Puck: I am NAUGHTY, I say BUM! look out fairy, here comes Oberon #MoonMad #SlowShakespeare www.english.cam.ac.uk/research/slo... Richard McCabe as a punky Puck (school tie, tutu, pointy ears, fairy wings) in the 1989 @the-rsc.bsky.social Dream, dir. John Caird

Puck is a MENACE and he thinks he's HILARIOUS #MoonMad #SlowShakespeare www.english.cam.ac.uk/research/slo... It's a grey old day so here is Puck (Gladys Hulette, aged 13; child Pucks v common in the C19) doing INCREDIBLE MAGIC in the 1909 silent film, plus a still. www.youtube.com/watch?v=307t...

Fairy: are you, like, actual PUCK? #MoonMad #SlowShakespeare www.english.cam.ac.uk/research/slo... Puck doesn't have to be full-on evil but he can be annoying, incompetent, even borderline malevolent rather than cheeky chap full of Pranks & Bantz. Saturnine Sergo Vares in the current Headlong Dream.

Puck: fairy fall-out! #MoonMad #SlowShakespeare www.english.cam.ac.uk/research/slo... What the people need this Monday morning is Stanley Tucci as Puck, sitting on a giant tortoise, in the 1999 Michael Hoffman film of Dream.

Fairy floral magic: decking cowslip bodyguards with pearl earrings! fairies are TINY! 🧚 www.english.cam.ac.uk/research/slo... Puck (Aidan McArdle) and Peaseblossom (Sirine Saba) in the 1999 @the-rsc.bsky.social Dream dir. Michael Boyd, des. Tom Piper. And here's a cowslip.

It's FAIRYTIME! #MoonMad #SlowShakespeare www.english.cam.ac.uk/research/slo... Puck (the extraordinary, inimitable David Moorst, who also appeared in the 2025 revival) and the Fairy (Chipo Kureya) in the 2019 @bridgetheatre.bsky.social Dream dir. Nicholas Hytner 📸 Manuel Harlan

@londonreviewbookshop.co.uk I am in you and it is the coolest thing🥰 www.londonreviewbookshop.co.uk/stock/textil...

Amateur dramatics in the forest! time to learn lines... #MoonMad www.english.cam.ac.uk/research/slo... In the 2016 @the-rsc.bsky.social Dream dir. Erica Whyman the 'mechanicals' were played by amateur groups from around the UK. David Mears, here as Bottom, was from The Bear Pit in Stratford.

Bottom: but what BEARD for Pyramus? 🧔🧔‍♂️Quince: ??!! #MoonMad #SlowShakespeare www.english.cam.ac.uk/research/slo... Part of the joke is that, if Will Kempe (R) is playing Bottom, he already has a beard... This is still often the case: here's Kevin Kline in the 1999 film.

Bottom: please let me be the Lion! Quince: no *cunningly* you would be too scary! #MoonMad #SlowShakespeare www.english.cam.ac.uk/research/slo... Maybe later in the action? but here (C) is Charles Laughton as Bottom in the Elizabethan-set @the-rsc.bsky.social 1959 Dream dir. Peter Hall📸Angus McBean

Snug can ROAR extempore! #MoonMad www.english.cam.ac.uk/research/slo... Snug (Laurie Jamieson) & Quince (Helen Monks) 2024 @the-rsc.bsky.social Dream dir. Eleanor Rhode 📸Pamela Raith & the Brook Dream 1972, actors uncredited (not sure if casting had changed?): Bottom (L) teaches Snug how to ROAR.

Flute: no! not a girl! Bottom: yes! #MoonMad www.english.cam.ac.uk/research/slo... L: Stout (Chike Okonkwo), Bottom (Marc Wootton), & Flute (Michael Grady-Hall) @the-rsc.bsky.social 2011 dir. Nancy Meckler; (centre) Bottom (Joy Fernandes) & Quince (JD Ashwatthama) DASH Arts/RSC 2006, dir. Tim Supple

Bottom: I can do lover, but I can do TYRANT too! #MoonMad #SlowShakespeare www.english.cam.ac.uk/research/slo... Bottom (Mathew Baynton) demonstrates his versatility to Quince (Helen Monks) as the others look on, in the 2024 @the-rsc.bsky.social Dream dir. Eleanor Rhode.

