FELIX HAYES:I think status is an issue in life in general.
FELIX HAYES: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.
DREW MULLIGAN: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.
CHRISTOPHER GODWIN:In this first…?
DREW MULLIGAN:Absolutely, the beginning of this scene.
ACTOR #1I think we were almost sat in status.
DREW MULLIGAN:I'd argue that–
FELIX HAYES:That's probably right.
DREW MULLIGAN:OK, so if this is the highest status…
FELIX HAYES:Half and half.
DREW MULLIGAN:then this is the lowest.
ACTOR #1:There's even a gap between us. This is an important gap.
DREW MULLIGAN:There's not much of a gap.
ACTOR #1:The gap is important.
DREW MULLIGAN:What does Bottom think the status is if he's ranking everybody's status?
FELIX HAYES:I'm at the top, then there's Quince and then everyone else.
LAUGHTER
DREW MULLIGAN:So, literally, in a group.
FELIX HAYES:It doesn't matter. It doesn't really matter where they are.
CHRISTOPHER GODWIN:This is the battle.
DREW MULLIGAN:Yeah, I think so.
CHRISTOPHER GODWIN:Between Quince and Bottom.
DREW MULLIGAN:What about Snug then, Chris? Where would you think everybody's status is, and where's your status?
FELIX HAYES:I am going to take this personally, if you don't.
CHRISTOPHER CHILTON:-Take it personally. I'd say I'd put Quince at the top. Just from the evidence of within the scene,
CHRISTOPHER CHILTON: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.
DREW MULLIGAN:Yeah. But you together with…
CHRISTOPHER CHILTON:Yeah.
DREW MULLIGAN:I think it would be interesting now to try this scene, and let's try playing with the status a little bit. Let's try playing it with Quince top status,
DREW MULLIGAN:and with Bottom with low status.
FELIX HAYES:Bottom down the bottom?
DREW MULLIGAN:Yeah.
CHRISTOPHER CHILTON:Have you the lion's part written? I pray you, if it be, give it me, for I am slow of study.
CHRISTOPHER GODWIN:You may do it extempore, for it is nothing but roaring.
CHRISTOPHER GODWIN:Rarr!
CHRISTOPHER CHILTON:Rarr!
FELIX HAYES:Well, let me play the lion, too.
CHRISTOPHER GODWIN:Ah, dear.
FELIX HAYES:I will roar that will do any man's heart good to hear me.
CHRISTOPHER CHILTON:Rarr!
FELIX HAYES:I will roar you.
No, he's playing the lion.
FELIX HAYES:That'll make the Duke say, "Let him roar again".
CHRISTOPHER GODWIN: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.
FELIX HAYES: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.
CHRISTOPHER GODWIN:No, no, no. You must play Pyramus. And Flute, you, Thisbe!
CHRISTOPHER GODWIN:I rather liked the sort of submerged–
FELIX HAYES:That was really weird!
DREW MULLIGAN:It's so weird, and so awkward.
FELIX HAYES:So awkward. If I was to play really in the lower status there, I wouldn't speak. The scene wouldn't move.
DREW MULLIGAN:And the others would have cut him off.
CHRISTOPHER GODWIN:No, I know what you're going to say.
FELIX HAYES:There's something about Bottom, people say, "No, 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.
FELIX HAYES:The roar. "No, you'd frighten ladies". "Well, I do it like this, "and then do that and then I'd do this. No, no, listen" He's always protecting himself, which, if you are playing low status, it's really hard to do.
DREW MULLIGAN:Giving Quince high status seemed to work on a certain level.
CHRISTOPHER GODWIN:It becomes very overbearing. I mean, I think Quince is much more into coercing people, persuading,
CHRISTOPHER GODWIN:or sneaking up on them, if you like but not imposing.
CHRISTOPHER GODWIN:I don't think he imposes. But he just niggles away at people until they give in.
DREW MULLIGAN:Yeah.
CHRISTOPHER GODWIN:Or find themselves doing it despite themselves.
DREW MULLIGAN:What would be interesting now, if we could try flipping it.
CHRISTOPHER GODWIN:Quince low status?
DREW MULLIGAN:Quince low status, and Bottom–
CHRISTOPHER GODWIN:I'll never get a word in edgeways!
LAUGHTER
CHRISTOPHER CHILTON:Oi! Have you the lion's part written? I pray you, if it be, give it me, for I am slow of study.
