How would you direct Act One Scene Two of A Midsummer's Nights Dream, to create comedy for the audience?

On the line, “What is Thisby? A wand’ring knight?” Flu, whom I would cast as being large and particularly hairy, would stand on the bench gallantly with a foot on the table and his fists clenched to accentuate the humour in the fact he has to play the woman of the play. Meanwhile Bottom who has remained forward adopts a feminine pose for line 44. When instructed, “No ,no, you must play Pyramus” he resumes to theatrically thinking through his role in front of the table whilst trying to take control of the meeting- much to the increasing annoyance of Quince who I would direct to gradually edge his way forward throughout the scene in order to out-do Bottom, who is arrogantly oblivious to this.

I would cast Snug as being small and dopey looking and direct him to appear slow and innocently simple throughout the scene. On the deliverance of his line I would direct him to stand timidly so that an exited Bottom could frighten him into quickly resuming his seat by roaring and acting out the lion’s role. To this fearful reaction the men would teasingly mock and poke fun at an embarrassed looking Snug.

On Quince’s long passage, commencing line 86, the men would all go back to their seats around the table, including Bottom- though with a slight air of reluctance, and quietly listen to the plan of action. I would direct the interruption from Bottom to once again be delivered with a dramatic tone and then interjected by a now irritated Quince by him standing equally theatrically for his line. From this Bottom, realising Quinces reasons for frustration, stands and completes the scene’s dialogue in a way as if to suggest he is the superior one who should be dismissing the others.

During scene two I would direct the actions to reflect the dramatically theatrical language, predominantly from Bottom- Whilst the other, clearly poor workers and labourers would look on in admiration at Bottom exited by the process of producing the play. The purpose of the scene is to create a light-hearted break from the more profound and romantic plot of the previous scene. The contrast of the exaggerated characters in this scene compared to the more seriously realistic characters in scene one would help create the comedy for the audience.