History Theatre / ISPPresentsAMidsummerNightsDream

%% * GettingCrapPastThe Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.

* DoesNotLikeShoes: Many of the fairies, notably Puck.

* UnrequitedTragicMaiden: Helena is this, at least until the fairies begin to take notice...

* GagBoobs: Thisbe's costume.

* HornyDevils: Puck is a fairy, not a devil, but certainly looks like one (medieval Christian ideas of what the Devil looks like were based on the Classical fauns and satyrs that Puck is modelled after). He is also, like every other fairy, a nymphomaniac.

* ShesGotLegs: Most of Titania's fairies, a quality emphasised by their pseudo-cancan during 'What Fools These Mortals Be'.

* BalefulPolymorph: Bottom is transformed into a half-man-half-donkey freak.

* HotConsort: Hippolyta is this to Theseus, turned Up to Eleven.

** The first harem scene is this trope played straight and turned UpToEleven – only thing stopping Bottom from having four ladies on each arm is his reach.

** The lovers have their moments as well. Hermia's imagined execution, her wailing in despair on the balcony, and her bitter catfight with Helena are all very loud and powerful. Lysander, a typically soft-spoken character, and Demetrius, a more boisterous one, turn the ham UpToEleven while fighting in the forest; a lively, LOUD back-and-forth both onstage and off. Helena doesn't ham it up as much, dealing with powerful moments more subtly – though without losing an inch of stage presence.

* UpToEleven: Bottom's harem scenes are LadyOnEachArm multiplied by four; everything that is PlayedForLaughs is usually something terrible turned Up to Eleven.

* DivineDate / DoubleStandardRapeDivineOnMortal: Titania to Bottom; implied to happen to many mortals at both Titania's and Oberon's hands.

* DressesTheSame: With some variations, Hermia and Helena seem to have very similar fashion senses. Both dresses that they end up wearing over the course of the play are virtually identical in style and completely identical in colour.

* EroticDream: Possibly what Bottom remembers his foray into Fairyland as (WordOfGod states that he's more aware of its reality than the other mortals – perhaps some of the queen's magic wore off on him).

* LaughWithMe: Oberon does this to his fairies.

* {{Loincloth}}: Puck's costume is essentially this.
* TheLostWoods: The forest outside of Athens is this. It's full of fairies.

* ALadyOnEachArm:
** Played with with Puck: in his first appearance, he ends up with two of the queen's fairies on his arms, but it's clear that they are fully in control and are playing around with him (though he gets back at them once they start falling for his charms).
** Also played with during Bottom's second harem scene – he has an arm wrapped around the queen of the fairies and another around one of her servants (plus the six or so more at his feet). Made funny when he asks for the whereabouts of the very fairy he's holding on to.
** The first harem scene is this trope played straight and turned UpToEleven – only thing stopping Bottom from having four ladies on each arm is his reach.
** All the above cases are also subversions, in that most of the ladies involved do indeed have names and all take part in the plot before and after.

* {{Meganekko}}: Philostrate has shades of this, perhaps. Pun unintended.

* RomanticTwoGirlFriendship: Helena and Hermia, referenced during their fight (see Catfight).

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: A young woman's plight of choosing between a loveless marriage or death / enforced chastity is used for humour. The squabble between Oberon and Titania is sparked by paedophilia (both of them want a little Indian boy as their own). The issue of losing one's virginity is discussed several times. Rape is implied. A society where EverybodyHasLotsOfSex is shown to be significantly happier than that of humans. Titania specifically asks for Bottom to be brought to her "sleeping area", and later asks Oberon how she "ended up sleeping with this mortal". 'African' and 'dark-skinned gypsy' are used as insults. The lovers in the final scene lament how they must wait a few hours before the 'pleasures' of nightfall (marriage beds mentioned). When Hermia mentions losing her virginity, a glass is heard shattering.
** Perhaps the most subtle case: In the first scene, Theseus says he would've taken the time to sort out a problem, but that lately he'd been 'busy'. He says this last line with eyes fixed on Hippolyta, who blushes and bows her head with a smile.

* LastSecondWordSwap: "What the... Puck!" (counts as GettingCrapPastTheRadar).

* SuddenlySexuality: After discovering them fighting a very homoerotic wrestling match, Hermia is implied to believe this of Demetrius and Lysander for a few moments.

* CostumePorn: Figuratively, Titania wears a PimpedOutDress, and Oberon's robes are very fine and majestic. Literally, most of Titania's fairies are dressed very seductively.

* HairDecorations: Titania's magnificent head of hair comes with numerous little gems and other trinkets mixed in.

* BiTheWay: Implied with Oberon and Puck.

* GenderBender: Quince, Starveling, Philostrate and Snout were all originally men. Petra Quince is a {{Chickification}} of 'Peter' Quince.

[[caption-width-right:250:"This is the silliest thing I’ve ever seen."]]

An adaptation of William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream by the theatre department of the International School of Panama. It keeps the plot of the original, that of a LoveDodecahedron tampered with and fixed by a band of fairies. Rather than the original Elizabethan dialogue, it used a contemporary English version without modernising the setting or situations - opting instead to keep the time period ambiguous and a deliberate AnachronismStew.

* TwentyPercentMoreAwesome: “No no, not enough syllables. It should have about 20% more syllables”.

