A Midsummer Night's Dream Shakespeare Unlocked

BELL TOLLS

-Just keep it down when you get up there.

-Shh.

What if it's still there?

Shh!

Is all our company here?

Yep.

-Hello.

-Yup.

Hiya!

-WOH-HOH!

-SCREAMING AND LAUGHTER

HE LAUGHS

Is all our company here?

You're best to call them generally, man by man, according to the script.

Masters, here is the scroll

of every man's name,

who is thought fit, through all Athens,

to play in our interlude before the duke and the duchess,

on his wedding day, at night.

First, good Peter Quince, say what the play treats on,

then read the names of your actors, and so grow on to a point.

Marry, our play is,

"The most lamentable comedy

"and most cruel death of Pyramus and Thisbe."

Oh! A very good piece of work, I assure you, and a merry.

Now, read the names of the actors. Masters, spread yourselves.

Answer as I call you.

Nick Bottom, the weaver.

Ready. Name what part I am for, and proceed.

-You, Nick Bottom, are set down for Pyramus.

-Yes!

What is Pyramus,

a lover or a tyrant?

It is a lover who kills himself most gallant for love.

That will ask some tears in the true performing of it.

If I do it, let the audience look to their eyes.

I will move storms.

I will condole in some measure.

To the rest. Yet, my chief humour is for a tyrant.

I could play Ercles rarely,

or a part to tear a cat in, to make all split.

The raging rocks

And shivering shocks

Shall break the locks Of prison gates.

And Phibbus' car Shall shine from far

And make and mar

The foolish Fates.

-Bravo!

-APPLAUSE

This was lofty! Now name the rest of the players.

Francis Flute.

This was Ercles' vein.

A tyrant's vein.

A lover is more condoling.

Francis Flute, the bellows-mender.

Here, Peter Quince.

You, Flute, must take Thisbe on you.

-What is Thisbe?

-A wandering knight?

It is the lady that Pyramus must love!

Nay, faith, let not me play a woman. I have a beard coming.

That's all one.

You may play it in a mask, and you may speak as small as you will.

And I may hide my face, let me play Thisbe, too.

I will speak in a monstrous little voice.

"Thisne, Thisne!"

"Oh, Pyramus, my lover dear!

"Thy Thisbe dear, and lady dear!"

No, you must play Pyramus. And, Flute, you Thisbe.

Well, proceed.

Robin Starveling, the tailor.

Here, Peter Quince.

You must play Thisbe's mother. HE LAUGHS

-Ay, ay, ay, ay, ay. Tom Snout, the tinker.

-Here, Peter Quince.

You, Pyramus' father. Myself, Thisbe's father.

Snug, the joiner. You, the lion's part.

-And I hope here is a play fitted.

-Have you the lion's part written?

I pray you, if it be, give it me, for I am slow of study.

You may do it extempore, for it is nothing but roaring.

Aar, aar, aar!

Let me play the lion, too!

I will roar that will do any man's heart good to hear me.

I will roar that will make the duke say, "Let him roar again".

Wooh! "Let him roar again!"

And you should do it too terribly.

You would fright the duchess and the ladies

that they would shriek, and that were enough to hang us all.

ALL: They would hang us, every mother's son?!

Granted, friends,

if we were to fright the ladies out of their wits,

they would have no more discretion but to hang us.

-But

-I

-will aggravate my voice,

so that I will roar you as gently as any sucking dove.

Rurr!

Rurr!

I will roar you, as 'twere any nightingale. Rurr!

You can play no part but Pyramus!

For Pyramus...

Pyramus is a sweet-faced man.

He's a proper man,

as you shall see on a summer's day.

A most lovely, gentleman-like man.

Therefore, you must needs play Pyramus.

Well, I will undertake it.

What beard were I best to play it in?

Why, what you will.

I will discharge it in either your straw-coloured beard,

your orange-tawny beard, your purple-ingrained beard,

or your French crown-coloured beard, your perfect yellow.

Some of your French crowns have no hair at all,

and then you may play bare-faced.

Bare-faced!

HE LAUGHS

Ha-ha-ha! Bare-faced!

Masters, here are your parts,

and I must entreat you,

request you, and desire you,

to con them by tomorrow night.

Rurr, rurr, rurr.

And meet me in the palace woods a mile without the town, by moonlight.

There will we rehearse. If we meet in the city,

we shall be dogged with company, and our devices known.

In the meantime, I'll draw up a bill of properties,

such as our play wants.

I pray you fail me not.

We will meet, and there may we rehearse more obscenely

and courageously.

Take pains, be perfect. Adieu!

At the duke's oak we meet.

Enough! Hold, or cut bow-strings.

ALL: Cut bow-strings!

I think status is an issue in life in general.

You always need to know where you are in a group, I think.

As animals, we kind of want to know how we relate to somebody else,

what our position is.

OK, so what I think would be a good idea is if we,

just for an exercise, briefly,

stand in a line from high status, over there, to lowest status, here,

of where you think your status is within the group

-at the beginning of the scene.

