Lesson 4/5

In today’s lessons we began to look at the interpretation of the immortals, and the ways in which Oberon and Titania's relationship and current relationship is portrayed. In the narrative Oberon is angry with Titania as she is spending all her time with a changeling boy and will not give him over to Oberon to be used as a henchman. He could be considered to be quite spiteful or evil in exacting his revenge upon her.

The following is a quote made by Oberon; (Act 2 Scene 1)
“Well, go thy way. Thou shalt not from this grove Till I torment thee
for this injury” 

 Titania accuses Oberon of being jealous,(Quote: “These are the forgeries of jealously”). Oberon is presented as being  powerful character however Titania's characters appears to be just as headstrong and they seem equally matched. We know they have had a good relationship up until now, as they both quote; “dance our ringlets to the whistling wind” To help us develop the way the immortals talk we had a look at iambic pentameter.

Iambic pentameter = refers to a certain kind of line of poetry, and has to do with the number of syllables in the line and the emphasis placed on those syllables. Many of Shakespeare’s works are often used as great examples of iambic pentameter and he uses it in A.M.N.D to show a clear distinction of the immortals as he shows each line as a 10 syllables, this shows that the immortals speak more poetically and they show a distinct difference between immortal and mortality.

We were then asked to interpret a duologue between both of these characters, however we had to keep it in it's classical language. We were then told than we could also include a translation of the language, so we used this as a modern twist to look at Oberon and Titania's relationship from a different and more modern angle. We decided that music would also allow us to heighten the shift and dynamics between speech. I was placed with Ben, I was Titania and he was Oberon. We aimed to show a clear contrast in hierarchy of power between the two immortals, and we believed the best way to show this was by using elastic to create a 'puppet like' effect. This was effective as it allowed that characters to control each other, and highlight the battle in the relationship, and also that the struggle for power is imminent.

We delivered the lines in Shakespearian language first with no music, to clearly highlight the seriousness of conflict. Then to convey the switch to modern language and attitude, we used the song ‘happy’ by Pharrell Williams.  I think the mood was clear from the medium of music and the contemporary language used making this a success. Also I believe that we were successful in presenting the contrast between classical and modern interpretation as well as the contrast in both the characters relationship.


WWW= This lesson was useful in regards to looking at the immortals and their contrats to mortal characters. I learnt how to develop and adopt my acting style in  multiple ways, the characters we played were convincing and I thought we made a good distinct difference between modern and classical dialogue and language.



EBI= Keeping disciplined in all performances, and be always looking for ways in which \i can develop my understanding and acting style even further.