I would like to know about the fairies from A Midsummer Night's Dream, particually Mustardseed. If you find some good websites please let me know. Help me on the events that Mustardseed was in and some characteristics about him.
2007-01-08 08:59:59 · 2 answers · asked by <3 1 in Arts & Humanities ➔ Theater & Acting
The fairies are rather enigmatical. They don't have many lines, and in themselves don't affect the action very much. You can generally assume that they're always near Titania, helping her out and running errands.
In the text, the fairies personify nature. Their names are all natural things. The first fairy has a great speech about what fairies do all day: hanging dewdrops, painting flowers, etc. (In the recent movie starring Kevin Kline, this was played as a heavily-overworked, exhausted fairy by Deirdre Harrison, and it was hilarious.)
In performance, they are often assigned various non-speaking bits of business: dancing, gymnastics, making funny faces, etc. You've got a lot of options to make interesting characters out of them, since they get a lot of stage time but have little to say.
The role of "Fairy" is often assigned to one of Titania's four assistant fairies. There are also options for which fairy stands guard over Bottom.
I was just in a production last summer which set Midsummer in a dance club, with the Fairies as dancers at the club. The actor playing Mustardseed got huge laughs just by saying his name. (He said it in such a way as to imply that he was hitting on Bottom.)
2007-01-08 09:23:47 · answer #1 · answered by jfengel 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
What you REALLY need to do is crack open the play, and read the scenes that Mustardseed is in. Honestly, there can't be more than 2 or 3 of them.
Mustardseed is one of the fairies that Titania assigns to care for Bottom, after he's been turned into a donkey by Puck.
2007-01-09 01:17:36 · answer #2 · answered by shkspr 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