
0:35:39 > 0:35:41Set your heart at rest.
0:35:44 > 0:35:49The fairy land buys not the child of me.
0:35:51 > 0:35:55His mother was a votress of my order.
0:35:55 > 0:35:59And in the spiced Indian air by night,
0:35:59 > 0:36:03full often hath she gossiped by my side.
0:36:03 > 0:36:05Titania talks about this votress,
0:36:05 > 0:36:09this woman she was friends with, she had this special bond with,
0:36:09 > 0:36:13and she gave birth to this baby boy
0:36:13 > 0:36:16and she died giving birth to him,
0:36:16 > 0:36:18and that's why Titania has the child
0:36:18 > 0:36:21and nothing that Oberon can do
0:36:21 > 0:36:24can separate Titania from the bond that she has with the child.
0:36:24 > 0:36:29Why did Shakespeare write that whole speech about the votress?
0:36:29 > 0:36:32I don't know. It feels like a very sensual piece.
0:36:32 > 0:36:35It's about intimacy, it's about friendship.
0:36:35 > 0:36:37It's about loyalty, it's about love.
0:36:37 > 0:36:40One of the things we've talked about is this idea that the child
0:36:40 > 0:36:43in this instance represents love,
0:36:43 > 0:36:45and that he feels that what he wants
0:36:45 > 0:36:50is for Titania to love him the way she loves that woman.
0:36:50 > 0:36:54You know, that isn't just a sexual thing, it's to have a real love.
0:36:59 > 0:37:01It's a wonderful monologue that Titania has
0:37:01 > 0:37:05when she's describing how she got the child
0:37:05 > 0:37:09and what her...what her friendship to the votress meant,
0:37:09 > 0:37:13and what we decided to do was to bring to life the votress,
0:37:13 > 0:37:17so that the audience can really get what Titania's talking about.
0:37:17 > 0:37:20I like to think she has, through her imagination,
0:37:20 > 0:37:24conjured this beautiful votress up
0:37:24 > 0:37:26that walks across the stage.
0:37:26 > 0:37:33Which she, with pretty and with swimming gait following -
0:37:33 > 0:37:37her womb then rich with my young squire.
0:37:37 > 0:37:39It's more than just a walk, really,
0:37:39 > 0:37:42because it's our friendship that we're displaying,
0:37:42 > 0:37:46and saying, "I'm here. I was real and I was part of your journey
0:37:46 > 0:37:49"and our journey was important."
0:37:49 > 0:37:53What would it be like if we didn't see her?
0:37:53 > 0:37:54We'd be asking the audience
0:37:54 > 0:37:57to see her in their mind's eye, wouldn't we?
0:37:57 > 0:38:02If we didn't, how do you still bring alive that memory
0:38:02 > 0:38:06and convey the closeness of that relationship?
0:38:06 > 0:38:09Let's do it and see what it feels like, shall we?
0:38:09 > 0:38:11Yeah, cool.
0:38:11 > 0:38:15When we have laughed to see the sails conceive
0:38:15 > 0:38:19and grow big-bellied with the wanton wind,
0:38:19 > 0:38:23which she, with pretty
0:38:23 > 0:38:27and with swimming gait following...
0:38:27 > 0:38:31She goes into a description of this woman so intimately
0:38:31 > 0:38:35that it felt like I didn't want to say that directly to him.
0:38:35 > 0:38:37- It was something so private that I...- Yeah.
0:38:37 > 0:38:39..it made me want to remember and smell her.
0:38:39 > 0:38:42But it's odd, because it doesn't advance your argument.
0:38:42 > 0:38:47- It certainly doesn't help in making him see your point of view.- No.
0:38:47 > 0:38:50Oberon says, "It's so simple.
0:38:50 > 0:38:53"I'm so frustrated with you because it's so simple.
0:38:53 > 0:38:55"You just give me the boy and then we can move on."
0:38:55 > 0:38:58And she's saying, "No, you know it's bigger than that."
0:39:03 > 0:39:07- What if you come back and you give her the baby immediately?- OK.