-In this first...?

Absolutely, the beginning of this scene.

I think we were almost sat in status.

I'd argue that.

That's probably right.

OK, so if this is the highest status,

then this is the lowest.

There's even a gap between us. This is an important gap.

-There's not much of a gap.

-The gap IS important.

What does Bottom think the status is?

I'm at the top, then there's Quince. and then everyone else.

-LAUGHTER

-So, literally, in a group.

It doesn't matter. It doesn't really matter where they are.

-This is the battle...

-Yeah, I think so.

..between Quince and Bottom.

What about Snug then, Chris? Where would you think

everybody's status is, and where's your status?

I am going to take this personally, if you don't.

I'd put Quince at the top.

Just from the evidence of within the scene,

he has a little moment when he has a concern

about what he's doing in the play, and it's Quince he talks to,

because he knows Quince is in charge,

and then this is about right.

I think he sees himself at the bottom.

-Yeah. But you together with...

-Yeah.

I think it would be interesting now to try this scene,

and let's try playing with the status a bit.

Let's try playing it with Quince top status,

-and with Bottom with the low status.

-Bottom down the bottom?

-Yeah.

Have you the lion's part written?

I pray you, if it be, give it me, for I am slow of study.

You may do it extempore, for it is nothing but roaring.

-Rarr!

-Rarr!

Let me play the lion, too.

I will roar that will do any man's heart good to hear me.

-Rarr!

-I will roar you.

-No, he's playing the lion.

That'll make the duke say, "Let him roar again".

You should do it too terribly, you would fright the duchess and

the ladies that they would shriek. That were enough to hang us all.

ALL: That would hang us, every mother's son.

Granted, friends, if we were to fright the ladies

out of their wits, they would have no more discretion but to hang us.

I WILL roar you as 'twere any sucking dove.

As 'twere any nightingale.

No, no, no. You must play Pyramus.

And Flute, you, Thisbe!

I rather liked the sort of submerged...

That was really weird!

So weird, and so awkward.

So awkward. If I was to play really in the lower status there,

I wouldn't speak. The scene wouldn't move.

And the others would have cut him off.

No, I know what you're going to say.

There's something about Bottom.

People say, "That's absolute rubbish," all the time to him.

And he says, "Yeah, but this."

He's enough of a bluffer

to speak quickly and get himself out of the hole that he's in.

The roar. "No, you'd frighten ladies". "Well, I do it like this,

"and then do that".

He's always protecting himself,

which, if you are playing low status, it's really hard to do.

Giving Quince high status

seemed to work on a certain level.

It becomes very overbearing.

-I

-think Quince is much more into coercing people, persuading,

or sneaking up on them,

if you like but not imposing.

I don't think he imposes.

But he just niggles away at people until they give in,

or find themselves doing it despite themselves.

What would be interesting now, if we could try flipping it.

Quince low status?

-Quince low status, and Bottom...

-I'll never get a word in edgeways!

LAUGHTER

Oi!

Have you the lion's part written?

I pray you, if it be, give it me, for I am slow of study.

Erm, you may do it extempore, for it is nothing but roaring.

Let me play the lion, too.

-I

-will roar you, as 'twere...

I will roar that will make the duke say "Let him roar again".

"Let him roar again!"

APPLAUSE AND WHOOPING

If you should do it too terribly,

you would fright the duchess and the ladies that they would shriek.

But that would be enough to hang us all.

BOTH: That would hang us, every mother's son(!)

Granted, friends,

if we were to fright the ladies out of their wits,

they would have no more discretion but to hang us.

-But

-I

-will aggravate my voice.

-I

-will roar you as 'twere

-any sucking dove.

-BOTH: Yeah!

I will roar you as 'twere any nightingale.

You can play no part but Pyramus.

Pyramus...is a sweet-faced man.

He's a proper man, as you shall see on a summer's day.

He's a most lovely...

Gentleman?

..gentleman-like man.

Therefore, you must needs play Pyramus.

-And the lion.

-And Thisbe.

-Yeah, whatever you want to play.

-He can do them all.

That was really interesting about the persuading him

to play the part. All of you then joined in the persuasion of him

to please play this part.

I think is there is something in that.

I think we do want to give Bottom that status,

we do need him, in that sense.

Status needs everyone else to give it to you.

You can't believe in your own status, and have that be true.

If you want to be top status,

everyone has to be giving that to you.

It's such a flexible thing.

We're all in the scene. When it's at its best. We're all flexing

within our bounds, but it's still a moveable thing.

I think it would be interesting now to try it with you guys

fighting the top status between you two,

or passing it between you and whether you are passing it

or taking it from each other.

I will roar that will make the duke say, "Let him roar again.

"Let him roar again!"

And you should do it too terribly,

you would fright the duchess and the ladies that they would shriek.

That were enough to hang us all.

ALL: That would hang us, every mother's son.

