Existing comment:
Acting Without Women:
Acting was a strictly male profession in Shakespeare's day. With their higher voices, boy actors in costume effectively played female characters from Juliet to Lady Macbeth. In A Midsummer Night's Dream, however, the play-within-a-play makes fun of every aspect of theater -- including this one. Flute, whose beard is growing in, unconvincingly plays the heroine, Thisbe. |