0:39:07 > 0:39:10And you sit down with it and then you just say
0:39:10 > 0:39:12you're not having it,
0:39:12 > 0:39:15you're not having it, because I tell you something so special,
0:39:15 > 0:39:17something so special and if you...
0:39:17 > 0:39:20I think maybe if you just physicalise a bit
0:39:20 > 0:39:23as you're listening, just by moving back and forth, like a,
0:39:23 > 0:39:27sort of, "I find this unbearable."
0:39:28 > 0:39:33When we have laughed to see the sails conceive
0:39:33 > 0:39:37and grow big-bellied with the wanton wind,
0:39:37 > 0:39:43which she, with pretty and with swimming gait, following,
0:39:43 > 0:39:47her womb then rich with my young squire...
0:39:49 > 0:39:54..would imitate, and sail upon the land,
0:39:54 > 0:39:58to fetch me trifles, and return again
0:39:58 > 0:40:01as from a voyage, rich with merchandise.
0:40:01 > 0:40:04'He's seeing her being incredibly affectionate
0:40:04 > 0:40:05'and loving and protective,'
0:40:05 > 0:40:08not only to the votress, but also this tiny baby -
0:40:08 > 0:40:11like, even just doing it then, and you were saying,
0:40:11 > 0:40:13"Just sit in this chair and tell it to him,"
0:40:13 > 0:40:15it felt like, "I'm going to tell it to you,
0:40:15 > 0:40:18"but I'm also telling it to this little, tiny thing in my arms."
0:40:18 > 0:40:22That shifts the speech, because in our production
0:40:22 > 0:40:25that speech is absolutely about the votress,
0:40:25 > 0:40:28whereas, with the child in my arms,
0:40:28 > 0:40:30it felt like the speech was about the child.
0:40:30 > 0:40:33Seeing that must make you feel so... Urgh!
0:40:33 > 0:40:37I want to... It's almost like I want to get the child
0:40:37 > 0:40:40to get rid of that affection that you have for him.
0:40:40 > 0:40:43- Cos I want to be at the centre of your universe.- Exactly, exactly.
0:40:53 > 0:40:56I love thee not, therefore pursue me not.
0:40:56 > 0:41:00Where is Lysander and fair Hermia?
0:41:00 > 0:41:03The one I'll slay, the other slayeth me.
0:41:03 > 0:41:06Thou told'st me they were stolen into this wood.
0:41:06 > 0:41:09And here am I, and wood within this wood,
0:41:09 > 0:41:13Because I cannot meet my Hermia. Hence, get thee gone
0:41:13 > 0:41:15and follow me no more.
0:41:15 > 0:41:20You draw me, you hard-hearted adamant,
0:41:20 > 0:41:26but yet you draw not iron, for my heart is true as steel.
0:41:26 > 0:41:29Leave you your power to draw,
0:41:29 > 0:41:32and I shall have no power to follow you.
0:41:32 > 0:41:34Do I entice you? Do I speak you fair?
0:41:34 > 0:41:37Or rather, do I not, in plainest truth,
0:41:37 > 0:41:41tell you I do not, nor I cannot love you?
0:41:41 > 0:41:45And even for that do I love you the more.
0:41:45 > 0:41:48I am your...
0:41:49 > 0:41:50..spaniel.
0:41:50 > 0:41:52And, Demetrius,
0:41:52 > 0:41:54the more you beat me, I will fawn on you.
0:41:55 > 0:41:58Use me, but as your spaniel.
0:41:59 > 0:42:01Spurn me,
0:42:01 > 0:42:03strike me,
0:42:03 > 0:42:06neglect me, lose me -
0:42:06 > 0:42:11only give me leave, unworthy as I am, to follow you.
0:42:11 > 0:42:13What worser place can I beg in your love -
0:42:13 > 0:42:16and yet a place of high respect with me -
0:42:16 > 0:42:21than to be used as you use your dog?
0:42:23 > 0:42:24SHE MIMICS DOG YAPPING
0:42:24 > 0:42:26SHE GIGGLES
0:42:28 > 0:42:33Tempt not too much the hatred of my spirit,
0:42:33 > 0:42:37for I am sick when I do look on thee.
0:42:37 > 0:42:41And I am sick when I look not on you.