Granted, friends,

if we were to fright the ladies out of their wits,

they would have no more discretion but to hang us.

-But

-I

-will aggravate my voice.

-I

-will roar you as gently as any sucking dove.

Rurr!

I will roar you as 'twere any nightingale.

You can play no part but PYRAMUS!

Nick, look... For Pyramus is a sweet-faced man.

He's a proper man, as you shall see on a summer's day.

A most lovely, gentleman-like man.

Therefore, you must needs play Pyramus.

I will undertake it.

So how did that feel, then?

It's funny for us.

I feel like it's watching Mum and Dad argue, or something.

Exactly that, that's what I felt.

We're keeping ourselves out of it a bit more,

letting them get on with it.

What WAS interesting,

was having to collude with Bottom,

on the persuading him.

Instead of doing it in front of everybody, it was saying,

"You and I know what it is.

"You've got to do this, cos look at that lot, they can't do it".

-And it makes me feel very special.

-Yes.

It's pumping my status up.

I think in some senses, you've given it to him for the rest of the scene.

I felt the status shift very much between you.

It did, yes.

I felt very easily led as to which one to listen to,

so I would be like, "Now I'm going to listen to you".

I feel that you have status for your project.

You want the best for your work,

and you want the work to serve you, as an actor, as a star.

And that happens in our line of work a lot.

Some people are team players,

and really want to make the piece the best it can be.

Some people want to be the stars, and to stand out.

That's playing out very neatly in this scene.

I think almost immediately, there is a certain sense of the clown

about the six of them.

About how they enact with other.

I think you've had a very serious scene just previously,

and so there is this sense of tension, which they come into.

We have it in this scene,

when we come out the trap the door slams,

and people are uproarious with laughter. They're like,

"I know this bit, that bit's really funny."

I think their expectations are telling them, to start with,

that it should be funny.

It's like a release,

but then I think, if you're not funny,

they'll stop laughing pretty quickly.

Think of what's gone before.

A very steamy scene, and then suddenly, us,

and it's a kind of...

HE WHISTLES

Is all our company here?

You're best to call them generally, man by man,

according to the scrip.

Masters, here is the scroll of every man's name,

who is thought fit, through all Athens, to play in

our interlude, before the duke and the duchess,

on his wedding day, at night.

The language begins to become slightly wrong.

It's like they're being self- contradictory as they go along.

"You're best to call them generally, man by man,

"according to the script", is a contradiction.

"Call them all at once, but individually".

Which you can't do.

And so, there's this sort of sense of fun.

All of them are using language, or trying to use language,

-above themselves.

-Above their station.

-Like, "Discharge it".

-And getting it slightly wrong.

And Bottom, "I will condole in some measure."

He doesn't mean that.

The very first things you say often get a laugh which is ,

"On his wedding day, at night".

It tickles you slightly.

Then, the tragical comedy.

Lamentable.

It should be, "LAM-entable",

but I actually bend the word, so, "la-MENT-able."

Our play is, "The most lamentable comedy,

"and most cruel death of Pyramus and Thisbe".

A very good piece of work, I assure you, and a merry.

Then you say, "It's a good play, and a merry."

I go, "Hang on, but it's about death, and it's merry

"and it's lamentable and it's a comedy?"

-"Lamentable comedy."

-That often gets a laugh.

In all Shakespeare's comedies, there are jokes

that you read and go, "Oh, that's a joke."

-They're really inaccessible.

-But I have no idea what that's about.

Absolutely. I think there is one particular joke in this scene

-which is Quince's.

-The straw-coloured beard.

-What beard were I best to play it in?

-Why, what you will!

I will discharge it in either your straw-coloured beard,

your orange-tawny beard, your purple-ingrained beard,

your French crown-coloured beard, your perfect yellow.

Some of your French crowns have no hair at all,

then you may play bare-faced. BARE-faced!

HE LAUGHS

Ha-ha-ha! Bare-FACED!

I would have no idea what that joke was,

but because it sounds like a joke, it's paced like a joke.

It goes, da da da da da dum, da dum, punch line,

and people react, even though they don't really know

what they're laughing at.

A lot of comedy is about rhythm.

It's about how a line is structured, and sounds on the ear.

You know you're communicating through that to an audience,

that they know when to laugh.

Let's have a look at a bit of this scene,

when Felix, as Bottom, did the "raging rocks and shivering shocks",

and whether you consciously play that thinking,

"I'm going to be funny as an actor."

-We'll try a few different options.

-OK.

Shall we get on our feet?

Let's try it, with you trying to be funny.

The raging rocks And shivering shocks

Shall break the locks Of prison gates

And Phibbus' car

Shall shine from far

And make and mar

The foolish Fates.

Very good!

THEY LAUGH

-I quite like that.

-It was the leg.

It was like some sort of funky chicken.

-So what did that feel like to do?

-It felt weird.

I felt very self-conscious because I was...

-Just making silly voices.

-Yeah, slightly.

A bit trying too hard, as if I was trying to be funny.

