Theatre / ISP Presents A Midsummer Night's Dream

"This is the silliest thing I've ever seen."

If we actors have offended you, just think of it this way and everything will be all right—you were asleep when you saw these visions, and this silly and pathetic story was no more real than a dream.

— Puck

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 Love Dodecahedron 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 Anachronism Stew.

Directed by Arturo Wong and produced by Alida de Paredes.

Starred

• Guillermo Quijano as Puck,
• Sebastián Chamorro as Nick Bottom,
• Christian Roberts as Oberon,
• Sofía Figueroa as Titania,
• Natalia Hurtado de Mendoza as Helena,
• Francesca Ogilvie as Hermia,
• Mathieu Froes-Jacob as Demetrius,
• Charles Walker as Lysander, and
• Evert Brands-Smit as Theseus.

Also featured the talent (in order of appearance) of:

• Isabella Uzcátegui as Hippolyta and one of the queen's fairies,
• Kimberly Carter as Egeus and one of the king's fairies,
• Daniela Donayre as Philostrate,
• Gisela Rodríguez as Petra Quince,
• Herman Roberth as Snug,
• Alejandro Fasquelle as Flute and a huntsman,
• Natalia Fuentealba as Snout, the executioner, and a hunstman,
• Yasmine Gaspard as Starveling,
• Vanessa de la Rosa as one of the queen's fairies,
• Jessica Choi as Mustardseed,
• Aitana Irisarri as Peaseblossom,
• Elena Castro as one of the queen's fairies,
• Jasleen Walia as one of the queen's fairies,
• Sara Alarcón as Cobweb,
• Daniela Roa as Moth,
• Gabriela Pascual as one of the king's fairies,
• Jade Martindale as one of the king's fairies and a janitor,
• Gloria Cuthbertson as one of the king's fairies and a janitor, and
• Vivian Kinuthia as one of the king's fairies and a janitor.

With an appearance by Elisa Angerer as soloist for the opening and closing numbers.

Dalia Pichel lent her services as stage manager, with María del Mar Fernández as her assistant; backstage crewmembers included Manuela Uribe, Catalina Elliot, Sebastián Otway, Nicholas Brands-Smit, Eduardo Gómez, María Juliana Villegas, and Juan Francisco Lozada.

Costume provided by [Jaime.....]; sound effects by [Wendy Tooke, Doug Pullen,...]; and lights by [....].

Now available as a picture book at [1]

A DVD of the third night's performance runs to 2:03:50 from overture to end of credits (it cuts out the intermission, the bows, and the first blackout).

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ISP Presents A Midsummer Night's Dream contains examples of:

