ramis and Thisby, Bottom strives to be seen in all the parts of the play.BOTTOM -An I may hide my face, let me play Thisby too, I'llspeak in a monstrous little voice. 'Thisne,Thisne;' 'Ah, Pyramus, lover dear! thy Thisby dear,and lady dear!'QUINCE No, no; you must play Pyramus: and, Flute, you Thisby.BOTTOM Well, proceed.QUINCE: Snug, the joiner; you, the lion's part: and, Ihope, here is a play fitted.SNUG Have you the lion's part written? pray you, if itbe, give it me, for I am slow of study.QUINCE You may do it extempore, for it is nothing but roaring.BOTTOM Let me play the lion too: I will roar, that I willdo any man's heart good to hear me; I will roar,that I will make the duke say 'Let him roar again,let him roar again.'QUINCE An you should do it too terribly, you would frightthe duchess and the ladies, that they would shriek;and that were enough to hang us all.ALL That would hang us, every mother's son.BOTTOM I grant you, friends, if that you should fright theladies out of their wits, they would have no morediscretion but to hang us: but I will aggravate myvoice so that I will roar you as gently as anysucking dove; I will roar you an 'twere anynightingale.(Act I scene ii)From the text, we can see that Bottom has a true love and passion for the performing arts, and wants nothing more then to ensure the success of this production. In Hoffmans production, the focus is on Bottom as Ive said before as the hero. It is important to point out two very important style notes of the performance. First of all costuming. The rude Mechanicals are all dressed in dark earthy browns and blacks, nothing fancy, just worn tweed. The cloths of the workingmen at the turn of the nineteenth century, the setting for Hoffmans adaptation. Bottom however, is a striking contrast all in a white suite, Sunday clothing. This is probably a convention used to make bottom stand out from the rest of the mechanicals, and also heighten the embarrassment l...