What makes that speech funny, though?

I think what makes that speech funny

is the attempt to do it as well as you can.

It's like a kind of honest misunderstanding, almost, isn't it?

It's what he believes an actor should be.

I've seen a few. That's what they do, they stand there and they,

they stand at the front and put their arms like this

and then they do the speech.

Because if it isn't an honest misunderstanding,

-then he just becomes rather dislikeable, doesn't he?

-Yeah.

There's a sort of disjunction between his idea of his own talent

and the execution of it. I suppose that's what's really funny.

As soon as you have an actor who suddenly becomes

a little self-aware, or a Bottom that becomes self aware

that it's not going that well,

or that it isn't the best performance he could have given,

then that's not funny, or not so funny.

But if he believes he's doing the best he possibly can,

and that he might win an Oscar at the end,

that's going to be priceless.

DRUMS PLAY

Ill met by moonlight, proud Titania.

What, jealous Oberon?

Fairies, skip hence.

I have forsworn his bed and company.

Tarry, rash wanton!

Am not I thy lord?

Then I must be thy lady.

But I know when thou hast stol'n away from fairy land,

And in the shape of Corin sat all day,

Playing on pipes of corn and versing love to amorous Phillida.

Why art thou here, come from the farthest step of India?

But that, forsooth, the bouncing Amazon,

Your buskined mistress and your warrior love,

To Theseus must be wedded.

And you come to give their bed joy and prosperity?

How canst thou thus for shame, Titania,

Glance at my credit with Hippolyta,

knowing I know thy love to Theseus?

Didst not thou lead him through the glimmering night

from Perigenia whom he ravished?

And make him with fair Aegles break his faith

with Ariadne and Antiopa?

These are the forgeries of jealousy,

and never since the middle summer's spring met we on hill,

in dale, forest or mead,

by paved fountain or by rushy brook,

or in the beached margent of the sea

to dance our ringlets to the whistling wind,

but with thy brawls thou hast disturbed our sport.

Therefore the winds,

piping to us in vain,

as in revenge, have sucked up from the sea contagious fogs,

which falling in the land hath every pelting river

made so proud that they have overborne their continents.

The ox hath therefore stretched his yoke in vain,

the ploughman lost his sweat,

and the green corn hath rotted ere his youth attained a beard.

The fold stands empty in the drowned field,

and crows are fatted with the murrion flock.

The nine men's morris is filled up with mud,

and the quaint mazes in the wanton green

for lack of tread are undistinguishable.

The human mortals want their winter here.

No night is now with hymn or carol blessed.

Therefore the moon, the governess of floods,

Pale in her anger, washes all the air,

that rheumatic diseases do abound.

And thorough this distemperature we see the seasons alter,

hoary-headed frosts fall in the fresh lap of the crimson rose,

and on old Hiems' thin and icy crown

an odorous chaplet of sweet summer buds

is, as in mockery, set.

The spring, the summer,

the childing autumn, angry winter,

change their wonted liveries,

and the mazed world by their increase

now knows not which is which.

And this same progeny of evils comes from our debate,

from our dissension.

We are their parents and original.

Do you amend it then,

it lies in you.

Why should Titania cross her Oberon?

I do but beg a little changeling boy

to be my henchman.

Set your heart at rest.

The fairy land buys not the child of me.

His mother was a votress of my order,

And in the spiced Indian air by night

Full often hath she gossiped by my side,

and sat with me on Neptune's yellow sands,

Marking th'embarked traders on the flood,

when we have laughed to see the sails conceive

and grow big-bellied with the wanton wind,

which she,

with pretty and with swimming gait following

her womb then rich with my young squire

would imitate, and sail upon the land,

to fetch me trifles, and return again

as from a voyage, rich with merchandise.

But she, being mortal, of that boy did die.

And for her sake do I rear up her boy,

and for her sake I will not part with him.

How long within this wood intend you stay?

Perchance till after Theseus' wedding day.

FAIRIES LAUGH

If you will patiently dance in our round

and see our moonlight revels, go with us.

If not, shun me, and I will spare your haunts.

SHE WHOOPS

Give me that boy, and I will go with thee.

Not for thy fairy kingdom.

Fairies, away.

We shall chide downright, if I longer stay.

Well, go thy way!

Thou shalt not from this grove till I torment thee for this injury.

What is your want during that speech?

What do you want to achieve?

-I want to awaken him.

-Mmm.

I want to shake him.

-Which is why you show him all those images?

-Yeah.

Somehow it feels like the world,

the worlds,

are centred around Titania and Oberon.

so when nature is happy

that's because there is peace between them,

and when they are at war,

the effect and consequence of that is world disaster.

Therefore the winds,

piping to us in vain, as in revenge,

have sucked up from the sea contagious fogs.

She says that the wind,

it's the winds that are angry

and so they have caused these contagious fogs

that then have poisoned the land

and therefore the crows are now eating the dead animals

and again, there's poison within their own body.

The ox hath therefore stretched his yoke in vain.