0:42:45 > 0:42:47Hmm?
0:43:01 > 0:43:05You do impeach your modesty too much
0:43:05 > 0:43:08to leave the city and commit yourself
0:43:08 > 0:43:11into the hands of one that loves you not,
0:43:11 > 0:43:13to trust the opportunity of night
0:43:13 > 0:43:15and the ill counsel of a desert place
0:43:15 > 0:43:18with the rich worth of your virginity.
0:43:18 > 0:43:21Your virtue is my privilege,
0:43:21 > 0:43:24for that it is not night when I do see your face,
0:43:24 > 0:43:27and therefore I think I am not in the night,
0:43:27 > 0:43:32and nor doth this wood lack worlds of company,
0:43:32 > 0:43:36for you, in my respect, are all the world -
0:43:36 > 0:43:39then how can it be said I am alone,
0:43:39 > 0:43:42when all the world is here to look on me?
0:43:42 > 0:43:44I'll run from thee and hide me in the brakes,
0:43:44 > 0:43:47and leave thee to the mercy of wild beasts.
0:43:47 > 0:43:51Oh, the wildest hath not such a heart as you!
0:43:52 > 0:43:55Run when you will, the story shall be changed -
0:43:55 > 0:43:58Apollo flies, and Daphne holds the chase.
0:43:58 > 0:44:02Yeah, the mild hind makes speed to catch the tiger.
0:44:02 > 0:44:06Bootless speed, when... When cowardice pursues and valour flies.
0:44:06 > 0:44:09I will not stay thy questions - let me go!
0:44:09 > 0:44:12Or if thou follow me, do not believe,
0:44:12 > 0:44:15but I shall do thee mischief in the wood.
0:44:15 > 0:44:17Ah!
0:44:22 > 0:44:28Ay, in the temple, in the town, the field,
0:44:28 > 0:44:30you do me mischief.
0:44:30 > 0:44:32SHE WHIMPERS ANGRILY
0:44:32 > 0:44:35Fie, Demetrius!
0:44:35 > 0:44:40Your wrongs do set a scandal on my sex.
0:44:40 > 0:44:45We cannot fight for love, as men may do...
0:44:45 > 0:44:48No, we should be wooed
0:44:48 > 0:44:51and were not made to woo.
0:44:54 > 0:45:00Well, I will follow thee and make a heaven of hell,
0:45:00 > 0:45:06to die upon the hand I love so well!
0:45:18 > 0:45:20I thought it might just be interesting
0:45:20 > 0:45:24to talk about these two characters, because there are only, really,
0:45:24 > 0:45:28- small hints in the text to go on, aren't there?- Yeah.
0:45:28 > 0:45:32So what does the text tell us about Helena's background or who she is?
0:45:32 > 0:45:34She always... Not always,
0:45:34 > 0:45:37but she's very often referencing her appearance.
0:45:37 > 0:45:41Yeah, her looks, just, the way her body is.
0:45:41 > 0:45:43It certainly gave me a sense
0:45:43 > 0:45:46of her perhaps not feeling as comfortable in her body
0:45:46 > 0:45:49as she once did, which I think is quite a teenage thing, you know?
0:45:49 > 0:45:52- Coming to terms with this changing body.- OK.
0:45:52 > 0:45:55And what about Demetrius? So often people say,
0:45:55 > 0:45:58"There's no difference between Lysander and Demetrius,"
0:45:58 > 0:46:01- which I think is strange... - I think there's a huge difference.
0:46:01 > 0:46:03Lysander is so, kind of poetic.
0:46:03 > 0:46:07Lysander will use images, whereas Demetrius is quite
0:46:07 > 0:46:12straightforward in his language, I think, and in terms of his actions
0:46:12 > 0:46:16and the way he treats people, Lysander seems more compassionate
0:46:16 > 0:46:19in the way that he talks to both Hermia and Helena.
0:46:19 > 0:46:20And Demetrius seems much more...
0:46:20 > 0:46:23Is more blunt, I think, and uses more underhand...
0:46:23 > 0:46:24He kind of uses...
0:46:26 > 0:46:28..possibly, crueller tactics to get what he wants.