Quince: it's called PYRAMUS & THISBE; Bottom: I'm PYRAMUS yes? #MoonMad #SlowShakespeare www.english.cam.ac.uk/research/slo... The 2025-6 Headlong Dream had Quince (Jack Humphrey) a sommelier, Flute (Priya Kalsi) a waitress & Bottom (Danny Kirrane) the EXECUTIVE chef, which worked very well.

Introducing BOTTOM (& Quince, it's his show) #MoonMad www.english.cam.ac.uk/research/slo... Bottom (Brian Glover, L) talks over Quince (Geoffrey Palmer, C) in the 1981 BBC Dream; Bottom (Emmanuel Akwafo) is distracted & Quince (Felicity Montagu) consults her list @bridgetheatre.bsky.social 2025

Helena: Demetrius swore he loved me, until he didn't 😭 #MoonMad #SlowShakespeare www.english.cam.ac.uk/research/slo... Helena (Caitlin Mottram) in the 2005 @the-rsc.bsky.social Dream, dir. Gregory Doran. The height of boho chic, with her beads and crochet lace. (I have such a soft spot for Helena❤️)

Helena: love is blind and also mad and stupid #MoonMad #SlowShakespeare www.english.cam.ac.uk/research/slo... This is almost certainly much later in the play, but I LOVE Diana Wynyard's magnificent dignity here, as Helena in the 1949 @the-rsc.bsky.social Dream.

just waiting for my hastily made cornflour & water starch to cool enough so that I can starch a large cotton handkerchief, get it dry, damp it & iron some pleats into it so as to pass it around in my lecture tomorrow & then spray it with water to demonstrate what happens to ruffs in the rain #praxis

Helena: some people have all the luck, WHY doesn't Demetrius love me back, why, why? #MoonMad #SlowShakespeare www.english.cam.ac.uk/research/slo... Oh Helena; so pathetic, and sometimes so relatable... Here's Calista Flockhart in the 1999 film of Dream, dir. Michael Hoffman

Hermia: so long, best friend! #MoonMad #SlowShakespeare www.english.cam.ac.uk/research/slo... Lysander (Christopher Gable) and Hermia (Mary Rutherford) in the Peter Brook Dream @the-rsc.bsky.social 1970, des. Sally Jacobs

Lysander: Helena, we trust you! #MoonMad #SlowShakespeare www.english.cam.ac.uk/research/slo... Helena (Laura Riseborough) in the 2016 @the-rsc.bsky.social Dream, dir. Erica Whyman. Professional actors played the lovers & fairies; amateur groups played the 'mechanicals' as the show toured the UK.

Hermia: no, shut up, we're running away (this STILL isn't my fault, OK?) #MoonMad #SlowShakespeare www.english.cam.ac.uk/research/slo... A moment later in the @bridgetheatre.bsky.social Dream revival, 2025: Helena (Lily Simpkiss, L), Lysander (Divesh Subaskaran) & Hermia (Nina Cassells, R)

Hermia: It's not my fault if Demetrius is an idiot! Helena🙄 #MoonMad #SlowShakespeare www.english.cam.ac.uk/research/slo... Hermia (Yuki Ellias), Lysander (Chandan Roy Sanyal) & Helena (Shanaya Rafaat, R) dir. Tim Supple @the-rsc.bsky.social/Dash Arts 2006. The characters spoke 6 different languages

Helena to Hermia: you are enchanting and I am SO not🥹 www.english.cam.ac.uk/research/slo... Helena (Lucy Briggs-Owen) in the 2011 @the-rsc.bsky.social Dream, dir. Nancy Meckler des. Katrina Lindsay.