The ploughman lost his sweat,

and the green corn hath rotted ere his youth attained a beard.

It's interesting that Shakespeare does that thing

of making them into people. For example,

the young corn is rotted in the field

before his youth has attained a beard.

-Before he's aged.

-So there's the interesting idea

that you get through to him

by making him think of

the seasons and the corn as human beings who are being damaged

rather than trying to get people to care about corn.

Titania personalises it for him on this sort of epic scale.

We see the seasons alter,

hoary-headed frosts fall in the fresh lap of the crimson rose,

and on old Hiems' thin and icy crown,

an odorous chaplet of sweet summer buds.

There's lovely images of things like...

-Yeah...

-What is it? The hoary-headed frost...

The hoary-headed frost falls

in the fresh lap of the crimson rose.

The idea that the rose is full of frost...

-Yeah.

-And, of course, what's so astonishing is,

now we all really can connect with that because of climate change.

-Yeah.

-The idea that you're going to get ice during the summer or...

then the next one is about old Hiem's winter.

Old Hiem's winter, and so on his thin and icy crown

that I see, like, a patch of snow,

and from that snow

all of a sudden there are these beautiful summer flowers

that have budded.

So winter is an old man who has this crown of roses

and so it's mocking his winteriness.

Yeah. It's a mockery on our seasons

and particularly like you know living in England

we get to see the seasons so clearly,

-and it's like they have been...

-Altered.

-..fiddled with, altered,

because of our arguments.

These are gods, and the fact that they have these kind of human foibles

means that they fall out and that it affects the seasons.

It affects everybody in the universe.

The spring, the summer,

the childing autumn,

angry winter, change their wonted liveries, and the mazed world

by their increase now knows not which is which.

And this same progeny of evils comes from our debate,

from our dissension.

By the end of the speech she actually says

they're our progeny, our children.

-What if we said that these were your children?

-Yeah.

And let's say that it's like a couple who are divorcing

or arguing a lot

and the children are now becoming quite ill.

But with thy brawls thou hast disturbed our sport.

Therefore the winds,

piping to us in vain,

as in revenge, have sucked up from the sea contagious fogs,

which falling in the land

hath every pelting river made so proud

that they have overborne their continents.

The ox hath therefore ploughed his field in vain...

..the ploughman lost his sweat,

and the green corn hath rotted ere his youth attained a beard.

Did it feel any different or was it just an interesting...?

It did feel different, I wanted to go into more of the details.

Things, like, I can imagine

their teeth would probably be falling out.

You know, their stomachs were rumbling with hunger.

It makes you think of all those

-terrible images of famine, doesn't it?

-Yeah.

Yes, exactly. Famine and disease.

The fold stands empty in the drowned field,

and crows are fatted with the murrion flock.

The nine men's morris is filled up with mud...

and the quaint mazes in the wanton green

for lack of tread are undistinguishable.

I remember studying it at school

and for me, probably, that speech went for nothing,

because you read it and you sort of don't understand it

so then having a physicality to it

and being able to see each of those images

as the children of them,

because I think that, in some ways,

Titania and Oberon are mother and father earth.

-Mother and father nature.

-Yeah.

And to be able to have that association

with each of those images

allows you to unlock that speech.

If you do an improvisation like that,

it means that the actors, they've, they've experienced it together.

When they talk about those things later when doing the play,

they have such strong visual and physical and central memories

of what it feels like to feel

that these things are their children.

We've tasted it, we've touched it, we've, we've lived it.

I still think that when people hear it in performance,

they probably don't understand everything,

but hopefully, they'll have a feel and go,

"My goodness, you know, this person really cares

"about all of these images and it's having an effect on this person",

and, actually, at the end of going,

"All of this disaster has come because of us,"

hopefully then people will go, "Oh, yes. I understand."

Titania and Oberon are fighting over a baby.

It's very important to them.

Oberon wants it but Titania has the child

and it's her way of having some power over him.

At the beginning of the play, it's terribly important,

the fact that she has the boy, he wants the boy,

this is what they're arguing about.

Set your heart at rest.

The fairy land buys not the child of me.

His mother was a votress of my order.

And in the spiced Indian air by night,

full often hath she gossiped by my side.

Titania talks about this votress,

this woman she was friends with, she had this special bond with,

and she gave birth to this baby boy

and she died giving birth to him,

and that's why Titania has the child

and nothing that Oberon can do

can separate Titania from the bond that she has with the child.

Why did Shakespeare write that whole speech about the votress?

I don't know. It feels like a very sensual piece.

It's about intimacy, it's about friendship.

It's about loyalty, it's about love.

One of the things we've talked about is this idea that the child

in this instance represents love,

and that he feels that what he wants

is for Titania to love him the way she loves that woman.

You know, that isn't just a sexual thing, it's to have a real love.

It's a wonderful monologue that Titania has

when she's describing how she got the child

and what her...what her friendship to the votress meant,

and what we decided to do was to bring to life the votress,

so that the audience can really get what Titania's talking about.