0:46:28 > 0:46:31I thought it might just be interesting to try to think,
0:46:31 > 0:46:33"Why did they first get together?"
0:46:33 > 0:46:37There's something quite ambitious about Demetrius.
0:46:37 > 0:46:39That's quite attractive,
0:46:39 > 0:46:45especially for a girl who doesn't have a particularly loud voice
0:46:45 > 0:46:47and isn't entirely sure of herself.
0:46:47 > 0:46:51I always assumed she fancied me because I was a bit...
0:46:51 > 0:46:52of rough.
0:46:52 > 0:46:54Like I was, you know, a bit...
0:46:54 > 0:46:58A bit edgy and a bit, sort of, aloof and a bit nasty,
0:46:58 > 0:47:02and that somehow there's part of you who wants someone who's like that.
0:47:02 > 0:47:04At school everyone fancied the guy
0:47:04 > 0:47:06who was a bit horrible and a bit cold.
0:47:06 > 0:47:10- NANCY LAUGHS - I, sort of, think... I remember no-one ever fancied
0:47:10 > 0:47:13the nice guy who was a bit sensitive and... You know?
0:47:13 > 0:47:17OK, so could we just do a small improvisation?
0:47:17 > 0:47:20Let's say that you've noticed that whenever you go to,
0:47:20 > 0:47:23you know, weddings - because I'm sure there's lots of weddings
0:47:23 > 0:47:25and parties and things in this world -
0:47:25 > 0:47:27you've noticed that she's always looking at you.
0:47:27 > 0:47:31So, if you decide to go and chat her up,
0:47:31 > 0:47:33just to see whether or not it is something
0:47:33 > 0:47:35you would want to take a bit further.
0:47:43 > 0:47:44You keep looking at me.
0:47:46 > 0:47:47No, I...
0:47:47 > 0:47:49DEMETRIUS LAUGHS No, I don't...
0:47:49 > 0:47:51DEMETRIUS LAUGHS
0:47:51 > 0:47:53- I just...- Caught out. Caught out!
0:47:53 > 0:47:55Hello, I'm Demetrius.
0:47:55 > 0:47:58- Hello, I'm Helena. - Nice to meet you. How you doing?
0:47:58 > 0:48:00Soft, nice. Slightly sweaty, though.
0:48:00 > 0:48:03THEY LAUGH Am I? Sorry.
0:48:03 > 0:48:05Are you having a nice time?
0:48:05 > 0:48:07Yeah, it's just a bit hot.
0:48:07 > 0:48:09THEY LAUGH
0:48:14 > 0:48:16So, why are you looking at me?
0:48:16 > 0:48:18- I wasn't looking at you? - You were! You were.
0:48:18 > 0:48:20- Well, if... - It's all right. Go on.
0:48:20 > 0:48:22If you saw me, it means you were looking at me.
0:48:22 > 0:48:25Yeah, but I just looked at you cos you kept looking at me,
0:48:25 > 0:48:27then we did that thing where I look at you,
0:48:27 > 0:48:29and you think I'm looking at you, cos I am,
0:48:29 > 0:48:31but I'm not, I'm looking cos you were,
0:48:31 > 0:48:33to see if you were looking at me, and you were.
0:48:33 > 0:48:35I was, but I was just...
0:48:35 > 0:48:38Yeah. Anyway. Sorry.
0:48:38 > 0:48:41- No, it's all right.- Um...
0:48:41 > 0:48:44You could easily imagine that growing into this feeling
0:48:44 > 0:48:46that they're crazy about each other, couldn't you?
0:48:46 > 0:48:51- Yeah, yeah.- I mean, especially if you think they never actually...
0:48:51 > 0:48:53Their chances for real intimacy
0:48:53 > 0:48:56and spending real time together would be very small.
0:48:56 > 0:48:59They don't know each other, really, that well.
0:48:59 > 0:49:02It's just an idea, and a passion.
0:49:02 > 0:49:06In terms of whether Demetrius originally loved Helena or not,
0:49:06 > 0:49:08I think it says that they're betrothed.