Helena: why do birds suddenly appear, stars fall down from the sky, etc? #MoonMad www.english.cam.ac.uk/research/slo... This scene from the 1981 BBC Shakespeare, a beautiful C17 design, dir. Elijah Moshinsky. Hermia (Pippa Guard, L), Lysander (Robert Lindsay) & Helena (Cherish Mellor, bespectacled)

Hermia: YES! I will elope with you, Lysander, I swear by absolutely everything! #MoonMad www.english.cam.ac.uk/research/slo... Hermia (Isis Hainsworth) @bridgetheatre.bsky.social 2019, happily agreeing to elope. Also Milton liked this bit the sentimental old thing! (1623 F @freelibrary.bsky.social )

Lysander has a plan: ELOPEMENT! #MoonMad #SlowShakespeare www.english.cam.ac.uk/research/slo... Hermia (Sinead Keenan) and Lysander (Trystan Gravelle) in the 2005 @the-rsc.bsky.social Dream, dir. Gregory Doran

Hermia: is this just the way it is, then? #MoonMad #SlowShakespeare www.english.cam.ac.uk/research/slo... Lysander (Ryan Sutton) & Hermia (Dawn Sievewright) in the 2024 @the-rsc.bsky.social Dream, dir. Eleanor Rhode. Tempting perhaps to race through this, but much potential for complexity in Hermia.

Lysander: so quick bright things come to confusion⚡ #MoonMad #SlowShakespeare www.english.cam.ac.uk/research/slo... Lysander can be an idiot but this SPEECH❤️ Milton liked it, naturally @freelibrary.bsky.social; Hermia (Anna Friel) & Lysander (Dominic West) in the 1999 film dir. Michael Hoffman

Lysander: THE COURSE OF TRUE LOVE NEVER DID RUN SMOOTH! It's TRUE! #MoonMad #SlowShakespeare www.english.cam.ac.uk/research/slo... Hermia (Francesca Mills, fabulously ferocious) and Lysander (Sam Crerar) in the 2023 Globe Dream, dir. Elle While.

Theseus, very much in charge... #MoonMad #SlowShakespeare www.english.cam.ac.uk/research/slo... Hippolyta (Eleanor Matsuura) & Theseus (John Hannah) in the BBC version adapted by Russell T. Davies in 2016 (Theseus as dictator, Hippolyta as POW; not doubling Theseus/Oberon and Hippolyta/Titania)

Theseus: time out! but Hermia, time to wake up... #MoonMad #SlowShakespeare www.english.cam.ac.uk/research/slo... Theseus (Bally Gill) and Hippolyta (Sirine Saba) in the 2024 @the-rsc.bsky.social Dream, dir. Eleanor Rhode

Lysander: but what about Demetrius and HELENA? #MoonMad #SlowShakespeare www.english.cam.ac.uk/research/slo... Disdainful Demetrius & doting Helena in a still from the opening of the BBC Animated Tales Dream; adapted by Leon Garfield, the storytelling stands up well www.dailymotion.com/video/x7umt8z

Lysander: I am as good as Demetrius! #MoonMad #SlowShakespeare www.english.cam.ac.uk/research/slo... Frank Benson as a pleading Lysander in his production at the Lyceum, London, in February 1900. From shakespeare.emory.edu

Demetrius: she's mine! Lysander: she's mine! Egeus: she's MINE actually #MoonMad #SlowShakespeare www.english.cam.ac.uk/research/slo... Lysander (R, actual young Dominic West) and Demetrius (L, Christian Bale) in the 1999 film of Dream, dir. Michael Hoffmann

Theseus: the clock is ticking... #MoonMad #SlowShakespeare www.english.cam.ac.uk/research/slo... Hippolyta (Hedydd Dylan, furious) and Theseus (Michael Marcus, totally unhinged) in the current Dream by Headlong at the Globe

Theseus: celibacy is v hard; Hermia: still not marrying Demetrius #MoonMad #SlowShakespeare www.english.cam.ac.uk/research/slo... @bridgetheatre.bsky.social Nicholas Hytner imagined Athens as a psalm-singing theocracy, with Hippolyta (Gwendoline Christie 2019, Susannah Fielding 2025) in a glass box

