Has there ever been a production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream-

aquitainequeen:

– where Puck isn’t just trolling everyone, but is legitimately the most powerful and dangerous person in the story?

They do everything for their ‘master’. They’re the one to ‘put a girdle ‘round the earth in forty minutes’. They’re the one who switches Bottom’s head out for a donkey’s. They’re the one who waylays the lovers and gets them all together so the love square can be resolved. They’re the only one doing magic, getting things done. And yes, it’s all under Oberon’s direction but,

imagine if, when Oberon snaps “Helena of Athens, look now, find!”

Puck turns and stares at him, maybe gets right in his face with that unblinking look, and says quite quietly “I go, I go, look how I go; swift as an arrow from the tartar’s bow.”

And, having reminded Oberon exactly who has the power here, they step back, dismiss him and walk calmly off, leaving Oberon very shaken.