• 20% More Awesome: "No no, not enough syllables. It should have about 20% more syllables".
• Agent Peacock: Oberon has shades of this.
• All Amazons Want Hercules: Theseus won Hippolyta over by defeating her and taking her by force. See Best Her to Bed Her.
• All There in the Manual: Of course that short fairy with the amazing singing voice is called Moth.
• All Women Are Lustful: Accepted as fact by most characters. Helena lusts after Demetrius; Hermia is excited (and anxious) about losing her virginity to Lysander; every fairy is an Ethical Slut; and Hippolyta seems to have enjoyed being raped by Theseus.
• Alone Among the Couples: Puck, possibly. Though he certainly frolics with the fairies (see his triumphant gesture to the audience as he leaves with the cast's Token Minority), he is never shown to be in a 'couple' (inasmuch as they exist in fairyland) with any of them.
• Amazon Chaser: Theseus, before the events of the play, chased Hippolyta, no less than queen of the Amazons. Possible a subversion, as Hippolyta is an Amazon by ethnicity and does not fit Amazonian stereotypes, such as being butch (though Titania implies her to be such).
• Ambiguously Gay: 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.
• Amusing Alien: Many of Oberon's fairies, particularly Puck.
• Anachronism Stew: 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'.
• Applied Phlebotinum: The fairies' flowers.
• Aroused by Their Voice: 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.
• Arranged Marriage: 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).
• Attack! Attack... Retreat! Retreat!: One of Titania's fairies (the really small one) during the confrontation with Oberon's.
• Attention-Deficit Disciple: 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.
• Awesome Anachronistic Apparel: Against a backdrop of either early-mid 20th Century (the humans) and romanticised Grecian (the fairies) fashion, Puck and Oberon stand out; the former wears only a loincloth, and the latter robes seemingly from Biblical times.
• Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: 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.
• Babies Ever After: Implied by Oberon, about the three newlywed couples.
• 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.
• Badass Long Robe: Oberon attempts this. It doesn't quite cut it.
• Bad News in a Good Way: Puck to Oberon, when informing him of the mishaps in his scheme.
• Beast and Beauty: Take a wild guess.
• Becoming the Mask: A variant. The janitor playing Thisbe seems to become way more comfortable in his drag over the course of his scenes than he was initially.
• Berserk Button: Hermia doesn't like being short. "It's because of our difference in HEIGHT, now isn't it?".
• Best Her to Bed Her: 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 Values Dissonance).
• Bestiality Is Depraved: Not for the fairies, it seems. Though Titania's pairing with the transformed Bottom (see Interspecies Romance) is something she regrets when Oberon's spell is lifted, it's treated more as an embarrassment than anything shameful (see Blue-and-Orange Morality). 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).
• Big Entrance: 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.
• Bigger Is Better in Bed: 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...
• Bit Character: Perhaps Philostrate. Her role in the plot is minimal, but she does have a good many lines during her two appearances.
• The Blind Leading the Blind: The janitors/actors, when figuring out how to deal with several problems with the production. Partially subverted, in that some of the advice is actually good.
• Blue-and-Orange Morality:
  • 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.
  • Interestingly, in fairyland husband and wife seem to be in equal standing – something natural to many members of the audience, but alien to the mortals onstage (and, sadly, parts of the audience as well).