I like to think she has, through her imagination,

conjured this beautiful votress up

that walks across the stage.

Which she, with pretty and with swimming gait following -

her womb then rich with my young squire.

It's more than just a walk, really,

because it's our friendship that we're displaying,

and saying, "I'm here. I was real and I was part of your journey

"and our journey was important."

What would it be like if we didn't see her?

We'd be asking the audience

to see her in their mind's eye, wouldn't we?

If we didn't, how do you still bring alive that memory

and convey the closeness of that relationship?

Let's do it and see what it feels like, shall we?

Yeah, cool.

When we have laughed to see the sails conceive

and grow big-bellied with the wanton wind,

which she, with pretty

and with swimming gait following...

She goes into a description of this woman so intimately

that it felt like I didn't want to say that directly to him.

-It was something so private that I...

-Yeah.

..it made me want to remember and smell her.

But it's odd, because it doesn't advance your argument.

-It certainly doesn't help in making him see your point of view.

-No.

Oberon says, "It's so simple.

"I'm so frustrated with you because it's so simple.

"You just give me the boy and then we can move on."

And she's saying, "No, you know it's bigger than that."

-What if you come back and you give her the baby immediately?

-OK.

And you sit down with it and then you just say

you're not having it,

you're not having it, because I tell you something so special,

something so special and if you...

I think maybe if you just physicalise a bit

as you're listening, just by moving back and forth, like a,

sort of, "I find this unbearable."

When we have laughed to see the sails conceive

and grow big-bellied with the wanton wind,

which she, with pretty and with swimming gait, following,

her womb then rich with my young squire...

..would imitate, and sail upon the land,

to fetch me trifles, and return again

as from a voyage, rich with merchandise.

'He's seeing her being incredibly affectionate

'and loving and protective,'

not only to the votress, but also this tiny baby -

like, even just doing it then, and you were saying,

"Just sit in this chair and tell it to him,"

it felt like, "I'm going to tell it to you,

"but I'm also telling it to this little, tiny thing in my arms."

That shifts the speech, because in our production

that speech is absolutely about the votress,

whereas, with the child in my arms,

it felt like the speech was about the child.

Seeing that must make you feel so... Urgh!

I want to... It's almost like I want to get the child

to get rid of that affection that you have for him.

-Cos I want to be at the centre of your universe.

-Exactly, exactly.

I love thee not, therefore pursue me not.

Where is Lysander and fair Hermia?

The one I'll slay, the other slayeth me.

Thou told'st me they were stolen into this wood.

And here am I, and wood within this wood,

Because I cannot meet my Hermia. Hence, get thee gone

and follow me no more.

You draw me, you hard-hearted adamant,

but yet you draw not iron, for my heart is true as steel.

Leave you your power to draw,

and I shall have no power to follow you.

Do I entice you? Do I speak you fair?

Or rather, do I not, in plainest truth,

tell you I do not, nor I cannot love you?

And even for that do I love you the more.

I am your...

..spaniel.

And, Demetrius,

the more you beat me, I will fawn on you.

Use me, but as your spaniel.

Spurn me,

strike me,

neglect me, lose me -

only give me leave, unworthy as I am, to follow you.

What worser place can I beg in your love -

and yet a place of high respect with me -

than to be used as you use your dog?

SHE MIMICS DOG YAPPING

SHE GIGGLES

Tempt not too much the hatred of my spirit,

for I am sick when I do look on thee.

And I am sick when I look not on you.

Hmm?

You do impeach your modesty too much

to leave the city and commit yourself

into the hands of one that loves you not,

to trust the opportunity of night

and the ill counsel of a desert place

with the rich worth of your virginity.

Your virtue is my privilege,

for that it is not night when I do see your face,

and therefore I think I am not in the night,

and nor doth this wood lack worlds of company,

for you, in my respect, are all the world -

then how can it be said I am alone,

when all the world is here to look on me?

I'll run from thee and hide me in the brakes,

and leave thee to the mercy of wild beasts.

Oh, the wildest hath not such a heart as you!

Run when you will, the story shall be changed -

Apollo flies, and Daphne holds the chase.

Yeah, the mild hind makes speed to catch the tiger.

Bootless speed, when... When cowardice pursues and valour flies.

I will not stay thy questions - let me go!

Or if thou follow me, do not believe,

but I shall do thee mischief in the wood.

Ah!

Ay, in the temple, in the town, the field,

you do me mischief.

SHE WHIMPERS ANGRILY

Fie, Demetrius!

Your wrongs do set a scandal on my sex.

We cannot fight for love, as men may do...

No, we should be wooed

and were not made to woo.

Well, I will follow thee and make a heaven of hell,

to die upon the hand I love so well!

I thought it might just be interesting

to talk about these two characters, because there are only, really,

-small hints in the text to go on, aren't there?

-Yeah.

So what does the text tell us about Helena's background or who she is?

