Content
This is intended to be a light-hearted game of community, big emotions, and (melo)drama.
Themes central to the game include:
Identity and identification (as characters come to define themselves by their role in the play, or against it)
Loss of control (as characters are possessed or influenced by the play's spirits)
Performance and drama (both on-stage and off-stage)
Certain characters will deal with themes of:
Romance, unrequited love, and messy relationships (made messier by magical influence)
Characters (but not players) feeling judged for the quality of their performance or abilities
Management and organisation in a chaotic environment
We are asking people not to play on acts of:
Discrimination
Sexual assault or harassment
Suicide and self-harm
Though these avoided themes are still a part of the game's world, and characters may have
experience of them, they should not be happening between characters in the game.
The play itself does touch on these themes, and discussion of this during the game is
welcome so long as it is sensitive to the boundaries of other players involved in the
conversation. Our approach to the script itself is more complex, and deserves its own section...
The Script
Working with a text from the 1500s, which has seen over 400 years of re-interpretation, means confronting some problematic elements. The difficult conversations involved in modern stagings of historical work - of "separating art from the artist” - are a key part of this game. However there are some elements we have decided it’s more appropriate to cut from the text entirely. Please therefore use copies of the text which we will provide you with, rather than any copy brought in from elsewhere. We have made these decisions based on what we think can have a meaningful place in the game's wider story, and the words we are comfortable asking our players to read aloud.
Cuts
A few lines in the play refer to Hermia, one of the Lovers, with racist language referencing both North Africa and Central Asia. There is nothing else in the play to imply that she is a person of colour, so it’s unclear whether these are intended as specific or generic insults. As far as we are concerned she is primarily an Athenian noble (which of course does not necessarily mean she is white) and these lines are unnecessarily cruel, so we have cut them.
A handful of characters and places in the play are described as "Indian", seemingly for a sense of something distant and magical. We feel this is orientalist and unnecessarily, so are replacing the adjective with words like "fae" and "changeling."
Helena, one of the Lovers, is briefly mocked for her height. Though we have not cut this entirely, we have removed a line that refers to her as "dwarf."
These decisions about the play have been made out-of-character basis and shouldn’t be questioned, debated or changed in-character. (You are of course welcome to disagree with our decisions as a player, but we are unlikely to change them at this stage.) In the story of the game they have come from the Chair of the troupe - an unnamed NPC who will not appear during the game, and who even the Directors cannot overrule.
Kept
Hippolyta, who marries the Duke of Athens during the play, is described as an Amazon by Titania in Act II, referencing an all-female warrior tribe from Greek myth, which has had many contested meanings throughout history. Some productions treat her as a background character, others as an unwilling subject of “civilising” Athenian forces. We feel that cutting this line would take away an essential part of her character.
The Rustics, the “hard-handed” workers of Athens, are the source of much of the play’s comic relief, and their struggles in performing Pyramus and Thisbe are patronised and mocked by the nobles throughout Act V. Despite this, it's arguably the highlight of the play and hard to imagine cutting.
Much of the drama for the Lovers revolves around strict gender roles (Helena is threatened with execution if she doesn't marry who her father wants her to) and complexly changing desires (Lysander & Demetrius are made to fall in love with Hermia, leading to unwanted advances towards her). This too is an integral part of these characters' stories. Only people who express an interest in playing on romance will be cast as the Performers or Vessels for these characters.
Casting
The characters in the larp are written to be played by anyone. We will assign you to a character based on the themes that interest you, and then establish that character’s gender and sexuality based on what you have said you are comfortable playing.
In the game itself, the troupe has decided to cast the play race-blind and gender-blind. This is common practice in modern Shakespeare adaptations and isn’t something for debate in-character. You shouldn’t comment on people’s suitability to play a certain role based on their identity or background in- or out-of-character. It’s not possible for characters to recast any of the play’s performers, except for temporarily bringing in the Understudy if an actor isn’t present to rehearse their scene.
By race-blind and gender-blind, we mean that although your character has a race and most likely has a gender as part of their identity, this hasn't been considered when casting their character for a role in the play. The role in the play retains its identity as written.
For example, the character "Fred', who is a man, may be played by someone of any offgame gender. Fred may be cast as Titania in the play. While Fred plays Titania, she doesn’t become a male role. He has been cast genderblind. The spirit of Titania who may possess a character in the larp also remains female.