• Bonus Material: 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.
  • Puck's actor's family has provided a picturebook of the play for sale at [2]
• Breaking the Fourth Wall:
  • The backstage crewmember appearing onstage to show Oberon his next line, then waving at the audience.
  • 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 The Danza – and the latter by an unseen backstage crewmember – implied to be another fairy from elsewhere in the forest).
  • Bottom breaks the fourth wall within the Show Within the Show, addressing the in-universe audience a few times.
  • 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 Played for Laughs completely. Bottom suffers from this as well as being the Ragdoll; Puck is also a bit of a buttmonkey from the fairies' perspective.
  • The fact that Bottom tumbles/is thrown/falls to the ground at least seven times makes him the king of this trope for the play.
• Camp: Thisbe, without a doubt. The Ambiguously Gay and jester-like Puck.
• Camp Straight: Oberon is married to Titania, and presumably has sex with her and his (mainly female) retinue frequently. He is also a straight-up faggot. (Perhaps most accurately described as Camp Bi, seeing as to his peculiar relationship with Puck).
• Cape Swish: Routinely done by Oberon.
• Casanova Wannabe: 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...
• Cat Fight: Complete with awful sound effects, there is a major one between Helena and Hermia, ranging from threats of eye-gouging to jokes about height (see Berserk Button).
• The Chessmaster: Oberon has many shades of this.
• Chewing the Scenery: 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.
• Cleaning Up Romantic Loose Ends: What drives the plot.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: Helena, in strides.
• Cock Fight: 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.
• Collective Groan: When the actors offer to perform an epilogue to their play, the other humans present immediately protest. When the epilogue is cancelled, the fairies observing it all share a groan of disappointment (they were quite enjoying the show).
• Colour-Coded for Your Convenience:
  • The janitors trying out for roles in Pyramus and Thisbe wear one of two kinds of uniforms: black or olive-green. The ones in black have actual lines and stand at the front during their opening number. No points for guessing which group gets picked for the play.
  • 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.
• Comedic Sociopathy: See much of the Played for Laughs section.
• Condescending Compassion: See 'Politically Incorrect Hero'.
• Convenient Slow Dance: Reprise of the Fairies' Lullaby, for the royal fairy couple.
• Cool Chair: 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.
• Cool Crown: Oberon wears a particularly thick laurel wreath. Titania's crown is a modest tiara. Both are understated, but majestic.
• Costume Inertia: Played straight with the janitors, who wear their jumpsuits throughout the entire play with a single exception – the janitor who plays Thisbe takes off his jumpsuit before donning the dress (the rest of the troupe simply wear their costumes over their work-clothes). Averted with Theseus, Hippolyta, and the lovers, who change their clothes frequently and never wear anything indicative of a particular job.
• Costume Porn: Titania wears a Pimped-Out Dress and her magnificent head of hair comes with numerous little gems and other trinkets mixed in. Oberon's robes are very fine and majestic.
• The Couch: A very light one, with the couch in Theseus's mansion.
• Cue Card Pause: Petra Quince is mocked by the newlyweds when she attempts to recite the prologue to Pyramus and Thisbe.
• Deadpan Snarker: Theseus is master of this. Oberon gets his moments, too.
• Death by Childbirth: How the mother of the Indian boy died.
• The Ditz: Some of Titania's Fairies.

