The script required a suppliant to kneel and supplicate the king for his dinner. (suppliant: supplicant, petitioner, pleader; supplicate: beg, implore, beseech) The actor balked. Why should a hungry carpenter be submissive to a man in a paper hat? (submissive: compliant, acquiescent, obedient) A servile bow was one thing; a full minute of subservient crawling was degrading, even on a stage. (servile: obsequious, subservient, fawning; subservient: servile, slavish, obsequious; degrading: demeaning, humiliating, debasing)
The director asked him to play the submission as a calculated insult. (submission: compliance, acquiescence, surrender; calculated: deliberate, intentional, planned) He bowed with the king's own elaborate flourish, then took a seat. (flourish: gesture, sweep, showy movement) The audience could see a protest before the king did. But the actor wanted to go further. He offered the king half his bread.
The king looked down at his empty plate. An inalienable dignity had entered the scene, and the carpenter had given it to both of them. (inalienable: unalienable, nontransferable, unforfeitable) At the next rehearsal the director brought a real loaf.