Prompt: Examine Pirandello’s use of “meta-theatre. What issues or themes does it help to dramatize?
Six Characters in Search of an Author by Pirandello explores a new platform of meta-theater by creating a play about creating a play. Not that this concept hasn’t been seen before, but at the time it came out this was groundbreaking. The first showing in the 1920’s in Rome there was an outrage. Something of this realm had never been seen before and people were upset to see something that is so ordinary for the cost of a theater ticket. When humans see a new thing or hear a new concept they don’t automatically adapt to it. Hence the disapproval and dislike of the new meta-theater style. The landscape of seeing a play be constructed within a play gives the viewer a new glance of the human interactions. Meta-theatre dramatizes the human interactions, the dispute of the characters reality and the theme in the play.
The human interactions that candidly occur in the play are seen in a different way because of the dramatic meta-theatre aspects. Meta-theatre is more dramatic than typical drama because it is multi-faceted and gives another level of depth to the show. It is a concept being built and viewed by people expecting to see a finished product. This is confusing to the viewers because the interactions aren’t the typical ones you would see on stage. The way the characters interact is similar to real life because as the viewer it seems to be unrehearsed because the play is being made in front of the audience. When in reality the play was very well rehearsed and made, because in itself it is a play. When the father poses the idea of their drama to the manager that they want to be the author he becomes the narrator and author of his own play. The position of the author, although labeled as the manager, is never really consistent. The author is often the father because he narrates the majority of the story whereas, the director is constantly questioning the father on his ideas and life. This is magnetized by the meta-theatre aspect because it is focused greatly on the characters creating the play instead of the people acting in the play. In reality they are the main actors but within the play they are just the muses. The father character is isolated a lot within the meta-theatre because he has to organize the pitch to the author that the family desires. Due to this isolation of the father he is part of the internal family systems theory. The theory encompasses the idea that once a family member is isolated they are not properly understood by people outside of the family unit. This is very relevant when the father gets frustrated by the lead actor when he tries to portray the father in the play. The father becomes upset and frustrated that the director doesn’t understand that his character is living for eternity whereas he isn’t. Which is why is finds it so important to have it performed correctly. The family members try to help him get more clarity w...
