Work Text:
None of the boys had ever been that fussed about Shakespeare when they were in school, and now they'd been asked to perform a spoof scene based off a small section in A Midsummer Night's Dream; Ringo was certain they'd studied it in school at some point but George had no real memory of it. In theory he'd always thought the plays sounded interesting: a man's ambitious wife convinces him to kill the king to take his place or a man is betrayed by his daughters and goes mad; even the more comical ones sounded appealing like the one they were doing now, but the language tended to be unnecessarily complicated - it was hardly English at all. Luckily they weren't performing the exact script from the play, rather an altered version which was far easier to understand and would allow them to get more laughs from the audience.
John and Paul were to play the two main roles, rather fittingly, which happened to be a tragic couple, even more fitting. This left Ringo and George with the secondary characters but neither of them minded, it meant less lines to learn and they both believed their characters were the funniest - just as Paul and John probably thought the same about their own.
Ringo was to play The Lion, fairly straightforward and surprisingly apt. His costume was by far the most fun, a large mane which poofed out around his face. George thought he looked adorable, which was no doubt the opposite of the intended effect. Out of the four of them, Ringo was taking it the most seriously, he had expressed a deep love for acting and film across the years.
George had been assigned The Man in the Moon, which didn't mean much at all except that he wore a long nightgown and had to carry around a large dog on a lead. All four of the boys took a shine to the dog, Paul in particular, and George was relieved that even if he didn't have anything to do on stage he could at least fuss the dog when he thought nobody was watching.
The concept for the scene was somewhat exciting, with a few hecklers being implanted into the crowd to fool the audience into believing they were real; it meant the four of them could get a little more aggressive towards the audience - even if it was all pretend - which no doubt released years of pent up frustration towards the screaming crowds they'd had to deal with. Overall it was exciting to just do something different other than performing or being interviewed, whether they did it well or not didn't really matter, although Brian would've disagreed, which was a freedom they all greatly appreciated.
George and Ringo spent a lot of rehearsal time together, while Paul and John practised all the 'important bits', they'd sit in the back going over lines or just laughing together at the insanity of the entire situation. Ringo clutched a warm cup of tea as he sat with his head adorned in fake fur, while George had discarded his lantern and branch somewhere on the floor while he drank his.
"This is gonna be fun." Ringo commented as he watched John goofing around in his plaited wig.
"Sure hope so." George followed Ringo's gaze "This'll get a few laughs for sure."
Ringo made an affirming noise while he drank "I think yours is the funniest bit, though."
"What makes you say that?" George asked, tilting his gaze to look over at a not very ferocious looking Ringo.
"Dunno, just think it is." Ringo murmured "Probably cause you're the one doing it."
"Aren't you sweet?" George said teasingly "Funnily enough I think yours is the funniest too."
"And what makes you say that?" Ringo repeated with a grin, making him look very much like a lion cub.
"It's short and sweet." George answered "Like you."
Ringo laughed loudly, causing Paul to pass them a glance of slight annoyance "I'm meant to be a deadly lion."
"Ah, right." George tutted as though he'd only just remembered "At least your character makes more sense than mine."
"That's what makes it funny though." Ringo took another sip "And you get this lovely dog too."
George looked down at his feet where the dog had fallen asleep a while ago, a small smile formed on his lips "That's a doggy woggy, I think you'll find."
"My mistake." Ringo said with a smile, he couldn't help thinking how cute George sounded when he said that line.
The two of them continued vaguely watching John and Paul rehearse, sipping their cooking tea and making small comments about the performance. Neither of them seemed to notice the passing glances the other gave them, too busy trying to hide their own secret thoughts to even consider that the feeling was entirely mutual.