CHRISTOPHER GODWIN:Erm, you may do it extempore, for it is nothing but roaring.
FELIX HAYES: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
CHRISTOPHER GODWIN: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.
ALL: That would hang us, every mother's son(!)
FELIX HAYES: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!
FELIX HAYES:I will roar you as 'twere any nightingale.
CHRISTOPHER GODWIN:You-- You-- You can play no part but Pyramus. No, Pyramus…
CHRISTOPHER GODWIN: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…
ACTOR #1:Gentleman?
CHRISTOPHER GODWIN:Gentleman-like man. Therefore, you must needs play Pyramus.
MICHAEL GRADY-HALL:And the lion.
ACTOR #1:And Thisbe.
MICHAEL GRADY-HALL:Yeah, whatever you want to play.
ACTOR #1:Do it, you can do it. He can do them all.
MICHAEL GRADY-HALL:Yeah.
DREW MULLIGAN:That was really interesting about the persuading him to play the part. All of you then joined in the persuasion of him
DREW MULLIGAN:to please stay, 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.
MICHAEL GRADY-HALL:Status needs everyone else to give it to you. You can't believe in your own status,
MICHAEL GRADY-HALL:and have that be true. It has to be that If you want to be top status, everyone has to be giving that to you.
FELIX HAYES:It's such a flexible thing, isn't it. We're all in the scene, when it's at its best, we're all flexing between-- Within our bounds, but it's still a moveable thing.
DREW MULLIGAN:Yeah, 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 consciously passing it between each other or taking it from each other.
FELIX HAYES:I will roar that will make the duke say, "Let him roar again. Let him roar again!"
CHRISTOPHER GODWIN: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.
FELIX HAYES: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.
CHRISTOPHER GODWIN:You can play no part but Pyramus!
CHRISTOPHER GODWIN:Nick, look… For Pyramus is a sweet-faced man. He's a proper 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.
FELIX HAYES:I will undertake it.
DREW MULLIGAN:So how did that feel, then?
ACTOR #1:It's funny for us. I feel like it's watching Mum and Dad argue, or something.
CHRISTOPHER GODWIN:Exactly that, that's what I felt.
ACTOR #1:We're keeping ourselves out of it a bit more, and just letting them get on with it.
CHRISTOPHER GODWIN:What was interesting, was having to collude with Bottom, on the persuading him. Instead of doing it in front of everybody, it was saying, "No, look, you and I know what it is. You've got to do this, because look at that lot, they can't do it".
FELIX HAYES:And it makes me feel very special.
CHRISTOPHER GODWIN:Yes.
FELIX HAYES:It's pumping my status up that.
DREW MULLIGAN:I think in some senses, you've given it to him for the rest of the scene.
CHRISTOPHER CHILTON:I felt the status shift very much between you.
CHRISTOPHER GODWIN:It did, yes.
CHRISTOPHER CHILTON: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.
ACTOR #1:I feel like it's this, 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.
ACTOR #1: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. And that's playing out very neatly in this scene.
Bottom and Quince battle to be the most important person present.
Christopher Godwin and Felix Hayes discuss insights gained through playing their characters as high and low status.
This short film is from the 鶹Լ series, Shakespeare Unlocked.
Teacher Notes
This short film raises the question of status and opens the discussion of how the characters react to each other.
Before watching the workshop, ask your students to decide on the status of the actors in this scene (you could do this with a card-sort).
Then ask them to share their ideas in pairs, fours and eights and see if they can come to an agreement._
When they watch the workshop, ask them to be attentive to the actors' ideas, and consider how far they shared their ideas about the relative status of the different characters.
After watching the workshop, ask your students to discuss what they observed when the actors played around with status.
- What did they notice about how the actors moved? Spoke? Behaved with each other?
- What happened when Quince played low status and Bottom played high status?
- What worked, if anything, with this interpretation? What didn't?
- What happened when the situations were reversed and Quince played high status and Bottom played low status? What worked? What didn't?
The actors were asked who they thought carried the higher status within the scene, Quince or Bottom.
One actor felt that, on balance, it was Quince.
Ask your students who they think has the higher status, and why.
One actor says that apart from Quince and Bottom all the rest of the group seem undifferentiated in terms of status.
Do students agree with this, or do they think that distinctions are made between them?
This short film is suitable for teaching GCSE English literature and drama in England, Wales and Northern Ireland and National 4/ 5 in Scotland.
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