ABSTRACT
A Midsummer Night’s Dream the mechanicals will rehearse and perform takes place within William Shakespeare’s play. Through the device of ‘play within a play’, Shakespeare is able to parody a particular type of romantic comedy, provide a parallel with the main action, interlink with the central plot and comment on the process of drama and the nature of dramatic art. The device at its most simple involves one group of dramatic figures performing a play for another group. Play within a play is a particular way of framing the action so that it is viewed through the eyes of another set of dramatic figures in the play. Like the dramatist, the drama teacher and pupils creating drama can employ the convention to allow different styles and forms of language within one play. Sometimes the convention is used as a ‘presentational device’, similar to a prologue which serves to introduce the main drama as in the case of The Taming of the Shrew.