• Does This Remind You of Anything??: In a Funny Background Event, one of Titania's fairies straightens out one of Bottom's ears and then proceeds to stroke it suggestively.
• Dresses the Same:
  • 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.
  • Oberon's fairies all wear the same dress and tights, as well.
• Drinking Game: 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.
• Elfeminate: Oberon, all the way. Averted by Puck, who despite the Ambiguously Gay-ness, is a rather masculine character.
• Elopement: What Lysander's and Hermia's escape into the forest was meant to be.
• Enchanted Forest: The forest outside of Athens is full of fairies.
• Entitled to Have You: Implied by Demetrius, as Hermia's mother favours him out of her suitors.
• Ermine Cape Effect: Titania wears her Pimped-Out Dress throughout the entire play and looks stunning in it. Though her simple tiara does make her Cool Crown an aversion of this trope.
• Erotic Dream: Possibly what Bottom remembers his foray into Fairyland as (Word of God states that he's more aware of its reality than the other mortals — perhaps some of the queen's magic wore off on him).
• Establishing Character Moment:
  • 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.
• Eternal Love: Even with their arguing and squabbles, Titania and Oberon share this.
• Ethical Slut: Each and every fairy. See Blue-and-Orange Morality.
• Everybody Has Lots of Sex: The two pairs of lovers and the duke and duchess after the triple wedding. The fairies all the time. Bottom in the intermission fairy-orgy. Oberon and the post-play fairy-orgy.
• Everyone Is Bi: Seemingly with the fairies.
• Everyone Can See It: What some (including much of the cast) say about 'Dysander' (Demetrius/Lysander).
• Every Proper Lady Should Curtsy: Mustardseed, one of the queen's fairies, does this a lot, to the point of interrupting Bottom's request for head-scratching (It Makes Sense in Context). Then again, by the standards of non-fairies, she isn't quite a 'proper lady' (see Values Dissonance).
• Extremely Short Timespan: The entirety of the events of the play happens over four days. However, if an audience member misses that particular piece of information (Theseus saying Hermia has four days to make up her mind), one could easily believe it all happens over the course of just two days.
• Face Palm: A subtle one by Bottom early on, as the buffoonery of his co-workers is too much even for him.
• The Fair Folk:
  • 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. Blue-and-Orange Morality, indeed.
• Fairy Sexy: 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.
• Fairytale Wedding Dress: Played straight with Hippolyta, who wears a very form-fitting version. Averted with Helena and Hermia, whose wedding dresses are just different regular dresses.
• Fanservice: Quite a lot.
  • The fairies are more than happy to deliver this. Puck treats the entire play as a single massive Shirtless Scene; 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.
  • Hippolyta certainly serves the fans well in all her outfits, but particularly in her wedding dress.
  • The main set stairway allows for the audience to get rather good views of the climbing butts of Helena, Oberon, Puck, and Bottom.
  • Helena and Philostrate serve as this to a less blatant extent.
  • The half-naked Lysander and Demetrius changing onstage counts as well.
• Fantastic Racism: 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.
• False Friend: Helena accuses Hermia of this, alleging the two male lovers' change of heart is a cruel joke.
• Feuding Families: 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.
• Finagle's Law: Well, what else would you expect if your instructions include descriptions as vague as "man wearing Athenian clothes"?
• Final Speech: 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).
• Fisher King: 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.
• Flower Motifs: Flowers seem to contain almost all the magic of Fairyland.
• Foil:
  • 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 Comedic Sociopathy; 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 Large Ham 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 Berserk Button.
  • Bottom and Oberon, as receivers of Titania's affection, could be contrasted.
  • The royal couple of Fairyland and the ducal couple of Athens: one is torn by a feud and take an active role in the plot, and the other is happy and stable and act more passively with regards to the storylines. Both are involved in the convergence of multiple plot threads.
  • Pyramus and Thisbe, as the Show Within the Show, can be contrasted with the main plot. 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).
• Forced Transformation: Bottom is transformed into a half-man-half-donkey freak.