** Played with with Puck: in his first appearance, he ends up with two of the queen’s fairies on his arms, but it’s clear that they are fully in control and are playing around with him (though he gets back at them once they start falling for his charms).
** Also played with during Bottom’s second harem scene – he has an arm wrapped around the queen of the fairies and another around one of her servants (plus the six or so more at his feet). Made funny when he asks for the whereabouts of the very fairy he’s holding on to.

* AloneAmongTheCouples: Puck, possibly. Though he certainly frolics with the fairies (see his triumphant gesture to the audience as he leaves with the cast’s TokenMinority), he is never shown to be in a ‘couple’ (inasmuch as they exist in fairyland) with any of them.

* AmbiguouslyGay: Puck and Oberon. The former is a campy, flamboyant satyr-like fairy who goes bare-chested the entire time; the latter, an {{Elfeminate}} king with heavy eyeliner, limp wrists, and a dainty walk and demeanour. Together, they are seen sitting with Puck in Oberon’s lap. Make of all this what you will.
* AmusingAlien: Many of Oberon’s fairies, particularly Puck.
* AnachronismStew: Theseus seems to be the CEO of some Athens-based company as well as duke (or is ‘Duke’ a nickname? Unlikely, since Hippolyta is described as the duchess) of Athens itself. Oberon is dressed like a cross between Moses and a Roman Caesar, with the hairstyle of Louis XIV (then again, he IS a fairy). The janitors are dressed like their contemporary equivalents. Modern technology (that iPad…) is used alongside antiquated clothing by most of the humans. Hunting is still done with hounds. Names like ‘Demetrius’ co-exist with ‘Snug’.
* AppliedPhlebotinum: The fairies’ flowers.
* ArousedByTheirVoice: The moans of Titania and some of her fairies during their main scenes with Bottom. In-universe, Bottom’s donkey noises are this to the queen and her fairies.
* ArrangedMarriage: Had Theseus not overridden Egeus’s wishes, Hermia would’ve ended up in one of these with Demetrius (or been sentenced to either a nunnery or death).
* AttackAttackRetreatRetreat: One of Titania’s fairies (the really small one) during the confrontation with Oberon’s.
* AttentionDeficitDisciple: During the Oberon-Titania confrontation, one of the queen’s fairies goes along with the king’s trash talk, before one of her comrades glares at her.

* AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther: Titania and Oberon re-uniting after the former is freed from her spell. The other couples don’t count: Hermia and Lysander were shown to love each other deeply before the spells, and Demetrius’s love for Helena is born out of Oberon’s magic.

* {{Backstory}}: Helena and Hermia are long-time school friends. Sometime in the past, they were at the house of Lysander’s aunt to celebrate May Day. Immediately prior to the events of the play, Theseus had conquered Hippolyta, raped her, and they began planning their wedding. A mortal, Indian friend of Titania left the latter her son as she died in childbirth – a child now coveted by Oberon.
* BadassLongRobe: Oberon attempts this. It doesn’t quite cut it.

* BerserkButton: Hermia doesn’t like being short. “It’s because of our difference in HEIGHT, now isn’t it?”.
* BestHerToBedHer: Theseus had to conquer Hippolyta’s Amazon warriors in order to marry her. It’s implied that he raped her. This is not treated negatively at all (see ValuesDissonance).
* BestialityIsDepraved: Not for the fairies, it seems. Though Titania’s pairing with the transformed Bottom (see InterspeciesRomance) is something she regrets when Oberon’s spell is lifted, it’s treated more as an embarrassment than anything shameful (see BlueAndOrangeMorality). Also, the queen’s un-spellbound fairies seemed to jump on the donkey bandwagon rather eagerly. (Since Bottom was only a half-donkey and extremely anthropomorphic, it may not count as bestiality to some).
* BigEntrance: Hilariously subverted with Oberon. His entrance is set up to be this by Puck, and preceded by a face-off between the two bands of fairies and a rising fog… and is the most anticlimactic, wimpy thing ever.
* BiggerIsBetterInBed: That Bottom’s transformation affected more than his beard and ears would perhaps explain why the non-spellbound fairies were so eager to meet him…

** The fairies’ laws are not our laws. What they like and don’t like often does not match up at all with human conceptions of the same: the pair of flirty fairies that Puck interacts with in the third scene are repulsed by the fact that he does favours for mortals who leave him food and undo these favours if the offerings aren’t up to scratch, yet are thoroughly delighted at seemingly aimless pranks that many people would consider downright malicious.
** The fairies’ conception of marriage and their sexual mores also counts. The royal marriage seems to be very open, with both partners employing retinues of servants with whom they are implied to be very intimately acquainted. Despite being of different species, the fairies exhibit sexual attraction towards humans. Affairs outside of marriage are considered motive for mild embarrassment (akin to a very mild form of slut-shaming – which, interestingly, applies to male and female fairies equally). Free love seems to be the standard, with marriages seemingly limited to the royalty. Paedophilia of some degree is implied to be accepted. Bestiality is OK.

* BonusMaterial: The actress behind the fairy named Moth has drawn some pretty impressive ‘fanart’; additionally, a recorded version of the play that is sped up to two and a half minutes exists. This very trope page could even be considered Bonus Material.

** Also, at the end of What Fools these Mortals Be!, Oberon angrily shouts at the applauding audience (in-story, he’s talking to his frolicking fairies) to shut up, as the noises they’re making ‘will wake Demetrius!’.
** Puck’s epilogue is directed at the audience as well, played completely straight (unlike his character – ey-oh!).
** The “I’m African” sign is the grey spot between this and merely leaning on the fourth wall; the “I’m an Acorn” sign is clearly this (the former is held up by a fairy – see TheDanza – and the latter by an unseen backstage crewmember – implied to be another fairy from elsewhere in the forest).

