The Rise of Metadrama and the Fall of the Omniscient Observer

The Rise of Metadrama and the Fall of the Omniscient Observer MARIE LOVROD In 1963, Lionel Abel coined the term "metatheatre" to identify theatre that is self-reflexive. Metatheatre, or metadrama, as it is now more commonly referred to, uses the stage to explore theatricality and, very often, its relation to life. Discussions of metadrama subsequent to Abel's have elaborated the concept , identifying characteristic elements and the problems that are raised and addressed by this form of theatre. Robert J. Nelson examines how the "play within the play" functions as a self-conscious reflection of "a given dramatist's controlling conception of the theater ... [and of] major movements of Western literature."I June Schlueter points out that when a playwright focusses on roleplaying within a theatrical production s/he addresses the modern existential identity crisis. She says: "in emphasizing the rift between the essential self ... and the role-playing self ... the playwright immediately suggests the loss of identity experienced by modern man as well as a sense of the artificiality of theater and the essentially dramatic quality of life.,,2 Bruce Wilshire builds on this idea of the relationship between dramatic role and identity, using the theatre's examples of metadramatic role-playing to philosophically examine identity formation and the ways in which "theatre is a consummation of the main line of human development - a development that is theatre-like at crucial junctures."3 Richard Hornby provides an extensive and useful discussion of a broad range of metadramatic devices including the play within the play, the ceremony within the play, the role within the role, literary and real-life reference within the play, and self-reference within the play. He argues that metadramatic plays work in relation to the collection ofall other plays and art forms, in an involute relation which he calls the "drama/culture complex."4 Hornby goes on to suggest that the rise of metadrama in Western theatre reflects a growing existential cynicism in the wake of the industrial revolution. Richard Schechner's work, The End of Humanism, addresses the metadramatic and its reflection of and potential impact upon power relations in the post-modern world. Modern Drama, 37 (1994) 497 MARIE LOVROD All of these critics, while defining, enlarging and explicating the concept of metadrama, share a common ground in their analysis of it. All recognize Shakespeare's Hamlet as representing an original and critical moment in the development of metadrama, and all see an evolutionary unfolding of the form since that moment. Indeed, a chronological reading of the critical works cited here provides not only an outline of the development of the concept of metadrama and a solid introduction to the implications and illuminations made possible by this concept and the dramatic practices it refers to, but also a map to the evolution of metadrama itself, from its earliest explorations of roleplaying and the functions of theatre, to its present focus on illuminating and attempting to traverse or break through the boundaries of human consciousness in performance art. I would argue that this evolution in metadrama is a reflection, an element, and a product of a revolutionary shift in human perspective since the Renaissance. Contrary to the message of Julie Gold's hit song "From a Distance," recently made popular by the divine Ms. Bette Midler, a particular, specific, and omniscient God is no longer universally perceived to be watching us, as was more or less the case in the literary circles of Renaissance Europe. With the advent of modern science and the rise of psychoanalytic theory, the image of humankind as functioning in some kind of relation to an omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent creator has been increasingly challenged, with the result that the individual has been left to sort out her relation to the cosmos and her consequent responsibility in it, more or less alone. The theatre has consistently provided an arena for the exploration of this evolution in human self-perception and outlook. As the perspective of the individual has been increasingly valorized in Western culture, the task of illuminating that vision has become increasingly complex. Consequently, the perspectives obtainable through and illuminated by metadrama have become increasingly complex as well.. In...