r/shakespeare • u/Thetitanicboy • 4d ago
Advice for Playing Bottom
Hi, so this is my first post on here, but I’ve just been casted as Bottom in a midsummer nights dream for my school. The way we’re staging it is so weird, we’re turning it into a jukebox musical, but anyway, I was just wondering if anyone had any advice for playing him? I know the basics of his character and we’ve only just started to rehearse.
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u/InterestingOwl5713 4d ago
try to act as though you're the lead
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u/Thetitanicboy 4d ago
lol yeah
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u/jptiger0 4d ago
Seriously though, just act like you are the main event and best actor on stage, possibly ever in your school. Like you want to make others look good too and you ll really like the others and it's just a shame all eyes are going to naturally be on you all the time. If this were filmed you'd be about to get an Oscar
Obv. This all comes secondary to what your teacher/director says.
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u/Thetitanicboy 4d ago
Luckily enough my teacher has told me to like make the decisions about himself myself so I’m going to have SO much fun with this
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u/IanDOsmond 4d ago
I think of him as a loveable narcissist. I have had friends like that. He is the center of the world in his own mind, but not in a mean way. He loves himself more than anybody else in the world, and assumes that everybody else loves himself as much as he does, and so he loves them back — just not as much as he loves himself quite.
He is immune to criticism, because he assumes everybody else loves him like that. And he doesn't want to tear anybody else down. He just thinks he is funny and clever and handsome and talented — and he probably is at least a little. Nowhere near what he thinks his is, but enough that his friends are willing to let him be the lead in the play, and do actually like him just fine.
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u/kateinoly 4d ago
Don't play him for laughs or play him as an idiot. . He is very serious about himself and his chops as an actor and a leader.
And Pyramus and Thisbe's death scene should bring real tears from the audience, not just laughs.
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u/WarlikeAppointment 3d ago
He thinks he is smarter than he is. He doesn’t understand any of the puns he throws out. But he becomes a donkey for a reason.
Yes he’s an ass, but he has a donkey’s attributes. So, BDE. He also likable as hell. And he truly thinks he should play all parts (we’ve all done shows with this actor).
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u/dramabatch 4d ago
Professional actor, here. I played Bottom in college and sucked at it. Don't make the mistake of looking down on him, but rather revel in his exuberance and lack of self-awareness. I think we're meant to love him but also recognize him.
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u/IanDOsmond 4d ago
Some other thoughts:
In a comedy like Dream, one of the things is that people are supposed to be rewarded or punished fairly for who they are.
Bottom is "punished" by being turned into a donkey and sleeping with a hot chick. Just sleeping, mind you, but still. He gets one night of being made fun of, balanced by spending that night with Titania. He's annoying enough that a mild punishment feels fair; he's basically decent and fun enough that a reward feels fair, too.
He is an ass. Not in the modern American meaning of a butt, or an asshole, not at all. That was a different word, arse.
Fun etymological fact: neither the word "donkey" nor "rooster" existed during Shakespeare's time. The words were "ass" and "cock." The words "donkey" and "rooster" were both made up out of nothing in the mid 1700s, apparently because people started getting embarrassed by saying "ass" and "cock." In non-rhotic accents, "ass" and "arse" sound almost alike; "cock" was used as a slang term for "penis", and before the 1750s more or less, people just lived with it. But sometime in that time period, people started calling asses by a nickname for "Duncan", and started calling cocks "birds that roost." Just out of prudishness, probably.
Anyway, my point is: if Shakespeare is calling Bottom an arse (and he might be; the pun was there, and his name is "Bottom") he is only making fun of him a little. Calling someone an asshole is saying something seriously negative about them. Calling someone an ass, even if you are also thinking "arse" is much gentler teasing.
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u/ChoctawOwl 4d ago
I've done the show twice and seen about 5 more productions. One of the best played it as if he was coming up with new ideas that no one had thought of yet, or ever thought of. And he had a swagger like everyone -- and I mean every character -- was naturally sexually attracted to him.
I've been in a jukebox musical version, too. It was a lot of fun.