** The moment when Theseus advertises his hunting dogs directly to the audience, accompanied by sudden music and a small chorus of fairies. It makes a little more sense if interpreted as his ducal/CEO instincts being taken advantage of by the nearby fairies, and the whole scene happens within his head (or happens in real life, but very differently) – this interpretation is backed up by the fact that, at the end of his spiel, he turns and wonders who “those women” are; the fairies promptly scatter, and Theseus continues as if nothing had happened. Could count as Fridge Brilliance, as people who awaken from dreams will often start trying to make sense of what they dreamt, before forgetting about it entirely.
* {{Buttmonkey}}: The janitors/actors all the time – and it’s PlayedForLaughs completely. Bottom suffers from this as well as being the Ragdoll; Puck is also a bit of a buttmonkey from the fairies’ perspective.

* CasanovaWannabe: Puck has this character, but without the requirement of being a wannabe, as he is by no means sexually deprived. Perhaps he is a wannabe by fairy standards…

* ChewingTheScenery: Let’s just say Bottom doesn’t need any bushel of oats or sweet hay (“haaaaay…”) after devouring the scenery. Puck and, perhaps, Oberon also take large bites.

* CockFight: Demetrius and Lysander get into hammy ones over their shared love interests (at first Hermia, then Helena). It gets to the point of both of them leaving the girl in question in order to fight; also, never do any of the two men seem to take into account the girl’s opinion on the matter.

** It’s easy to tell Oberon’s and Titania’s fairies apart. Oberon’s all wear the same, multi-coloured (but yellow-based) tight dresses and yellow tights; while Titania’s each have a differently-coloured, single-coloured flowing dress. The exception is Puck, who serves Oberon and looks like a satyr.

* CondescendingCompassion: See ‘PoliticallyIncorrectHero’.
* ConvenientSlowDance: Reprise of the Fairies’ Lullaby, for the royal fairy couple.
* CoolChair: Averted. Neither Oberon’s nor Titania’s thrones are really much to look at; the former is just a chair, and the latter a stool under a tree. Theseus’s couch may count, though.
* CoolCrown: Oberon wears a particularly thick laurel wreath. Titania’s crown is a modest tiara. Both are understated, but majestic.

* CostumePorn: Figuratively, Titania wears a PimpedOutDress, and Oberon’s robes are very fine and majestic. Literally, most of Titania’s fairies are dressed very seductively.
* TheCouch: A very light one, with the couch in Theseus’s mansion.

* TheDitz: Some of Titania’s Fairies.
* DivineDate / DoubleStandardRapeDivineOnMortal: Titania to Bottom; implied to happen to many mortals at both Titania’s and Oberon’s hands.

* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything?: In a FunnyBackgroundEvent, one of Titania’s fairies straightens out one of Bottom’s ears and then proceeds to stroke it suggestively.

** Oberon’s fairies all wear the same dress and tights, as well.
* DrinkingGame: The cast and crew designed one, with rules including whenever the sound technicians mess up a cue (everyone drinks), the audience doesn’t laugh when they’re supposed to (all onstage drink), a character monologues excessively (they drink), etc.

* {{Elopement}}: What Lysander’s and Hermia’s escape into the forest was meant to be.
* EntitledToHaveYou: Implied by Demetrius, as Hermia’s mother favours him out of her suitors.

* EroticDream: Possibly what Bottom remembers his foray into Fairyland as (WordOfGod states that he’s more aware of its reality than the other mortals – perhaps some of the queen’s magic wore off on him).

** In his first appearance, Puck’s character of a mischievous, flirty, good-natured trickster under Oberon’s employ is well-established.

* EveryoneCanSeeIt: What some (including much of the cast) say about ‘Dysander’ (Demetrius/Lysander).
* EveryProperLadyShouldCurtsy: Mustardseed, one of the queen’s fairies, does this a lot, to the point of interrupting Bottom’s request for head-scratching (ItMakesSenseInContext). Then again, by the standards of non-fairies, she isn't quite a 'proper lady' (see ValuesDissonance).

** The fairies live under their own laws and are far removed from human society, living deep in the forest. They can hide from mortals at will, and play around with them to their hearts’ content. They meddle in the lives of mortals who pass by, and some (notably Puck) delight in the mess they make. Except for Bottom (who recollects, in the form of a dream, what happened to him) none of the victims of their interferences will ever know what happened.
** Puck reveals himself to be very much a traditional kind of sprite, doing housework for households who leave him food and playing pranks on mortals who inadvertently offend him or don’t leave him gifts. His pranks (ruining milk, butter and beer; becoming a stool only to slide away as soon as someone sits down, etc.) are initially seen as rather horrid by the pair of Titania’s fairies he meets in his first scene; however, they soon change their minds as he regales them with stories of his more practical-joke-type pranks. BlueAndOrangeMorality, indeed.
* FairySexy: No points for guessing how this trope gets into play. The fairies overall are living {{fanservice}} (Titania’s tend to accentuate this, but they are not the only ones), and include a rare male example in Puck.