She always... Not always,

but she's very often referencing her appearance.

Yeah, her looks, just, the way her body is.

It certainly gave me a sense

of her perhaps not feeling as comfortable in her body

as she once did, which I think is quite a teenage thing, you know?

-Coming to terms with this changing body.

-OK.

And what about Demetrius? So often people say,

"There's no difference between Lysander and Demetrius,"

-which I think is strange...

-I think there's a huge difference.

Lysander is so, kind of poetic.

Lysander will use images, whereas Demetrius is quite

straightforward in his language, I think, and in terms of his actions

and the way he treats people, Lysander seems more compassionate

in the way that he talks to both Hermia and Helena.

And Demetrius seems much more...

Is more blunt, I think, and uses more underhand...

He kind of uses...

..possibly, crueller tactics to get what he wants.

I thought it might just be interesting to try to think,

"Why did they first get together?"

There's something quite ambitious about Demetrius.

That's quite attractive,

especially for a girl who doesn't have a particularly loud voice

and isn't entirely sure of herself.

I always assumed she fancied me because I was a bit...

of rough.

Like I was, you know, a bit...

A bit edgy and a bit, sort of, aloof and a bit nasty,

and that somehow there's part of you who wants someone who's like that.

At school everyone fancied the guy

who was a bit horrible and a bit cold.

-NANCY LAUGHS

-I, sort of, think... I remember no-one ever fancied

the nice guy who was a bit sensitive and... You know?

OK, so could we just do a small improvisation?

Let's say that you've noticed that whenever you go to,

you know, weddings - because I'm sure there's lots of weddings

and parties and things in this world -

you've noticed that she's always looking at you.

So, if you decide to go and chat her up,

just to see whether or not it is something

you would want to take a bit further.

You keep looking at me.

No, I...

DEMETRIUS LAUGHS No, I don't...

DEMETRIUS LAUGHS

-I just...

-Caught out. Caught out!

Hello, I'm Demetrius.

-Hello, I'm Helena.

-Nice to meet you. How you doing?

Soft, nice. Slightly sweaty, though.

THEY LAUGH Am I? Sorry.

Are you having a nice time?

Yeah, it's just a bit hot.

THEY LAUGH

So, why are you looking at me?

-I wasn't looking at you?

-You were! You were.

-Well, if...

-It's all right. Go on.

If you saw me, it means you were looking at me.

Yeah, but I just looked at you cos you kept looking at me,

then we did that thing where I look at you,

and you think I'm looking at you, cos I am,

but I'm not, I'm looking cos you were,

to see if you were looking at me, and you were.

I was, but I was just...

Yeah. Anyway. Sorry.

-No, it's all right.

-Um...

You could easily imagine that growing into this feeling

that they're crazy about each other, couldn't you?

-Yeah, yeah.

-I mean, especially if you think they never actually...

Their chances for real intimacy

and spending real time together would be very small.

They don't know each other, really, that well.

It's just an idea, and a passion.

In terms of whether Demetrius originally loved Helena or not,

I think it says that they're betrothed.

She says that he showered her with oaths and, um,

that he made verbal love to her, you know, that he was wooing her,

and so I think, yeah, I think he probably was

and then, as young men can do at times, and young women,

switched very quickly to someone else.

The fact that he then gets completely obsessed

with this idea of marrying Hermia.

-Mm.

-Did you have it in your mind what that was all about?

Well, it could be the more he gets to know Helena

that there's a, sort of, tipping point,

that she's really interesting,

then after a while she's just a bit nuts.

Like, that she's a bit too into him, a bit too worried.

-And dependent

-Yeah, and dependent.

Whereas Hermia seems really feisty and really strong-willed,

and really confident.

Maybe that's a challenge and that's attractive or...

Which is a terrible cycle as well, because the more you feel that way

towards Hermia and the less interested you are with me,

-the more needy I become.

-Exactly, yeah.

I think Helena is often played very whiney and victim-y.

It would just be nice to just look at that extreme,

just to see what it does to the scene.

I am your spaniel,

and, Demetrius, the more you beat me,

I will fawn on you.

Use me, but as your spaniel.

Spurn me, strike me, neglect me, lose me -

only give me leave, unworthy as I am, to follow you.

I think her behaviour is quite "weak victim",

I mean, by virtue of the fact that she's chasing him around the forest

and stalking him, but her words are a lot stronger than that

and she's using some clever arguments

and she's playing on words, which is quite a flirty thing to do,

I think it's quite a charming thing to do.

I think to be that subservient and that whingey undermines...her.

She's fighting against being a complete, sobbing victim,

a complete wreck,

so I think it's really good to play that,

so that you know that that's there and that's simmering away,

but I think the text is more sophisticated than that,

and I think there's more to be found than that.

If Helena is JUST a victim, that's unattractive for Demetrius.

I don't think it really would mean that he would give up

his pursuit of Hermia

just because he feels bad.

Guilt doesn't seem to be a huge part of his make-up.

