Aspects of a play that draw attention to its nature as a play
Metatheatre, and the closely related term metadrama, describes the aspects of a play that draw attention to its nature as drama or theatre, or to the circumstances of its performance. "Breaking the Fourth Wall" is an example of a metatheatrical device.
Metatheatrical devices may include: direct address to the audience (especially in soliloquies, asides, prologues, and epilogues); expression of an awareness of the presence of the audience (whether they are addressed directly or not); an acknowledgement of the fact that the people performing are actors (and not actually the characters they are playing); an element whose meaning depends on the difference between the represented time and place of the drama (the fictional world) and the time and place of its theatrical presentation (the reality of the theatre event); plays-within-plays (or masques, spectacles, or other forms of performance within the drama); references to acting, theatre, dramatic writing, spectatorship, and the frequently employed metaphor according to which "all the world's a stage" (Theatrum mundi); scenes involving eavesdropping or other situations in which one or several characters observe another or others, such that the former relate to the behaviour of the latter as if it were a staged performance for their benefit.
The words "metatheatre" and "metadrama" combine theatre or drama with the Greek prefix "meta—", which implies "a level beyond" the subject that it qualifies.
Metatheatre, and the closely related term metadrama, describes the aspects of a play that draw attention to its nature as drama or theatre, or to the...
Twelfth Night, or What You Will is a romantic comedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written around 1601–1602 as a Twelfth Night entertainment...
and Guildenstern believe exactly what the actors want them to believe. Metatheatre is a central structural element of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead...
Telegraph analysed that The Prince fit well with Shakespeare's use of metatheatre and themes of gender and performance. However, BroadwayWorld's Cindy...
its own self-conscious atmosphere. This is sometimes referred to as metatheatre. While these techniques are often found in postmodern productions they...
Place premiered Soho Rep New York City, New York, United States Original language English Genre Melodrama, Metatheatre Setting A black box, and Louisiana...
Hermes the Thief: The Evolution of a Myth NW Slater, Spectator Politics: Metatheatre and Performance in Aristophanes Archived 29 April 2023 at the Wayback...
The Devil Is an Ass is a Jacobean comedy by Ben Jonson, first performed in 1616 and first published in 1631. The Devil Is an Ass followed Bartholomew Fair...
Son Boy Child Date premiered 1921 (1921) Place premiered Teatro Valle, Rome Original language Italian Genre Absurdism, metatheatre Setting A theatre...
Fringe Festival. A review in the Herald praised it as a "amusing piece of metatheatre" that addresses its themes with "nuance". In 2019, Bergmoser signed a...
apart" (German Auseinandersetzung). Niall W. Slater, Spectator Politics: Metatheatre and Performance in Aristophanes (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2002)...
According to W. B. Worthen, Six Characters and other Pirandello plays use "metatheatre—roleplaying, plays-within-plays, and a flexible sense of the limits of...
classified into many genres of theatre, including Theatre of the Absurd, Metatheatre and Magic realism. Actor #1 - The Man Actor #2 - portrays characters...
before he turned to criticism. He is best known for coining the term metatheatre in his book of the same title. He was one of the signers of the Humanist...
and Best Drama (Dogs Barking). The casts for both shows (members of MetaTheatre Company, his acting studio) were also nominated for Best Ensemble in...
classics, plot (narrative) theory and the concept of theatricality (metatheatre). His work is held in almost 100 major public and university library...
com 31 May 2019 Vena, Michael. “Cavacchioli’s The Bird of Paradise and Metatheatre,” Rivista di Studi Italiani, vol. XVII, 2, December, 1999 Vesely, Dalibor...
Defamiliarization effect Dramatic convention Figurative art Meta-reference and metatheatre Mimesis and diegisis The fourth wall Weimann, Robert. 1978. Shakespeare...
an external narrator leads to the work's classification as a piece of metatheatre. Further, and due to a constellation of elements including broken narrative...
10 (2). ISSN 2006-6910. Guardian (10 November 2019). "Tragicosmogony, metatheatre in Eghagha's The Oily Marriage". The Guardian (Nigeria). Retrieved 14...
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