** The fairies are more than happy to deliver this. Puck treats the entire play as a single massive ShirtlessScene; during ‘What Fools’, Titania’s fairies show off their legs with a can-can while Oberon’s shake their shoulders and lean in towards the audience. Titania and company also provide sexy voices towards the middle of the play; Titania’s fairies spend the greater part of the play acting flirty.

* FantasticRacism: At times. Though the fairies don’t seem too opposed to interacting with humans and even having sex with them, mortals are held very much in contempt for their foolishness. The fairies even have an entire song – “What Fools These Mortals Be!” – dedicated to deriding human short-sightedness and mental clumsiness.
* FalseFriend: Helena accuses Hermia of this, alleging the two male lovers’ change of heart is a cruel joke.
* FeudingFamilies: Somewhat. Titania and Oberon are husband and wife, and thus part of the same family (though they seem to have no other relatives). Their fairies, on the other hand, are very distinct (it takes a while for two of Titania’s fairies to even recognise Puck, Oberon’s right-hand lackey) and often hostile; also, both king and queen seem to rule over different parts of fairyland.
* FinaglesLaw: Well, what else would you expect if your instructions include descriptions as vague as “man wearing Athenian clothes”?
* FinalSpeech: Bottom-as-Pyramus takes forever to die, much to the annoyance of the newlyweds (Hippolyta in particular, who hopes Thisbe won’t prolong it further).
* FisherKing: And Queen. The arguing between Oberon and Titania produces storms and stops the happy frolics of spring. Justified in that the fairies are responsible for nature’s whims, and the fighting has kept them from their work.

** The two sets of fairies themselves are foils for each other: the king’s are more mischievous, somewhat tomboyish, go for slapstick, and live under Oberon’s ComedicSociopathy; the queen’s are more sensual, feminine, nymph-like and seem to get along harmoniously with Titania.
** Oberon and Titania, as fairy monarchs, foil each other. The former starts out with significantly less stage presence and is portrayed as much weaker; the latter is shown much more in control and more solidly. Over the course of the play, Oberon ventures into LargeHam territory and personally leads the action of the play, while Titania stays mostly in one spot, her throne. By the time they reconcile at the end, Titania is eclipsed by and subordinate to Oberon. The shift is also subtly marked in that Oberon’s throne makes its first appearance after intermission.
** Demetrius and Lysander. Lysander is truly in love with Hermia, and the spell temporarily puts him astray. Demetrius was in love with Hermia; his love for Helena is the result of a spell that isn’t removed. Lysander also seems to be more sophisticated and less clichéd in his praise.
** Helena feels insecure about her beauty, comparing herself unfavourably with Hermia’s eyes and face. Hermia, for her part, is terribly insecure about her height, and treats the issue like a BerserkButton.
** Bottom and Oberon, as receivers of Titania’s affection, could be contrasted.

** Pyramus and Thisbe, as the ShowWithinTheShow, can be contrasted with AMidsummerNightsDream. The mini-play has an epilogue that is cut off; the meta-play finishes with an epilogue (ironically, the epilogue that gets said is of the exact type that Theseus advised against at the end of Pyramus and Thisbe – one that attempts to apologise for and excuse the production).
* GagBoobs: Thisbe’s costume.

* GenderBender: Quince, Starveling, Philostrate and Snout were all originally men. Petra Quince is a {{Chickification}} of ‘Peter’ Quince.
* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: A young woman’s plight of choosing between a loveless marriage or death / enforced chastity is used for humour. The squabble between Oberon and Titania is sparked by paedophilia (both of them want a little Indian boy as their own). The issue of losing one’s virginity is discussed several times. Rape is implied. A society where EverybodyHasLotsOfSex is shown to be significantly happier than that of humans. Titania specifically asks for Bottom to be brought to her “sleeping area”, and later asks Oberon how she “ended up sleeping with this mortal”. ‘African’ and ‘dark-skinned gypsy’ are used as insults. The lovers in the final scene lament how they must wait a few hours before the ‘pleasures’ of nightfall (marriage beds mentioned). When Hermia mentions losing her virginity, a glass is heard shattering.
** Perhaps the most subtle case: In the first scene, Theseus says he would’ve taken the time to sort out a problem, but that lately he’d been ’busy’. He says this last line with eyes fixed on Hippolyta, who blushes and bows her head with a smile.
* GlassShatteringSound: Bottom’s crescendo of doom.

* GroinAttack: The pair of initially flirty queen’s fairies to Puck, during his first appearance (see EstablishingCharacterMoment).

* HairDecorations: Titania’s magnificent head of hair comes with numerous little gems and other trinkets mixed in.
* HappinessInSlavery: The King’s fairies are rather manhandled by Oberon, yet don’t seem to really question the order of things. Titania’s fairies, for their part, seem to enjoy their job very much.
* HaremSeeker: Puck. His flirtation with some of the Queen’s fairies early on is a EstablishingCharacterMoment.
* TheHedonist: All the fairies – their culture seems to be built off this. Puck’s EstablishingCharacterMoment sets him up as a particular case of this.

* HollywoodToneDeaf: Bottom’s song. It’s off-tempo, interrupted by donkey noises, and unbearably loud towards the end. And requires a lot of conscious effort to pull off.

* IKissYourHand: Demetrius to Helena. She’s initially overwhelmed by the gesture, but is convinced it was just to mock her.