Theseus: DEATH or CONVENT! #MoonMad #SlowShakespeare www.english.cam.ac.uk/research/slo... Milton liked this bit (in his copy of F1623 @freelibrary.bsky.social) @bridgetheatre.bsky.social 2019 Hermia (Isis Hainsworth) was already nun-like (Gwendoline Christie as Hippolyta, Oliver Chris as Theseus)

Hermia: what's the worst that could happen if I don't marry Demetrius?? #MoonMad #SlowShakespeare www.english.cam.ac.uk/research/slo... The opening scene of the 1909 Vitagraph silent film of Dream; Rose Tapley as Hermia (kneeling) (this is one of my MOST favourite things & will continue to feature)

Theseus: what matters is your father's choice, Hermia #MoonMad #SlowShakespeare www.english.cam.ac.uk/research/slo... Hermia (Sinead Keenan) is defiant facing Theseus (Miles Richardson); Lysander (Trystan Gravelle, L) & Egeus (Tom Hodgkins, R) watch @the-rsc.bsky.social 2005 dir. Gregory Doran

Marriage or DEATH, Hermia! #MoonMad #SlowShakespeare www.english.cam.ac.uk/research/slo... Hermia (Yuki Ellias, R) Egeus (J Jayakumar, L) and Theseus (PR Jijoy) in the 2006 @the-rsc.bsky.social production dir. Tim Supple: a stunningly beautiful production, in English & 6 other Indian languages

Egeus: you've stolen my daughter! #MoonMad www.english.cam.ac.uk/research/slo... Brook's Dream @the-rsc.bsky.social 1970; the white box of Sally Jacobs's set. Hermia (Mary Rutherford) kneels, with Egeus (Philip Locke), Demetrius (Ben Kingsley, blue) & Lysander (Christopher Gable, orange) 📸Reg Wilson

The world is mad but theatre is good & Headlong's Midsummer Night's Dream at the Wanamaker is ice-cool & interesting & clever (esp about the darkness of ballet, oh the shiver of white tights) & while I may not entirely endorse the last 5 minutes (if you know you know) it's well worth seeing 1/2

A love triangle: enter Hermia, Lysander, and Demetrius #MoonMad #SlowShakespeare www.english.cam.ac.uk/research/slo... Hippolyta (Gwendoline Christie) looks on with concern, as Egeus and Hermia plead before Theseus, in the @bridgetheatre.bsky.social Dream (the 2019 production), dir. Nick Hytner.

Theseus: Athens WILL rejoice! make it so! #MoonMad #SlowShakespeare www.english.cam.ac.uk/research/slo... Theseus (Nicholas Jones) and Hippolyta (Josette Simon) in the 1999 @the-rsc.bsky.social Dream, dir. Michael Boyd des. Tom Piper (this might be the end of the play, not the first scene??)

Theseus: we're getting married! soon but not soon enough! Hippolyta: *thrilled* #MoonMad #SlowShakespeare www.english.cam.ac.uk/research/slo... The (London transfer) poster for the great 1970 @the-rsc.bsky.social Dream, dir. Peter Brook. It changed theatre; my parents saw it & we had the poster...

Well I still haven't finished the thing I wanted to get sent off before Christmas, and I'll never even attempt inbox zero, but I have just, fleetingly, achieved ironing basket zero, so, ring out the old, I guess...

5 sleeps until my next #SlowShakespeare blog, starting 1 January💫 #MoonMad 🌙 (how many times will I see Dream in 2026? one booked already; doubt that I'll pass 2025's 8 Hamlets or adaptations thereof though...) (why no donkey emoji why)

I can't do a poll, but I can make an executive decision, so🥁🥁🥁 I'll be starting my EIGHTH #SlowShakespeare daily blog on 1 January: #MoonMad aka Midsummer Night's Dream. Because we could all do with some laughs & a bit more fairy-dust right now... (Gwendoline Christie as Titania at the Bridge, 2019)

I can't do a poll, but I can make an executive decision, so🥁🥁🥁 I'll be starting my EIGHTH #SlowShakespeare daily blog on 1 January: #MoonMad aka Midsummer Night's Dream. Because we could all do with some laughs & a bit more fairy-dust right now... (Gwendoline Christie as Titania at the Bridge, 2019)