“Pyramus and Thisbe” in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”
Marin Shakespeare Company
Saturday, June 14, 2025. 7:30 PM
“Pyramus and Thisbe“: a play within the play is performed at the end of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” as ‘preferred’ entertainment for the court. The original is an Ovid tale from “Metamorphoses”. In “Dream” (as done by the Marin Shakespeare Company) in the current production, the “Players” (who have been chosen as entertainment) are cast as “Pyramus and Thisby”, Wall, Moonshine and Lion.
Wearing brightly colored outfits, (as satiric costumes), Bottom’s dramatic group appear with his ‘fellow’ actors: Peter Quince, Francis Flute, Tom Stout, Snug (who appears as the Lion!) and Robin Staveling (a tailer). Botttom, (actor Steve Price) has appeared in earlier episodes of the play, particularly as Titania’s lover. In the ‘satiric’ play, the lovers “communicate through a ‘crack’ in the wall and their ‘love” is cut short by a misunderstanding, a lioness and suicide!
This is amazing event is delightfully performed in the ‘exaggerated’ manner of amateur acting (probably often seen in Shakespeare’s time.) It is ‘comic’ relief …and also serves as a satiric reflection of what has transpired in the larger context of the play.
The delightful actors of the ‘play within the play’ were: Adrian Deane, (Snout); Richard Paliaziol (Quince); Storm White (Snug); and Elena Wright (Starveling).
The learned critics of Shakespeare tell us that this satire concerns “forbidden love” and “ultimately leads to commemoration by the gods”. If this be so, Bravo. The ‘bravo” in the current production is to be given to the multitalented actors who, playing many roles, brought us to the end of the Marin Shakespeare production of “Dream” with much laughter and joy.