• Gag Penis: A feather duster (that had previously been used to represent the moon) is used as a sword by Thisbe to kill herself (himself?). As he/she falls down on Pyramus, he knocks her over; whereupon the feather duster has shifted to right between her legs and assumed a very suggestive pose. The actor playing Thisbe gets rid of it a second afterwards, but not before the audience (the newlyweds that watch the Show Within the Show, the fairies that watch both, and the actual audience that watches the whole scene) starts cracking up.
• Gay Moment: Possibly during Pyramus and Thisbe. The actors playing the eponymous in-story characters pause with their lips almost touching for a beat longer than the script called for, whereupon the latter pushed the former away hastily (see Ragdoll).
• Gender Flip: Quince, Starveling, Philostrate and Snout are all women in this production, with Peter Quince being renamed Petra.
• Glass-Shattering Sound: Bottom's crescendo of doom.
• Grapes of Luxury: Eaten by Oberon, served to him by the ginger fairy.
• Groin Attack: The pair of initially flirty queen's fairies to Puck, during his first appearance (see Establishing Character Moment).
• Guy on Guy Is Hot: All fans of Dysander certainly think so.
• Happiness in Slavery: 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.
• Harem Seeker: Puck. His flirtation with some of the Queen's fairies early on is a Establishing Character Moment.
• The Hedonist: All the fairies – their culture seems to be built off this. Puck's Establishing Character Moment sets him up as a particular case of this.
• Hilarity Ensues
• Hollywood Tone-Deaf: 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.
• Homoerotic Subtext: DYSANDER. It's also played for Laughs between the (male) janitors/actors playing Pyramus and Thisbe. Also features very heavily between King Oberon and Puck.
• Horned Humanoid: Puck has slight ones, to emphasise his devilishness.
• Hot Consort: Hippolyta is this to Theseus, turned up to eleven.
• Hot Librarian: Well, more like Hot Secretary. Philostrate, all the way.
• I Can't Believe a Guy Like You Would Notice Me: Change 'guy' to 'girl', and you get the positively dumbfounded reaction Bottom has to Titania's sudden romantic sexual advances. Not that he doesn't enjoy it, getting over his shock after a few minutes and plowing right in (pun intended).
• I Kiss Your Hand: Demetrius to Helena. She's initially overwhelmed by the gesture, but is convinced it was just to mock her.
• I Know You Know I Know: A variant is said by Lysander to Demetrius, while trying to sort out some of the angles in the Love Dodecahedron.
• Immortality Bisexuality: The fairies, implied.
• Immortal Immaturity: Aside from Oberon and Titania, the fairies live this trope; Puck BREATHES it.
• Incoming Ham: 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 Big Entrance), and the latter due to it being uttered by the play's resident Large Ham.
• Incredibly Lame Pun: 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.
• Incredibly Long Note: The crescendo of doom at the end of Bottom's song.
• Insatiable Newlyweds: All three couples are shown to be very eager for night to fall.
• Interspecies Romance: Bottom (human turned half-donkey) and Titania (fairy). It lasts around a third of the play.
• I Was Just Joking: When Oberon asks for the magic flower, Puck at first hands him a shoe. He is not amused.
• Just Friends: The janitors/actors, apparently. They (aside from Bottom) are the only main characters in-story who have no romantic plotlines.
• Know-Nothing Know-It-All: Bottom claims to love the play of Pyramus and Thisbe. He doesn't know who the title characters are.
• A Lady on Each Arm:
  • 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 exaggerated – 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.
• Land of Faerie: Fairyland qualifies, as it fulfils three of the four criteria: it is named as such, it s populated by The Fair Folk, and it is ruled by monarchs (the fourth criterion is being located in another dimension; fairyland is not, existing in a forest outside Athens and possibly stretching far further).
• Large Ham: So, so many. In order of appearance:
  • 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 up to eleven 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.
  • Petra Quince, for being such a tiny girl, can seriously ham it up when yelling the lines at her hapless actors.
  • The janitor who plays Thisbe can make his falsetto project across the stage with ease, and his shrill crying can tear out eardrums; come to think of it, all the janitors become massive hams whenever they have to panic, scream, and trip over each other.
  • 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).
  • Titania is not in and of herself a large ham, but does act like one when barking orders at her fairies.
  • The fairy named Moth is this, when singing.
• Last Episode Theme Reprise: A Midsummer's Night.
• Last-Second Word Swap: "What the... Puck!"

• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: When Bottom references the in-story audience in his ideas for how to improve their Show Within the Show, he points directly at the (actual) audience.
  • Bottom gets another moment, as his soliloquy in the forest ends up being directed directly at the audience.
• Leitmotif: Most predominantly, the primeval drums that play when Puck is up to serious mischief. The harp while the lovers sleep and the music of A Pack of Actors, We are lesser examples.
• Leg Cling: The typical arrangement of Oberon's fairies around their king. Seen also in Bottom's second harem scene, albeit briefly.
• Living Forever Is Awesome: 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".

• Love at First Sight: What Oberon's flower juices cause.
• Love Dodecahedron: 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. Homoerotic Subtext (see Yaoi, below) between Lysander and Demetrius and between Oberon and Puck.
• Love Makes You Crazy: Helena is not quite emotionally-balanced when passion for Demetrius seizes her.
• Love Makes You Dumb: And can lead you to sleep with an ass (see Incredible Lame Pun). Or run into a foggy forest without any bearings or strategy.
• Love Martyr: Helena. Demetrius sure is a dick to her.
• Love Potion: Err, flower-juice. It drives the plot.
• Love Epiphany: Lysander and Demetrius believe they have one (in Lysander's case, twice) as Puck's magic does its work.
• Love Hurts: What Helena feels. However, she repeatedly says she'll be glad to bear pain if it were at the hands of Demetrius.
• Lover Tug of War: Hermia, Lysander, Demetrius, and Helena engage in a particularly hilarious one (especially with Demetrius's improvised haHA – see Throw It In!).
• Love Ruins the Realm: Reversed. Titania's and Oberon's falling-out has seriously disrupted the festivities in Fairyland.
• Loveable Sex Maniac: Each and every fairy.
• Lust Object: For about a third of the play, Bottom to Titania and the queen's fairies.
• Mad Love: This trope is epitomized by Helena. She claims that is Demetrius were to treat her as a mere dog, it would be enough to satisfy her.
• Magical Queer: Again, Oberon and Puck.
• Magical Girlfriend: Titania is this to Bottom.
• Magical Negro: Justified, as she's a fairy.
• Magic Realism: 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.").
• Marry for Love: 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.
• Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: 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.
• McGuffin: The Indian boy, to an extent.
• Meaningful Background Event: 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)
• Meaningful Name: Bottom is transformed into an ass. All the other janitors/actors have names related to various menial labouring jobs.
• Men Are the Expendable Gender: Inverted with the fairies. Only two males appear, both prominent roles; while women make up the rest, including all the lineless extras.
• Milking the Giant Cow:
  • The maniacally-dancing fairy left the giant cow dry. Bottom is also a very fond producer of theatrical dairy products.
  • Lysander, though more subtly, seems to have his arms almost welded into milking positions during his confrontations with Demetrius.
• Modest Royalty: Oberon's robes aren't fancy, and his Cool Crown is an understated wreath of laurels. This is in contrast to Titania (see Ermine Cape Effect).
• Modesty Shorts: Many of Titania's fairies' actresses. Luckily, it is almost entirely unnoticeable.
• Mr. Fanservice: Puck, who spends the entire play as if it were an extended Shirtless Scene, sported sprayed-on abs. Some young ladies in the audience later inquired as to their authenticity.
• Ms. Fanservice: 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.
• Muggle and Magical Love Triangle: 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.
• Musicalis Interruptus: In 'A Pack of Actors, We!', after Petra Quince's "I'd feel a whole lot better if WE ALL COULD JUST REHEARSE!" (see Large Ham), the music stops and there's a pause, right before the other actors laugh in her face.
• My Girl Is Not a Slut: 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.
• Nature Adores a Virgin / Nature Abhors a Virgin: One of Oberon's magic flowers got its power from "Diana, the goddess of virginity" (Virgin Power); on the other hand, flowers imbued with Cupid's anti-virginal powers are also magical.
• Naughty Nuns: Averted with the options Theseus presents to Hermia in the first scene (marry Demetrius, live a lifetime of virginity as a nun, or be executed).
• No Guy Wants to Be Chased: Helena presents us an inversion: No woman wants to be forced to do the chasing.
• No Indoor Voice: Several characters, particularly Bottom. Egeus seemingly has never heard of a whisper before. Justified, as this is theatre.
• No Sense of Direction: Bottom conveniently goes in a full circle after he wakes up, ending up precisely where he was before – just in time to run into his co-workers, who came looking for him. Subverted a little, as he apparently learnt from his wandering and calls the company out on taking the wrong way.
• Not Now, We're Too Busy Crying Over You: Surprisingly averted when Bottom rejoins the janitors after his night with Titania. They rush towards him, rather than continue their bumbling.
• Not What It Looks Like: The expressions on Demetrius's and Lysander's faces when Hermia walks in on them wrestling very suggestively says it all.