* IncomingHam: Averted with Oberon’s entrance. Bottom’s understated “Wait, isn’t this back where I started…?” is also an aversion. Both aversions are notable, the first as it has a huge build-up (see BigEntrance), and the latter due to it being uttered by the play’s resident LargeHam.
* IncrediblyLamePun: Believe it or not, but the original Shakespeare had innumerably more ass-related puns than the final cut. Also, much of the lovers’ commentary during the Pyramus and Thisbe scene is composed of this.
* IncrediblyLongNote: The crescendo of doom at the end of Bottom’s song.

* KnowNothingKnowItAll: Bottom claims to love the play of Pyramus and Thisbe. He doesn’t know who the title characters are.

** Egeus appearing in during the video call is having a heck of a time delivering her lines with extra pork. Her rage during the scene where the lovers are found in the forest is also ham-filled – “JUST WAIT TILL YOU GET HOME, YOUNG LADY!”, indeed. The same actress appearing as the enthusiastic fairy dancer also pulls off a rare non-speaking hammy performance.
** The lovers have their moments as well. Hermia’s imagined execution, her wailing in despair on the balcony, and her bitter catfight with Helena are all very loud and powerful. Lysander, a typically soft-spoken character, and Demetrius, a more boisterous one, turn the ham UpToEleven while fighting in the forest; a lively, LOUD back-and-forth both onstage and off. Helena doesn’t ham it up as much, dealing with powerful moments more subtly – though without losing an inch of stage presence.
** BOTTOM. Take the three little pigs, roast them with honey and serve next to a double side of bacon… and you’re almost as hammy as Bottom when he’s yawning. Bottom’s Song and the monologues directly before and after it together make up perhaps the single hammiest moment in the play, with his ‘Raging Rocks’ poem coming close behind. He doesn’t deliver his lines; he casts them from a high-powered catapult. If there were a religion based on the incarnation of the god of vocal projection, he would’ve been proclaimed their messiah. His acting is as over-the-top as this entry. Quite possibly the hammiest ham ever hammed… making his horribly wooden acting as Pyramus that much more jarring.

** Puck steals the stage whenever he’s moving or speaking – and, sometimes, even when he isn’t. Though not as loud as some of the other examples, he has commanding stage presence.
** Oberon, whose entrance sets him up as a rather weak character, builds up a respectable amount of ham as the play progresses – particularly when narrating his plans or yelling at his underlings (or shouting at his wife – it’s very jarring when a heretofore weak-willed king screams “YOU BRAZEN HUSSY!” at Titania).

* LastEpisodeThemeReprise: A Midsummer’s Night.
* LastSecondWordSwap: “What the… Puck!” (counts as GettingCrapPastTheRadar).

* LegCling: The typical arrangement of Oberon’s fairies around their king. Seen also in Bottom’s second harem scene, albeit briefly.
* LivingForeverIsAwesome: One of the greatest promises a lovestruck Titania makes to donkey-Bottom is to turn him into a “spirit like us, so you won’t die as mortals do”.
* {{Loincloth}}: Puck’s costume is essentially this.
* TheLostWoods: The forest outside of Athens is this. It’s full of fairies.
* LoveAtFirstSight: What Oberon’s flower juices cause.
* LoveDodecahedron: Demetrius and Lysander love Hermia. Hermia loves Lysander. Helena loves Demetrius (to the point of saying she’d enjoy getting raped by him…). Some flower juice later and Demetrius and Lysander are both chasing Helena, who flees while still feeling for Demetrius, and Hermia tries getting Lysander back. Titania is tricked into falling in love with a were-donkey. Hermia’s mother has a thing for Demetrius and uses her daughter as a proxy. HomoeroticSubtext (see Yaoi, below) between Lysander and Demetrius and between Oberon and Puck.

* LoveEpiphany: Lysander and Demetrius believe they have one (in Lysander’s case, twice) as Puck’s magic does its work.
* LoveHurts: What Helena feels. However, she repeatedly says she’ll be glad to bear pain if it were at the hands of Demetrius.
* LoverTugOfWar: Hermia, Lysander, Demetrius, and Helena engage in a particularly hilarious one (especially with Demetrius’s improvised haHA – see ThrowItIn).
* LoveRuinsTheRealm: Reversed. Titania’s and Oberon’s falling-out has seriously disrupted the festivities in Fairyland.

* LustObject: For about a third of the play, Bottom to Titania and the queen’s fairies.

* MagicRealism: To the humans involved, it must seem so. Sudden changes in affections, hearing someone’s voice in impossible places, experiencing bizarre dreams, trees moving and underbrush growing thicker when one turns one’s head, and falling to sleep supernaturally quickly all happen.
* {{Malaproper}}: The janitors are this. Lampshaded by the janitor who plays Thisbe when he corrects Petra Quince (“You mean a ‘paragon’… a ‘paramour’ is something bad.”).
* MarryForLove: Lysander’s promise to Hermia early on – against the arranged marriage with Demetrius. The former pairing ends up happening at the end, with Demetrius marrying Helena for love.
* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: Theseus and Hippolyta discuss this after finding the lovers in the woods. Hippolyta is more inclined to believe in fairies that Theseus, who blames it all on commoners’ superstitions.

* MeaningfulBackgroundEvent: The fairies are often engaged in blink-and-you’ll-miss-it hijinks while the main scene is in progress. (The dancing fairy taking Oberon’s place on his throne, for example)

* ModestRoyalty: Oberon’s robes aren’t fancy, and his CoolCrown is an understated wreath of laurels. This is in contrast to Titania (see ErmineCapeEffect).
* ModestyShorts: Many of Titania’s fairies’ actresses. Luckily, it is almost entirely unnoticeable.

