Metatheatre

Metatheatre draws attention towards the fictitious nature of plays, and challenges the play’s ability to present reality, since it seems conscious that it is not real life. Shakespeare frequently draws attention to the fact that the audience is watching a play, often by utilising anti-illusionist devices such as soliloquies, asides, and the play-within-a-play called The Mousetrap. Since the events in that play actually reflect the events in Shakespeare’s play, it creates another metatheatrical layer; it makes audiences aware that they are watching a play. This is also called a frame narrative; for example, The Mousetrap mirrors Hamlet’s inaction and delay, and contains the same motifs of reflections, doubles, and mirroring as Shakespeare’s Hamlet. We see reflections in characters via their character foils, like Hamlet, Laertes, Fortinbras and even Ophelia, and we also observe many instances of word plays with double meaning. However, the incredibly skilful thing about Shakespeare’s play is that even though audiences are made aware of the fact that they’re watching a play, they still remain engaged with the plot and can sympathise with the multidimensional characters.