0:49:08 > 0:49:13She says that he showered her with oaths and, um,
0:49:13 > 0:49:18that he made verbal love to her, you know, that he was wooing her,
0:49:18 > 0:49:22and so I think, yeah, I think he probably was
0:49:22 > 0:49:26and then, as young men can do at times, and young women,
0:49:26 > 0:49:29switched very quickly to someone else.
0:49:29 > 0:49:33The fact that he then gets completely obsessed
0:49:33 > 0:49:35with this idea of marrying Hermia.
0:49:35 > 0:49:39- Mm.- Did you have it in your mind what that was all about?
0:49:39 > 0:49:42Well, it could be the more he gets to know Helena
0:49:42 > 0:49:45that there's a, sort of, tipping point,
0:49:45 > 0:49:46that she's really interesting,
0:49:46 > 0:49:48then after a while she's just a bit nuts.
0:49:48 > 0:49:52Like, that she's a bit too into him, a bit too worried.
0:49:52 > 0:49:54- And dependent - Yeah, and dependent.
0:49:54 > 0:49:59Whereas Hermia seems really feisty and really strong-willed,
0:49:59 > 0:50:01and really confident.
0:50:01 > 0:50:03Maybe that's a challenge and that's attractive or...
0:50:03 > 0:50:07Which is a terrible cycle as well, because the more you feel that way
0:50:07 > 0:50:10towards Hermia and the less interested you are with me,
0:50:10 > 0:50:12- the more needy I become. - Exactly, yeah.
0:50:15 > 0:50:19I think Helena is often played very whiney and victim-y.
0:50:19 > 0:50:22It would just be nice to just look at that extreme,
0:50:22 > 0:50:24just to see what it does to the scene.
0:50:26 > 0:50:31I am your spaniel,
0:50:31 > 0:50:34and, Demetrius, the more you beat me,
0:50:34 > 0:50:35I will fawn on you.
0:50:35 > 0:50:38Use me, but as your spaniel.
0:50:38 > 0:50:42Spurn me, strike me, neglect me, lose me -
0:50:42 > 0:50:47only give me leave, unworthy as I am, to follow you.
0:50:47 > 0:50:50I think her behaviour is quite "weak victim",
0:50:50 > 0:50:54I mean, by virtue of the fact that she's chasing him around the forest
0:50:54 > 0:50:58and stalking him, but her words are a lot stronger than that
0:50:58 > 0:51:00and she's using some clever arguments
0:51:00 > 0:51:03and she's playing on words, which is quite a flirty thing to do,
0:51:03 > 0:51:05I think it's quite a charming thing to do.
0:51:05 > 0:51:11I think to be that subservient and that whingey undermines...her.
0:51:11 > 0:51:16She's fighting against being a complete, sobbing victim,
0:51:16 > 0:51:18a complete wreck,
0:51:18 > 0:51:20so I think it's really good to play that,
0:51:20 > 0:51:23so that you know that that's there and that's simmering away,
0:51:23 > 0:51:25but I think the text is more sophisticated than that,
0:51:25 > 0:51:27and I think there's more to be found than that.
0:51:27 > 0:51:33If Helena is JUST a victim, that's unattractive for Demetrius.
0:51:33 > 0:51:36I don't think it really would mean that he would give up
0:51:36 > 0:51:38his pursuit of Hermia
0:51:38 > 0:51:40just because he feels bad.
0:51:40 > 0:51:44Guilt doesn't seem to be a huge part of his make-up.
0:51:44 > 0:51:46Is there an element that we could look at
0:51:46 > 0:51:49that maybe we haven't so far, in terms of their characters?
0:51:49 > 0:51:54We could try and be more reasonable with each other.
0:51:54 > 0:51:57You know, that we did have a relationship, we did get on,
0:51:57 > 0:52:01and try and find that ground to communicate with one other.
0:52:01 > 0:52:04Slightly more adult, kind of... Everything under the surface.
0:52:04 > 0:52:07It's more verbal, in a way, then,
0:52:07 > 0:52:10- because it's really more about what you are...- Arguing. Reasoning.- Mm.
0:52:13 > 0:52:15Use me, but as your spaniel.
