The Incompetent Mechanicals

Act V of A Midsummer Night's Dream features the 'Rude Mechanicals' as they present their rendition of Pyramus and Thisbe in front of Theseus and Hippolyta. During the play, it becomes apparent to everyone present that the 'Rude Mechanicals' are wholly incompetent in their attempt at acting. This incompetence is put on full display when Quince practically describes the entirety of the play before it has even been acted out in front of the audience. This flies directly in the face of one of the most important rules of acting: make your audience feel like the play is real. Their incompetence is further highlighted by their constant mispronouncation, such as referring to Leander as Limander. It is in taking this incompetence and increasing it to hilarious proportions while also revealing interesting aspects of the 'Rude Mechanicals' personalities that the performance I viewed truly shines.

The performance of A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Globe takes the comedy of Act V to new heights. Of particular interest in this performance were the additions made to Bottom's part and Flute's part. Bottom's lines in the play have him often forgetting his lines to the point where he has to have Peter Quince verbally remind him in front of his audience. To add to this, Bottom delivers the majority of his lines in a rather monotonous tones while yelling lines that should seemingly be delivered at a low tone such as the lines where Pyramus is supposed to be dying. In another hilarous scene, Bottom forgets to bring a sword to stab himself with to the stage despite Quince's incessant reminders at the beginning of the play. All of these scenes involving Bottom culminate to present a much different picture of Bottom than what he tried to present throughout the play. Bottom attempts to portray himself as some sort of master actor who is guaranteed to impress all in attendance. He exudes an aura of confidence in himself that borders on arrogance. The additions made by the director served to tear this facade down and depicted Bottom as being just as inadequate as the rest of his fellow actors.

In contrast, Flute's performance as Thisbe turns the way he acted in Act I on its head. In act I, Flute seems to be uncomfortable and unsure of having to play as Thisbe in the play. However, on the stage, he plays his role with complete confidence and does not make too many of the same errors Bottom made. He was by no means a good actor, but he was at least much better than one might have expected from the doubts he showed in himself in previous sections of the play. With this, Flute adds a sense of modesty to his personality that, I would assume, is meant to counteract the reinforcement of Bottom's arrogance.

Overall, Act V of A Midsummer Night's Dream serves mostly as a comedic denoument after what could have been a decent conclusion in Act IV. Part of the purpose of this comedic act seems to lie in the similarities between the situations Thisbe, Pyramus, Hermia, and Lysander all faced. It serves to highlight how easily the tale of Hermia and Lysander could have ended in tragedy while giving the audience a good laugh. The performance shown at the Globe highlights the comedic portion of this scene while also taking the opportunity to add some more personality to Flute and Bottom. It will be interesting to see how this act is handled in the performance the class will be seeing soon.