Fittingly, it was the play-within-a-play sequence, in which the six "rude mechanicals," or laborers, perform "Pyramus and Thisbe" for Theseus and Hippolyta, the royal couple.

"That's how rude mechanicals talk."

Into the forest come a group of workmen, the "rude mechanicals".

Butterworth's rude mechanicals are at their best when they follow this tradition.

"Pure research among us rude mechanicals."

"Who're rude mechanicals?"

The "rude mechanicals" of Shakespeare's "Midsummer Night's Dream" are builders, carpenters, tailors, weavers.

The rude mechanicals are the only ones who see illusion as illusion.

Meanwhile the hierarchy of the Grand Lodge is threatened from within by dissident "rude mechanicals" who rightly regard it as thoroughly undemocratic.

How do the musicians feel about conceding the stage to the rude mechanicals?