Awareness, reflection and imagination: how the metatheatrical explores the self and society in contemporary storytelling

Alex Vickery-Howe, Lisa Harper Campbell

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Building from the authors’ own experiment, the conception and creation of Watchlist (Vickery-Howe, 2020), this article interrogates metatheatricality in contemporary theatrical works: How Not To Make It In America (Steel, 2021) and Destroyer of Worlds (Lewis, 2015) and recent television series: Kidding (Holstein, 2018–2020), Landscapers (Sinclair, 2021) and Wakefield (Dunphy, 2021-). It will argue that these works represent a significant movement into alternative, meta-dramaturgies wherein the characters portrayed, and the worlds they inhabit, exist behind a porous and fragile fourth wall, through which they may wink at their audience–not so much stories within stories, but stories reflecting stories.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)271-290
Number of pages20
JournalText and Performance Quarterly
Volume44
Issue number4
Early online date16 Oct 2023
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2024

Keywords

  • Metatheatricality theatre television formalism Watchlist
  • formalism
  • Metatheatricality
  • television
  • theater
  • Watchlist

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