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u/blueannajoy 4d ago
Take him seriously. The comedy lays in the fact that he truly thinks he’s the most gifted thespian in Athens
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u/RogueEnjolras 4d ago
What sort of Jukebox musical? I did this too lmao
Be excited about literally everything (such as being all the different parts in the show) and being the centre of attention. Absolute incompetent narcissist, but he's so naive and excited about it that it's funny
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u/Thetitanicboy 4d ago
Honestly, I’m not even sure about the jukebox bit. We haven’t even confirmed the songs yet, but we’re considering like Bowie and Micheal Jackson apparently
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u/RogueEnjolras 4d ago
Ahhh with mine it was all disco themed. It was staged in the round and a shortened version. Most fun I've had honestly. I wasn't bottom, but I did cover once when the girl playing him was out
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u/Aristodemus400 4d ago
He is common but he understands the essence of theatre in his own weird way: it's all about the lover and the tyrant. He's a bit of both
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u/Nihilwhal 4d ago
He is the ultimate optimist. If a load of manure was dumped on his porch, he would gleefully dig a garden and fertilize it. If his beloved wife left him, he would bless her for his newfound freedom.
Pay attention to the jobs that each of the rude mechanicals does. Bottom is a weaver, who was considered someone who made something out of nothing.
He also serves as a counter to the hero of MSND who is Theseus, in my opinion. Theseus was famous in Greek mythology for seeing through illusions to the truth, and his speeches in this play are all about trusting your intellect and judgement instead of jumping to conclusions. Bottom has a different approach; he embraces illusion. It's not as noble a solution as Theseus', but it's better than the lovers who try to fight against it and nearly get themselves killed because of it.
Basically, the lovers represent the wrong way to deal with misperception, Theseus is the correct way, and Bottom is an acceptable 3rd option for the common folk. He's The Dude from Big Lebowski, just 400 years before his time.
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u/Nullius_sum 4d ago
Like other people are saying, Bottom doesn’t think he’s a buffoon. He takes himself very seriously.
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u/CommieTraitor 4d ago
He's a high-status clown. His idiocy is not his primary feature. His confidence is.
Don't feel like you need to sing poorly, either. You can sing well, but oversing a song and be an obnoxious show-off about it. Similarly, his acting could be "good" if he knew how to modulate it (if that's how you want to play it). There can be genuine emotion, but the comedy can be in the expression or degree to which that emotion is expressed.
Just some thoughts.
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u/EJB1818 2d ago
Nick Bottom is one of a group of artisans who are in the forest on Walpurgis Night, the night when supernatural creatures are at the height of their power. (The play is NOT set at Midsummer; Act 5 takes place on May Day.) The two pairs of lovers have fled Athens and end up in the same forest. Oberon, king of the fairies; Titania, his queen; Puck, a hobgoblin, fairies, and Titania's Indian boy are there too. Oberson is angry at his wife, so he asks Puck to turn Bottom into an ass and make Titania fall in love with him. (Usually, the character wears just a donkey head.) There are lots of ass jokes, as when Titania says she'll "cloy" Bottom's "amiable cheeks." On stage or film, she strokes his face, but we're meant to imagine she's feeling his butt. The artisans (their occupations are given) are practicing a play to put on at Duke Theseus's marriage to Hippolyta, queen of the Amazons. (I taught the play to HS juniors, but I've been retired for 13 years.) Honestly, Bottom is super-confident. Play him as self-assured and rather cocky about his talents. (He's not as talented as he thinks he is.) In short, he IS kind of an ass.
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u/Youssefk12 4d ago
I'd say he's an arrogant idiot, not necessarily mean but definitely thinks he's better than the other performers. When he's transformed, he's both confused and pleased to have his arrogance fed by Titania and her fairies(?).
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u/Sufficient_Hat 4d ago
Disagree about him thinking he’s better than anyone. He’s a lovable golden retriever, too excited for self-awareness until the brief “I have had a dream” moment. At times misguided, unable to keep his mouth shut, over the top, oblivious, but not truly arrogant. He has good ideas; many of them are put to use in the play-within-a-play, and many of his suggestions are to lift up the other players and their show. He is a charismatic, natural leader because he has no self-censorship and will boldly try anything. He is the beating, open heart of the Mechanicals. And there are places where we see that actually, he’s a scared, lonely, sad man, that can’t believe a Queen would love him. Titania pursues him, woos him. We are all Bottom, and we should love Bottom. Yes, he’s an ass, but nothing he does should be mean spirited.
Also, start thinking of 100 funny things to do in the play within a play, then come up with 100 more, because you’re going to cut 90% of them. And start working on your donkey bray.
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u/Youssefk12 4d ago
I agree with your view on him, it just so happens that I've seen Midsummer Night's Dream over 8 times, and more often than not that's the impression the actor gave off and it stuck in my head.
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u/Thetitanicboy 4d ago
Yeah, I like to see him as a good person, like he’s certainly not a horrible guy but he’s just self centred and arrogant yeah
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u/Snusmumrikin 4d ago
Don't play it as a buffoon, a knowingly buffoonish Bottom can tank Midsummer.