Friday 18 November 2016

A Midsummer Nights Dream Blog: Character Profiles

We have all been cast for our parts in our production of "A Midsummer Nights Dream" for children. We have two casts code-named "Liquorice" and "Sherbet". I have three parts in total. In "Liquorice" I play Lysander and in "Sherbet" I play Theseus and Flute. After all my research and development throughout my blog this is the final summary for each character.


Lysander:

Lysander is a citizen of Athens around 20 years old. He is a hopeless romantic, falling in love with girls and becoming infatuated without really knowing them but once he's in love that's it. He want nothing more than to marry who he thinks is the love of his life, Hermia. Due to the parallels between this play and "Romeo an Juliet" and his general character I'm saying they met and fell in love at first sight. I feel they probably don't know each other too well and are just going through young love, especially Lysander. He is considered a good man even by the high ranking members, for example when Theseus says "Demetrius is a worthy gentlemen" Hermia replies "So is Lysander". The duke agrees with this saying "In himself he is" but is only ignored because of Egea who doesn't want him marrying Hermia. That is his main obstacle as well as the decision by duke Theseus and he knows he can't change it so has to take another course of action. This of course annoys Lysander do much to the point where he suggests running away with her so they can live a happy life. He will do anything for love it seems even disobeying a duke. In the original text it implies that he would kill Demetrius if he had to get the love of who he wants although it's more out of naivety rather than being evil but even then whether he'd actually have the capacity to kill him is highly unlikely although the frustration to confront and threaten is certainly there since he's just an overly ambitious and naive young man. He does all this while still remaining a likable young man since he never actually brings harm to anyone and has good intentions throughout.






Theseus:

Theseus is the duke of Athens. He is going to marry Hippolyta, queen of the amazons. In the original it's heavily implied she's there against her will and has no choice to marry him but in this version that has been removed and they are two powerful leaders in love. In this version he's a nicer man and isn't really evil in anyway. When he is happy and talking about his wedding day to his fiance, he's interrupted which on it's own would irritate someone but the news given is that someone is going against the tradition/law of his culture. In this version I see him as someone who merely wants to uphold it and maybe a little offended that someone is going against what he was brought up to believe. Since in this version he doesn't threaten her with the death penalty it makes sense to go with this although he still firmly believes in maintaining his authority and denies it due to those reasons. Although I will say that he does have the capacity to go further. He doesn't really have an obstacle since he's the character of the highest status and controls everything in Athens although I guess you could say he's still placed in an awkward situation since he can still see the flaw with situation but just feels a need to uphold tradition and stand by his friend/well respected figure. He changes his mind in the end when he sees how Demetrius feels for Helena and then decides that it would be better for everyone if he overruled. He has no problem doing this despite going against one of his friends wishes although he does out rank Egea anyway so there isn't much he could do. Theseus is while arrogant (since he thinks of himself highly and enjoys his power although he doesn't feel abuses it, just prioritises himself) and a little greedy/forceful (Considering in the original had him kidnap a princess), he isn't an evil man, he's just a man with a lot of power that has both good and bad sides as evidenced by him overruling his friend.






Flute:

Francis flute is a man who's real job is to fix bellows (Photo of bellows below) but he wants to become an actor so has joined an amateur group in order to try and make it as one. He has somehow been given the chance to perform at the Duke's wedding which of course is both an exciting and scary idea for all of them. It's also an ideal opportunity to try  However both he and the group are pretty bad and very incompetent. Him and his crew always seem very unrehearsed and there's no one who can be considered good. Flute is not exactly the smartest of people although he is a nice man, filled with enthusiasm at first until he gets a part that he finds humiliating. He more or less has a smile on his face when preparing and performing with the exception of when he gets his part. His obstacle is really his (As well as his groups) talent. And his focus is mainly on getting the play done so he can hopefully succeed and he will put up with the part he doesn't like to get what he wants so while he's fairly stupid he's at least determined. The other mechanicals seem to be his friends or at the very least people he gets along with so that's probably a factor as to why he keeps going. So really he's a bumbling but determined fool and his hearts in the right place to get what he wants even though he didn't get the part he wanted.



Image result for what is a bellow

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