"What is Metatheatre? Slippery Definitions and Early Modern Drama"

This article reviews the current state of the art in studies on metatheatre with a specific focus on early modern drama, in the attempt to assess what methods and approaches can prove fruitful in the analysis of early modern English plays. The term metatheatre and its variations (e.g., metadrama, self-reflexive theatricality) are still popular in early modern studies, but especially since the 1980s little work has focused on a historical and theoretical definition of the notion in this field. The term was coined by Abel in 1963, although some studies on self-reflexive theatricality predate his work. Yet, the popularity of the term has outgrown his initial definition (or lack thereof, as some argue) of metatheatre as a genre: most contend that metatheatre is not a genre-like structure, but a series of elements that are within the play and rely to some extent on the audience’s involvement in the performance. The term has thus been employed countless times in different contexts, each time highlighting particular aspects of theatrical performance. Some argue that such multiple definitions contribute to stimulate a cross-disciplinary research debate. Thus, this article reviews significant metatheatrical definitions (both theoretical and emerging from scholarly analyses of actual texts) to assess whether a working definition of metatheatre, flexible enough to apply to early modern drama, is possible, and to what extent. The Shakespearean canon has been the primary focus of most research on the subject so far, but a general definition to examine metatheatrical dynamics in other early modern plays as well could help provide a better understanding of the early phases of English professional theatre. The article also draws on relevant studies on classical metatheatre, which are particularly receptive to metatheatre analysis, given the influence of classical models on the Renaissance and the multiple connections between classical and early modern performances.