Bottom's Up!

Dilly-dallying on a relevant blip for today's Shakespeare Challenge: Bottom. In the end (Ha Ha) I turned my very old bear upside down and have blipped his Bottom. Old Bear is almost as old as me - he was a present for my 1st birthday - and I am impressed that he can still stand on his head.

Bottom in ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’
From the first time we come across Nick Bottom, his very name lets us know we won't be taking his character very seriously. In fact, of all of the characters in A Midsummer Night's Dream, Bottom is the most humorous. He is a weaver with high aspirations, believing himself to be a fine actor. Bottom is one of the Athenian craftsmen who are referred to as "the Mechanicals." These represent the working-class who perform the play ‘Pyramus and Thisby’ for the wedding entertainment of Theseus (Duke of Athens) and Hippolyta (Queen of the Amazons).
During the play rehearsal in the forest where Oberon & Titania, (King & Queen of the Fairies) are having a major row, Bottom's head is transformed (by Puck – servant of Oberon) into that of an "ass" (donkey), making him the ‘butt’ of the play's biggest joke. Clueless that he's been transformed, he thinks that his friends have run away from him in fear because they're trying to "make an ass" out of him. Shakespeare probably got this idea from an ancient Roman story about a guy who's turned into a donkey. Bottom's conversion is also key to the play's theme of transformation, a concept Shakespeare borrowed from Ovid's ‘Metamorphoses’.

NB Try teaching all this ‘fairy’ stuff to 13 year olds!!! Have a couple of glasses of wine before seeing this and you’ll find it hilarious – the mechanicals are ‘to die for’! If you happen to be in the vicinity of Waddesdon Manor (Bucks UK) on Weds 2nd July 7pm, I am doing (producing) an ‘adapted’ version of this with said 13-yr olds. Any photographers welcome, as my mind will be on things other than taking photographs! NB AnnieAndChris who I know live locally!