* MsFanservice: About half of Titania’s fairies, as well as Hippolyta, Helena, and Philostrate.
* {{MST}}: Theseus, Hippolyta, Helena, Demetrius, Hermia, and Lysander mercilessly rip the in-story play Pyramus and Thisbe apart, mocking the actors and adding witty commentary, all at the actors’ expense.
* MuggleAndMagicalLoveTriangle: Fairy Titania is married to similarly-magical Oberon, and falls in love with the mortal Bottom. Subverted in that her infatuation was engineered by her husband the king, and also that part of Titania’s plans for Bottom include turning him into a spirit.
* MusicalisInterruptus: In ‘A Pack of Actors, We!’, after Petra Quince’s “I’d feel a whole lot better if WE ALL COULD JUST REHEARSE!” (see LargeHam), the music stops and there’s a pause, right before the other actors laugh in her face.
* MyGirlIsNotASlut: Averted with the fairies. Oberon attempts to embarrass Titania by mentioning her lust for Theseus, but sees no qualms with having her sleep with a donkey to ridicule her. For her part, calling out Oberon’s lust for Hippolyta has the exact same impact – no double-standard in fairyland.
* NatureAdoresAVirgin / NatureAbhorsAVirgin: One of Oberon’s magic flowers got its power from “Diana, the goddess of virginity” (VirginPower); on the other hand, flowers imbued with Cupid’s anti-virginal powers are also magical.

* NotWhatItLooksLike: The expressions on Demetrius’s and Lysander’s faces when Hermia walks in on them wrestling very suggestively says it all.
* OfCorsetsSexy: There was a proposal to have Oberon’s fairies up the fanservice with corsets and tutus. It was never tried out. Counts as a WhatCouldHaveBeen.
* OfficialCouple: Lysander and Hermia, Demetrius and Helena, Theseus and Hippolyta, and Oberon and Titania. This has not stopped ‘Dysander’ shipping.
* OlderThanTheyLook: All the fairies. One of which looks suspiciously like an eleven-year-old. It’s never really stated how old they are, but it’s said that they are immortal, so there’s that.

* OnlySaneMan: Petra Quince, at times. The least ridiculous of the actors, though that’s not saying much. Also Theseus, who is the only major character who does not get involved in any sort of supernatural trouble (and is also a DeadpanSnarker).

* OurFairiesAreDifferent: None are winged. Though ‘fairies’ is the most common term, they are also referred to as a spirits, sprites, and nymphs. Oberon and Titania resemble a common interpretation of elves. Puck looks just like a satyr. Titania’s fairies are decidedly nymph-like – with Oberon’s having shades of this. Only a handful approach a childlike, impish interpretation.
* OutOfCharacterMoment: Bottom’s performance as Pyramus breaks at some points, in response to the Duke’s mocking which he interprets as useful criticism or genuine concern.

* OverlyNarrowSuperlative: “That’s the best actor… I’ve ever seen play a lion”.

* PaperThinDisguise: What Oberon’s pretending-to-be-a-tree shtick looks like to the audience. The disguises of the other fairies don’t count, as they don’t hide themselves at all from the audience.

* PassThePopcorn: Oberon’s fairies, during many of the mortal squabbles and the Pyramus and Thisbe scene. May count as a MeaningfulBackgroundEvent.
* PeopleFallOffChairs: At least, people in Puck’s stories fall of chairs.
* PimpedOutDress: Titania’s is enormous, stunning, and covered with flowers, butterflies, and vines. Several cast members (notably Bottom’s actor) found some of these nature motifs stuck to their own costumes hours after each rehearsal.
* PlayedForLaughs: Bestiality, the actors’ stupidity, threats of rape, mind-control, casual racism and marital squabbling.
* PlayingATree: Almost every fairy at some point. Oberon is a repeat offender; it seems his tree disguise can fool not only mortals, but his wife’s fairies as well. Like everything else in this play, PlayedForLaughs.

* PoliticallyIncorrectHero: Not a hero per se, but Lysander is awfully racist. “Get out, you African!” and “Get away from me, you dark-skinned gypsy”, namely.
** Also, virtually every human character has some sort of condescending attitude towards women (including the actors’ seeming obsession with how ladies would certainly be faint from the thought of a lion being onstage). Overlaps with CondescendingCompassion.

* ThePowerOfFriendship: Helena attempts to invoke this with Hermia during their Catfight. It doesn’t go as planned.

* QuestionableConsent: Type A. Titania is all over Bottom during their scenes together… but she was under the effects of a spell, so can it be considered a free choice? Judging by fairy culture and the fact that her retinue also go along with it, it could be assumed yes – but still, there’s a tiny bit of doubt, especially seeing as she acts horrified upon waking from her spell and seeing her half-donkey lover.

* ReadyForLovemaking: A mild example: During a break in Bottom’s Song as the eponymous were-donkey climbs up the set that he is in the middle of devouring (see ChewingTheScenery), Titania wakes up, sees him, and starts hastily invoking this trope.

* RedBoxingGloves: Averted; they’re black.
* RejectionAffection: Helena’s pursuit of Demetrius embodies this trope. Later reversed when the latter falls under the fairies' spell.

* RollYourRs: Bottom throughout (“I’ll masterrrrrrrrrr any paht with pahfect poise and 'eart!”)

* RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething: The royal couple of fairyland seem to run the show themselves. Additionally, the duke and duchess of Athens (or an Athens-based company…. again, it’s never clear) are implied to regularly receive petitions from their subjects (employees?), even making life-or-death decisions over them.

* RunningGag: Fairies as trees, rocks, etc. References to My Little Pony. Bottom having rampant synaesthesia. One of Oberon’s fairies dancing like a maniac. The janitors’ horrible acting.
** Among the cast: the music technicians missing their cues, the appearance of the ‘flying snake’.

* ScrewTheRulesIMakeThem: Theseus overrides Egeus’s wishes and the law of the land (company) by allowing the lovers to marry as they please.

* ShesGotLegs: Most of Titania’s fairies, a quality emphasised by their pseudo-cancan during ‘What Fools These Mortals Be’.
* ShipperOnDeck: Puck’s role; part of Oberon’s plan (he REALLY wants to see Helena’s love for Demetrius be reciprocated).
* ShirtlessScene: Each and every one of Puck’s appearances.
* ShoutOut: Several of the actors (particularly Oberon, Puck, Bottom, and Lysander) are Bronies, as seen in such lines as “I’ll go around the world in ten seconds flat!” and “It needs about 20% more syllables”.
** Monty Python, the Snagglepuss, and the Producers are also referenced – see Ooh, me Accent’s Slipping!, below.

* ShowWithinTheShow: The Very Tragic Comedy about the Horrible Deaths of Pyramus and Thisbe. It’s awful.
* {{Slapstick}}: Most of the janitors’ scenes. The Pyramus and Thisbe scene is built of this. Also scattered liberally throughout the rest of the play.
* SlidingScaleOfSillinessVersusSeriousness: Very much on the silly end. Doesn’t stop it from being a genuinely excellent performance, of course.
* SlipperySkid: The flowers on stage scattered by the fairies can cause much accidental slipping. Pity the poor fairy who used rollerskates…
* SlutShaming: Averted completely with the fairies, who are as promiscuous as can be; potentially played straight with the lovers when Demetrius says to Helena that wandering into the forest at night after a man she’s not married to would be heavily frowned upon.

* SmittenTeenageGirl: Anyone who gets a dose of Oberon’s love-juice (get your mind out of the gutter) becomes this.

* SpearCarrier: The actor who plays the actor who plays Thisbe also appears as one of Theseus’s hunting retinue members. Three of Oberon’s fairies appear as extras in the first janitor scene. Hippolyta’s actress also plays one of Oberon’s fairies. One of the janitors (the one who plays Wall) also triples as the imaginary executioner in the first scene and an anonymous assistant in the hunting scene.

* StylisticSuck: The entirety of the Pyramus and Thisbe show within the show. Only the actors behind Thisbe and the Wall seems to actually know their lines fully, Thisbe’s costume is seriously campy, Pyramus’s acting is wooden, the lion Is enthusiastic but clueless, the Wall knows her part but gets fed up with the production halfway through (in addition to punching a fellow actor), the Man in the Moon stutters and knocks Pyramus over, the director can’t deliver her prologue properly, and so on and so forth.

** Hermia half-heartedly insists this about her and Lysander’s sleeping arrangements, their first night in the forest.

* TokenMinority: There is exactly one black character, a nameless fairy in Oberon’s retinue.

* TooKinkyToTorture: Helena wouldn’t mind being treated like a dog by Demetrius, and in fact goes into a bit of an ecstatic state (eyes closed, leaning back on a tree – a tree which happens to be Oberon) as she tells him she would enjoy it if he were to beat her.

* UnrequitedTragicMaiden: Helena is this, at least until the fairies begin to take notice…

* UnusualEuphemism: “It’s almost fairytime”. If you cannot figure out what ‘fairytime’ could mean when said to a bunch of newlyweds on their wedding night, go re-read this trope page.
* UpToEleven: Bottom’s harem scenes are LadyOnEachArm multiplied by four; everything that is PlayedForLaughs is usually something terrible turned Up to Eleven.

*** The fact that it’s ambiguous whether they lost their virginities in the forest makes the change to white a potential subversion.

* VisualPun: Look closely, and you’ll notice the breasts of Thisbe’s costume are the same boxing gloves from the first scene. Lends a new meaning to the word ‘knockers’.
* VocalDissonance: Averted by Puck’s actor. In-universe, Puck speaks with the voice of Lysander to Demetrius (and vice-versa); in actuality, Lysander’s (or Demetrius’s) actor would shout the lines from backstage, with Puck’s actor mouthing the words. This could easily have led to much vocal dissonance; Puck’s actor, however, had the prudence to face sideways with his hands around his mouth like a trumpet (hiding his lips) to avoid this.

* WhatDidIDoLastNight: Titania’s reaction after being freed from her spell and finding out she slept with a half-human-half-donkey thing.

* WildMassGuessing: Oberon’s actor insists there is some ambiguity in whether his character is actually a fairy or not. To his credit, Oberon is called ‘king of the fairies’ (while Titania is the ‘fairy queen’) and is never shown using actual magic himself (he uses the flowers his fairies bring him).
** However, the king does include himself when he says ‘we are a different kind of spirit’ to Puck, and specifically states he could see Cupid’s arrow as it flew all the way to the Western part of the world (implied to be the Americas).

