Scratch a regicide and discover a drama critic. “Life’s but a walking shadow,” Macbeth broods, “a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is seen no more: it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” What, we wonder, might the melancholy Scot have to say about A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare as told by The Mechanicals? Rather than just warm over The Most Cruel Comedy and Most Lamentable Death of Pyramus and Thisbe, Peter Quince and his All Star Athenian Amateurs swallow the Dream whole, from soup to nuts—including Pyramus and Thisbe! It’s wheels within wheels in reverse! Man from Stratford spinoffs number in the bazillions, and lots have some sparkle. But not since Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead have we come across a premise as fizzy as this one. The pixieish playwright, actor, and clown Austin Pendleton, ageless at 85, heads a cast of six, weaving their mischief in an 80-seat black box. May they run forever. —Matthew Gurewitsch