• Of Corsets Sexy: There was a proposal to have Oberon's fairies up the fanservice with corsets and tutus. It was never tried out. Counts as a What Could Have Been.
• Official Couple: Lysander and Hermia, Demetrius and Helena, Theseus and Hippolyta, and Oberon and Titania. This has not stopped 'Dysander' shipping.
• Older Than They Look: 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.
• The One That Got Away: Perhaps. Oberon is called out by Titania for having the hots for Hippolyta; he counters that she has lusted after Theseus. Neither is treated as much more than embarrassments (see Blue-and-Orange Morality).
• Only Sane Man: 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 Deadpan Snarker).
• Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: Bottom speaks with a crisp British accent for most of the play. However, he breaks this twice and sounds rather like a New York Jew in the scene before intermission when addressing the audience (both times are Shout Outs, to the Snagglepuss and to the Producers).
• Opinion-Changing Dream: What the enchanted nights in the forest are perceived to be by the lovers.
• Our Fairies Are Different: 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.
• Out-of-Character Moment: 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.
  • In other words, an in-character out-of-character moment (Mind Screw).
• Overly Narrow Superlative: "That's the best actor... I've ever seen play a lion".
• Panthera Awesome: In Pyramus and Thisbe, it is a lion that threatens the titular heroine.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: 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.
• Parental Marriage Veto: Egeus attempts one.
• Parents Walk In at the Worst Time: Egeus (Hermia's mother) is amongst the Duke's hunting party that stumbles upon the half-naked, peacefully-slumbering bodies of the four lovers.
• Pass the Popcorn: Oberon's fairies, during many of the mortal squabbles and the Pyramus and Thisbe scene. May count as a Meaningful Background Event.
• People Fall Off Chairs: At least, people in Puck's stories fall of chairs.
• Pimped-Out Dress: 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.
• Played for Laughs: Bestiality, the actors' stupidity, threats of rape, mind-control, casual racism and marital squabbling.
• Playing a Tree: 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, Played for Laughs.
• Plucky Comic Relief: Or should I say Puck-y Comic Relief, eh? Eh? No? OK.
• Politically Incorrect Hero: 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 Condescending Compassion.
• Polyamory: The standard affair for fairies, it seems. Even married couples such as the king and queen appear to be very open relationships.
• The Power of Friendship: Helena attempts to invoke this with Hermia during their Catfight. It doesn't go as planned.
• Powers That Be: Oberon and Titania are set up to be like this, but are shown to be fully-fledged, involved characters after their entrance. To the mortals, the machinations of the fairies must seem like this.
• Pun:
• Punctuated! For! Emphasis!:
• Questionable Consent: 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.
• Ragdoll: Count the times Bottom gets knocked over.
• Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: Averted. More like Rape is a Special Kind of Totally Hilarious Act That Can be Played for Laughs.
• Ready for Lovemaking: 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 Chewing the Scenery), Titania wakes up, sees him, and starts hastily invoking this trope.
• Really Gets Around: All the fairies, as part of their culture (see Blue-and-Orange Morality). The king and queen in particular have both habitually gone after mortals in addition to enjoying the services of their retinue. Puck is this, despite shades of Casanova Wannabe.
  • Duke Theseus apparently got around quite a lot before settling with Hippolyta.
• Red Boxing Gloves: Averted; they're black.
• Rejection Affection: Helena's pursuit of Demetrius embodies this trope. Later reversed when the latter falls under the fairies' spell.
• Requisite Royal Regalia: Averted. The royals of fairyland have only crowns, whilst the duke and duchess have nothing except dialogue to suggest their nobility.
• Rich Suitor, Poor Suitor: Averted. Both Demetrius and Lysander are well-off. Though she is under a spell at the time, Titania being involved with her royal husband Oberon and the dirt-poor janitor Bottom may count.
• Roll Your Rs: Bottom throughout ("I'll masterrrrrrrrrr any paht with pahfect poise and 'eart!")
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: 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.
• Ruling Couple: Oberon and Titania rule Fairyland; Theseus and Hippolyta rule either Athens or some Athens-based corporation (or both).
• Runaway Fiancée: Hermia, to avoid marriage with Demetrius.
• Running Gag: 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'.
• Scenery Porn: Though the set is nothing special for the indoor storylines, when it transitions to the forest, the flats, scattered leaves, entryways, smoke machine, and lighting all combine to produce a very magical, irreal effect.
• Separated by the Wall: Pyramus and Thisbe in the Show Within the Show. Handled extremely ridiculously, of course, and Played for Laughs.
• Screaming at Squick: Titania upon being woken from her spell and realising she slept with Bottom.