* WouldntHitAGirl: Lysander’s spell-induced obsession with Helena is shown to not be completely overwhelming; he pointedly refuses to harm Hermia, even if that would (in his warped mind) increase his chances with his love. Whether this shows he genuinely cares for Hermia despite the spell, or that casual sexism knows no bounds, is up to interpretation.
* {{Yaoi}}: ‘Dysander’ is supremely popular. Also, there is more than merely kingly kindness in the affection Oberon shows Puck.
* {{Yuri}}: A brief moment in the first scene when Helena leans her head on Hermia’s shoulder has inspired (hopeful) allegations of this. (Helena’s lines about her friendship with Hermia during their catfight also strongly hints this).

* YouAreATreeCharlieBrown: The fairies, especially Oberon and Puck, while observing the mortals. Within the Show Within the Show, the in-story characters of Moonshine and Wall are played this way.

* TheCastShowoff: Bottom’s character allowed his actor to ham it up as much as he wanted. Oberon’s character allowed his actor to gay it up as much as he wanted.

* TheDanza: Not with names, but with nationalities. When Lysander insults Hermia by referring to her as an ‘African’, one of the fairies (a rather white one) raises a sign saying “I’m African”. The actress in question is in fact from South Africa.

* FanNickname:

* OneOfUs: The actor who plays Bottom is a frequent troper. One of the fairies (Moth; see AllThereInTheManual) is, too. A few other actors (notably Oberon’s) are familiar with the wiki.
** One of the backstage crew is a troper as well, going on record as saying ‘rule of Cool’ is his favourite trope.

* ThrowItIn: So, so much. Many improvisations done by actors and even backstage during rehearsals made it to the final cut. This ranges from MLP references (see Shout Out) to rewriting lines (Bottom’s actor, for instance, cut down virtually all his lines during the Pyramus and Thisbe and fairy scenes, and added in his own) to Demetrius’s ‘ha-HA’ to Puck handing Oberon a shoe.
** Perhaps the most iconic example: Bottom’s donkey noises were improvised in an early rehearsal, and ''stuck''.

* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: Theseus’s advertising scene is one, even if explained away as the effects of fairy magic.

* CrossesTheLineTwice: Playing the bad acting of a bunch of janitors for laughs is tasteless. Having their acting be SoBadItsGood and interrupted by frequent out-of-character moments, improvisations, and plagued by falling apart props is hilarious.
** Don’t forget that saying ‘rawr’ for a lion is only really funny when you do it six times.

* FanPreferredCouple: ‘Dysander’, Theseus/Philostrate.

* FountainOfMemes: The cast and crew have had a heck of a time editing pictures of and repeating lines from the play. “It’s because of our difference in HEIGHT, isn’t it?”; ‘Fab Roxanne Shanaynay Draco’ (the crazy-dancing fairy); the ‘flying snake’; various ‘ass’-related puns; and so on.

* MST3KMantra: Puck advises the audience that, if the play was not to their liking, they should pretend it was AllJustADream.

* OneSceneWonder: The soloist who plays the opening and closing pieces (okay, two-scene wonder…). Not a character, but the projector shows up at the very first scene, and is never seen again.

* SoBadItsGood: The Pyramus and Thisbe scene is a gods-awful tragedy. But a brilliant comedy.

* ValuesDissonance: The only couple that is never shown fighting or having any other sort of problem is the duke and duchess - a couple that married after the former raped the latter. For the fairies, cheating on one’s spouse is, at worst, a cause for embarrassment. The clumsy stupidity of a bunch of janitors is cause for amusement. A mother’s power of life or death over her daughter is considered normal and accepted. Racial slurs against blacks and gypsies are commonplace. Nearly everyone has some sort of condescending sexist attitude towards women (this applies only to the mortals; the fairies seem to be extremely egalitarian). The fact that Demetrius ends up requiting Helena’s love because he remains under the fairies’ spell is part of the happy ending.

* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotForKids: A comedy about fairies and true love…. And orgies, and virulent racism, and rape, and bestiality, and…
* WhatDoYouMeanItWasntMadeOnDrugs: Whether it was Shakespeare, the director, or half the cast… but someone was high while making this.

* EstablishingCharacterMoment:
** In his first appearance, Puck’s character of a mischievous, flirty, good-natured trickster under Oberon’s employ is well-established.
** Also, Oberon as a shrill, petty, flamboyantly campy king is established in his first scene; possibly a subversion, as he gradually becomes more and more authoritative as the play progresses, entering Large Ham territory and gaining a smug grin towards the end. Still campy as fuck, though.

* EstrogenBrigadeBait: Puck.

* CoolChair: Averted. Neither Oberon’s nor Titania’s thrones are really much to look at; the former is pretty much just a chair, and the latter a stool under a tree. Theseus’s couch may count, though.

* HomoeroticSubtext: DYSANDER, full stop. Played for Laughs between the (male) janitors/actors playing Pyramus and Thisbe. Also features very heavily between King Oberon and Puck.

* PimpedOutDress: Titania’s, full stop. It is enormous, stunning, and covered with flowers, butterflies, and vines. Several cast members (notably Bottom’s actor) found some of these nature motifs stuck to their own costumes hours after each rehearsal.

* SmittenTeenageGirl: Helena, full stop. Anyone who gets a dose of Oberon’s love-juice (get your mind out of the gutter) becomes this.

* HotChickInABadassSuit: Hippolyta exemplifies this trope for her first appearance.