0:52:15 > 0:52:20Spurn me, strike me, neglect me, lose me -
0:52:20 > 0:52:25only give me leave, unworthy as I am, to follow you.
0:52:25 > 0:52:29What worser place can I beg in your love -
0:52:29 > 0:52:33and yet a place of high respect with me
0:52:33 > 0:52:36than to be used as you do use your dog?
0:52:36 > 0:52:38You do impeach your modesty too much
0:52:38 > 0:52:41to leave the city and commit yourself
0:52:41 > 0:52:44into the hands of one that loves you not.
0:52:44 > 0:52:48What's really so useful about that is really hearing...
0:52:48 > 0:52:50Getting a chance to really do the arguments.
0:52:50 > 0:52:53In a way, you're taking the physicality out of it,
0:52:53 > 0:52:57saying this is much more about my mind trying to affect your mind
0:52:57 > 0:52:59and I think what we know is that,
0:52:59 > 0:53:01particularly because they are teenagers,
0:53:01 > 0:53:03you can't take the body out of it.
0:53:03 > 0:53:06You don't want to take out the excitement of the physical presence.
0:53:06 > 0:53:09Yeah, I think it makes it more adult
0:53:09 > 0:53:12and I think if they were capable of having this kind of conversation
0:53:12 > 0:53:15- they probably wouldn't be in this situation.- Mm.
0:53:15 > 0:53:17If someone is being very reasonable to you,
0:53:17 > 0:53:22it's very hard to step out of being reasonable with them,
0:53:22 > 0:53:25you know, if they are not trying to use emotional tactics,
0:53:25 > 0:53:28but more those of the mind, and seem in a sound mind
0:53:28 > 0:53:32in the way that they're trying to convince you of something,
0:53:32 > 0:53:37it's much harder to, one, write off their argument
0:53:37 > 0:53:41as emotional manipulation or sort of, you know, love-induced lunacy,
0:53:41 > 0:53:43so you have to take them more seriously, I think.
0:53:43 > 0:53:46If we are trying to understand it in modern terms -
0:53:46 > 0:53:49cos, after all, we want to make it work for a modern audience -
0:53:49 > 0:53:50looking at these two in the woods
0:53:50 > 0:53:54they would be much more sexually active, probably, at their age.
0:53:54 > 0:53:57So what would it be like if she really was thinking,
0:53:57 > 0:54:00"Well, the only way to get a boy is to offer yourself sexually."
0:54:04 > 0:54:07I am your...spaniel.
0:54:07 > 0:54:10And, Demetrius, the more you beat me,
0:54:10 > 0:54:12I will fawn on you.
0:54:12 > 0:54:15Use me, but as your spaniel.
0:54:16 > 0:54:19Spurn me, strike me,
0:54:19 > 0:54:22neglect me, lose me -
0:54:22 > 0:54:28only give me leave, unworthy as I am, to follow you.
0:54:28 > 0:54:32What worser place can I beg in your love
0:54:32 > 0:54:35and yet a place of high respect with me
0:54:35 > 0:54:40than to be used as you do use your dog?
0:54:43 > 0:54:46It felt very calculated and manipulative
0:54:46 > 0:54:52and very womanly and, to my mind, more Titania than Helena.
0:54:52 > 0:54:58- Mm, yes.- And I think one of the reasons the text is so uncomfortable
0:54:58 > 0:55:03is because she doesn't quite realise how sexual she is being.
0:55:03 > 0:55:04The idea of...
0:55:06 > 0:55:11..a sort of, free pass to something is certainly...
0:55:11 > 0:55:14Goes through his mind as being quite an attractive offer
0:55:14 > 0:55:16before realising, you know, coming to his senses
0:55:16 > 0:55:18and thinking it would ruin everything,
0:55:18 > 0:55:20and it would be very harsh for him to do that,
0:55:20 > 0:55:22and therefore needing to get out of it
0:55:22 > 0:55:25and tell her in no uncertain terms that she must stop doing this,
0:55:25 > 0:55:28because he also doesn't trust himself to be a gentleman, I think.
0:55:28 > 0:55:33Tempt not too much the hatred of my spirit...
0:55:34 > 0:55:38..for I am sick when I do look on thee.