• Screams Like a Little Girl: Flute when he and Quince bump into Starveling and Snout.
• Screw the Rules, I Make Them!: Theseus overrides Egeus's wishes and the law of the land (company) by allowing the lovers to marry as they please.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: When the weight of their humiliation dawns on them at the end of Pyramus and Thisbe, the two janitors who play the eponymous characters unceremoniously storm offstage.
  • Bottom even tears his costume off right before doing so.
• Shipper on Deck: Puck's role; part of Oberon's plan (he REALLY wants to see Helena's love for Demetrius be reciprocated).
• Shirtless Scene: Each and every one of Puck's appearances.
• Shout-Out: 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.
  • Many of the crazily-dancing fairy's antics (including her hair) are shout-outs to the musical Wicked.
• Show Within the Show: 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.
• Sliding Scale of Silliness vs. Seriousness: Very much on the silly end. Doesn't stop it from being a genuinely excellent performance, of course.
• Slippery Skid: The flowers on stage scattered by the fairies can cause much accidental slipping. Pity the poor fairy who used rollerskates...
• Slut-Shaming: 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.
• Smells Sexy: Reversed and then played straight, offstage. Due to wearing a jumpsuit, having lots of stunts, and being under a stage light for many scenes, the actor playing Bottom initially smelled awful during rehearsals, according to the actress playing Titania. He then took to showering at the theatre, wearing only half his costume until showtime, and adding extra cologne – making him possibly into this trope.
• Smitten Teenage Girl: Anyone who gets a dose of Oberon's love-juice (get your mind out of the gutter) becomes this.
• Smurfette Principle: Inverted by the non-royal fairies, which are all female except for Puck. Averted by the janitors, who have an exactly even ratio.
• Spanner in the Works: Puck confusing Lysander and Demetrius when applying Cupid's flower.
• Spear Carrier: 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.
• Stalker with a Crush: Again, Helena. She told Demetrius where his love had run away to in order to stalk him in the forest at night.
• Stalking Is Funny If Its Female After Male: Helena should have her own trope page by now.
• Stylistic Suck: 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.
• Suddenly Shouting: During the first two days, the mic guy would often turn the microphones on a few seconds after the actors in question had started their lines, creating this trope unintentionally.
• Their First Time: Discussed by Hermia and Lysander, pre-enchantment.
• This Is My Side:
  • Oberon and Titania, for being king and queen, seem to rule two very distinct areas and peoples, at least during their squabble.
  • Hermia half-heartedly insists this about her and Lysander's sleeping arrangements, their first night in the forest.
• Three Lines, Some Waiting: There is a Love Dodecahedron, the spat between Oberon and Titania, and the story of the janitors, each plotline advancing simultaneously throughout the play. There are numerous subthreads connecting them, though.
• Token Minority: There is exactly one black character, a nameless fairy in Oberon's retinue.
• Too Dumb to Live: Helena, due to a bad case of Love Makes You Dumb.
• Too Kinky to Torture: 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.
• Tsundere: Hermia, in some moments.
• Unrequited Love Switcheroo: Played with. Though Helena never stops being in love with Demetrius, when the latter (and Lysander) chases after her, she believes it to be a ruse and acts as if she no longer wants him.
• Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist: Puck and Oberon may well qualify, what with their rampant Comedic Sociopathy. The lovers as well, with all the virulent racism and sexism.
• Unusual Euphemism: "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.
• Virgin in a White Dress:
  • Averted for most of the play, with Helena and Hermia (explicitly mentioned to be virgins) wearing, of all things, red. During the post-wedding scene, they are seen in close-enough-to-white beige dressed.
    • The fact that it's ambiguous whether they lost their virginities in the forest makes the change to white a potential subversion.
  • In another subversion, Hippolyta wears pure white for her wedding. She is certainly not a virgin, at the very least since getting raped by Theseus.
• Visual Pun: 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'.
• Vocal Dissonance: 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.
• Weddings for Everyone
• What Did I Do Last Night?: Titania's reaction after being freed from her spell and finding out she slept with a half-human-half-donkey thing.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Though it is handwaved away when Oberon explains to Puck how his plan is coming to fruition, the sudden and dramatic fall from plot-relevance of the Indian boy the fairy monarchs were fighting over was puzzling even to the actors involved.
• Wild Mass Guessing: 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).
• World of Ham: This is one. Understated acting rarely goes unpunished; every scene has at least one or two virtuosos hamming it up.
• Wouldn't Hit a Girl: 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).

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