Is there an element that we could look at

that maybe we haven't so far, in terms of their characters?

We could try and be more reasonable with each other.

You know, that we did have a relationship, we did get on,

and try and find that ground to communicate with one other.

Slightly more adult, kind of... Everything under the surface.

It's more verbal, in a way, then,

-because it's really more about what you are...

-Arguing. Reasoning.

-Mm.

Use me, but as your spaniel.

Spurn me, strike me, neglect me, lose me -

only give me leave, unworthy as I am, to follow you.

What worser place can I beg in your love -

and yet a place of high respect with me

than to be used as you do use your dog?

You do impeach your modesty too much

to leave the city and commit yourself

into the hands of one that loves you not.

What's really so useful about that is really hearing...

Getting a chance to really do the arguments.

In a way, you're taking the physicality out of it,

saying this is much more about my mind trying to affect your mind

and I think what we know is that,

particularly because they are teenagers,

you can't take the body out of it.

You don't want to take out the excitement of the physical presence.

Yeah, I think it makes it more adult

and I think if they were capable of having this kind of conversation

-they probably wouldn't be in this situation.

-Mm.

If someone is being very reasonable to you,

it's very hard to step out of being reasonable with them,

you know, if they are not trying to use emotional tactics,

but more those of the mind, and seem in a sound mind

in the way that they're trying to convince you of something,

it's much harder to, one, write off their argument

as emotional manipulation or sort of, you know, love-induced lunacy,

so you have to take them more seriously, I think.

If we are trying to understand it in modern terms -

cos, after all, we want to make it work for a modern audience -

looking at these two in the woods

they would be much more sexually active, probably, at their age.

So what would it be like if she really was thinking,

"Well, the only way to get a boy is to offer yourself sexually."

I am your...spaniel.

And, Demetrius, the more you beat me,

I will fawn on you.

Use me, but as your spaniel.

Spurn me, strike me,

neglect me, lose me -

only give me leave, unworthy as I am, to follow you.

What worser place can I beg in your love

and yet a place of high respect with me

than to be used as you do use your dog?

It felt very calculated and manipulative

and very womanly and, to my mind, more Titania than Helena.

-Mm, yes.

-And I think one of the reasons the text is so uncomfortable

is because she doesn't quite realise how sexual she is being.

The idea of...

..a sort of, free pass to something is certainly...

Goes through his mind as being quite an attractive offer

before realising, you know, coming to his senses

and thinking it would ruin everything,

and it would be very harsh for him to do that,

and therefore needing to get out of it

and tell her in no uncertain terms that she must stop doing this,

because he also doesn't trust himself to be a gentleman, I think.

Tempt not too much the hatred of my spirit...

..for I am sick when I do look on thee.

And I am sick when I look not on you.

You do impeach your modesty too much

to leave the city and commit yourself into the hands

of one that loves you not, to trust the opportunity of night

and the ill counsel of a desert place

with the rich worth of your virginity.

Your virtue is my privilege,

for that it is not night when I do see your face,

and therefore I think I am not in the night.

And nor doth this wood lack worlds of company,

for you, in my respect, are all the world.

To make it that physical

changes the interpretation of some of the lines, doesn't it?

because you're offering yourself sexually to me

and the idea is that I'm responding to that

to say, "Tempt not too much the hatred of my spirit,"

is sort of to say, "Don't tempt me."

-Don't tempt me physically.

-Don't tempt me too much,

-because I could just do it and then leave you.

-Yeah.

"For I am sick when I do look on thee,"

could mean, you know, I have very rude, lewd thoughts

when I look at you in that way.

But in that instance just then, I felt very much

that you were warning me and I had taken my sexuality too far,

which is why I then come back with,

"Your virtue is my privilege."

I mean, "You're far to virtuous to take advantage of me, aren't you?"

Yeah, which throws it around on to me. Yeah.

It's at that point that Helena, I think,

is at the most vulnerable point in the scene,

cos he said, "OK, fine. I'll take you here and now if you want. I can.

"You've offered yourself up in that respect,"

and at that point she throws in the tactic

of genuinely opening up her heart and saying how much she loves him,

and in the actual show, I try to play that moment

as quite tender and exposed.

We need that.

I think you do need that after how vulnerable she's made herself,

you know, in terms of being, sort of, an object,

I think she needs to, then, to get back on her dignity and say,

"No, no, I'm not trying... I don't want to be your spaniel,

"I actually want to love you and to have you love me back."

When you push something to an extreme and say,

"OK, let's play it as if she's being overtly sexual,"

Or, "Let's just play it as if she's really just being a victim,"

sometimes what you realise is that it's a bit of a dead end

because it's only interesting for a short while

and then you want to see the character have more colours to them

and see that the character is going to try different things to get what they want.

They're not just going to always be a victim

or just be sexually provocative.

I think in terms of trying scenes in many different ways,

I always think that's useful.

I think, too, in every line you say and in every new thought you have,

to know that there are infinite possibilities within it

is a very useful thing.

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