0:55:38 > 0:55:43And I am sick when I look not on you.
0:55:46 > 0:55:48You do impeach your modesty too much
0:55:48 > 0:55:50to leave the city and commit yourself into the hands
0:55:50 > 0:55:54of one that loves you not, to trust the opportunity of night
0:55:54 > 0:55:56and the ill counsel of a desert place
0:55:56 > 0:55:59with the rich worth of your virginity.
0:55:59 > 0:56:01Your virtue is my privilege,
0:56:01 > 0:56:04for that it is not night when I do see your face,
0:56:04 > 0:56:07and therefore I think I am not in the night.
0:56:07 > 0:56:11And nor doth this wood lack worlds of company,
0:56:11 > 0:56:15for you, in my respect, are all the world.
0:56:15 > 0:56:16To make it that physical
0:56:16 > 0:56:20changes the interpretation of some of the lines, doesn't it?
0:56:20 > 0:56:22because you're offering yourself sexually to me
0:56:22 > 0:56:25and the idea is that I'm responding to that
0:56:25 > 0:56:28to say, "Tempt not too much the hatred of my spirit,"
0:56:28 > 0:56:29is sort of to say, "Don't tempt me."
0:56:29 > 0:56:32- Don't tempt me physically. - Don't tempt me too much,
0:56:32 > 0:56:34- because I could just do it and then leave you.- Yeah.
0:56:34 > 0:56:36"For I am sick when I do look on thee,"
0:56:36 > 0:56:41could mean, you know, I have very rude, lewd thoughts
0:56:41 > 0:56:43when I look at you in that way.
0:56:43 > 0:56:47But in that instance just then, I felt very much
0:56:47 > 0:56:54that you were warning me and I had taken my sexuality too far,
0:56:54 > 0:56:58which is why I then come back with,
0:56:58 > 0:57:00"Your virtue is my privilege."
0:57:00 > 0:57:03I mean, "You're far to virtuous to take advantage of me, aren't you?"
0:57:03 > 0:57:06Yeah, which throws it around on to me. Yeah.
0:57:06 > 0:57:09It's at that point that Helena, I think,
0:57:09 > 0:57:12is at the most vulnerable point in the scene,
0:57:12 > 0:57:16cos he said, "OK, fine. I'll take you here and now if you want. I can.
0:57:16 > 0:57:19"You've offered yourself up in that respect,"
0:57:19 > 0:57:22and at that point she throws in the tactic
0:57:22 > 0:57:28of genuinely opening up her heart and saying how much she loves him,
0:57:28 > 0:57:32and in the actual show, I try to play that moment
0:57:32 > 0:57:36as quite tender and exposed.
0:57:36 > 0:57:37We need that.
0:57:37 > 0:57:43I think you do need that after how vulnerable she's made herself,
0:57:43 > 0:57:45you know, in terms of being, sort of, an object,
0:57:45 > 0:57:49I think she needs to, then, to get back on her dignity and say,
0:57:49 > 0:57:54"No, no, I'm not trying... I don't want to be your spaniel,
0:57:54 > 0:57:59"I actually want to love you and to have you love me back."
0:57:59 > 0:58:02When you push something to an extreme and say,
0:58:02 > 0:58:05"OK, let's play it as if she's being overtly sexual,"
0:58:05 > 0:58:09Or, "Let's just play it as if she's really just being a victim,"
0:58:09 > 0:58:12sometimes what you realise is that it's a bit of a dead end
0:58:12 > 0:58:14because it's only interesting for a short while
0:58:14 > 0:58:17and then you want to see the character have more colours to them
0:58:17 > 0:58:21and see that the character is going to try different things to get what they want.
0:58:21 > 0:58:23They're not just going to always be a victim
0:58:23 > 0:58:26or just be sexually provocative.
0:58:26 > 0:58:31I think in terms of trying scenes in many different ways,
0:58:31 > 0:58:33I always think that's useful.
0:58:33 > 0:58:36I think, too, in every line you say and in every new thought you have,
0:58:36 > 0:58:39to know that there are infinite possibilities within it
0:58:39 > 0:58:41is a very useful thing.
0:58:44 > 0:58:47Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd