According to Shakespeare's stage directions, Act 1, Scene 2 of A Midsummer Night's Dream is set in Quince's house in Athens.
If we were to set our production of the play in the city of Athens in ancient Greece, according to the play's script, we might build a very historically accurate setting. Quince, based on the stage directions, is a carpenter. Therefore, we know his house would be characteristic of a commoner's house. Houses in ancient Greece were small and plain; aristocrats' homes were actually not much larger or less plain than the homes of commoners since ancient Athens was well populated and crowded. All homes were made of plastered mud bricks and covered in tiled roofs. There were windows, but there were, of course, no windowpanes. The commoner's home may have had one to three rooms, depending on financial status (Lambert, "Daily in Ancient Greece," A World History Encyclopedia). Their homes would have been attached to "workshops and stores" according to the commoner's trade; therefore, Quince's home would have been attached to his carpenter's workshop. The buildings of the home would have been situated around a courtyard; all Athenians would have had a courtyard where they placed their religious shrine. A commoner's home would have contained at least a "kitchen, a storage room, possibly a bathroom, and a lounge-type room for men's gatherings" ("The Houses of Athens," PBS). Therefore, the best historically accurate setting would be a three-walled plaster-covered mud brick home. Inside, the one-room men's lounge would be visible, and it would be in this room that Quince would distribute the parts to his fellow players. One wall of the room could contain a window looking out onto the shrine in the courtyard, and other walls may have doorways leading into other rooms. One doorway could give a glimpse of his carpenter's workshop in order to characterize him as a carpenter.
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