ПОСТМОДЕРНА МЕТАДРАМА ПАВЛА АР’Є «ЛЮДИНА В ПІДВІШЕНОМУ СТАНІ»

Abstract

The article is devoted to the play «The Man in a State of Elevation» by Pavlo Arie in the light of its metadramatic concept. Metadrama is a term used to describe the plays, where the problematic and poetics are aimed at understanding the nature of theater. Such techniques as the play within the play, the role within the role, literary references and selfrefl exivity of the drama are common to the artworks of different aesthetic epochs, but they get intensifi ed in the postmodern period, especially because of destructive features that these techniques perform against the fabric of dramatic work. Though metadrama is quite common in the world literature and is widely studied in Literary Theory, it is almost unknown in the Ukrainian scholarly discourse. Yet, it is noteworthy that Ukrainian drama has a deep tradition of using the metadramatic techniques. The plays by Pavlo Arie testify to the statement. By creating a chaotic storyline, the author offers his own, original vision of theater in the postmodern tonality. The author became popular owing to the plays «Ten Means of Suicide», «Revolution, Love, Death and Dreams», «Icon», «Stolz» (in German), «Experiment», «Glory to Heroes», «Colors», «Baba Prisya» etc. It should be added that his dramas are often staged, and he is an art director of Lesya Ukrainka Drama Theater of Lviv, which makes him quite involved in the theatrical life. For this reason, it is quite natural that Pavlo Arie appeals to «production» issues, centering on the issue of transformation of a literary text into a performance with a typical play convention, mystery, backstage intrigue and so on. All this is widely represented in the play «The Man in a State of Elevation»: while its fi rst part is a rehearsal of the unusual play, which becomes the center of a discussion between the actors of the troupe, the second part is quite phantasmagorical, as the action contains a few levels of convention with theater appearing the allegory of the real world. Pavlo Arie offers an amazingly bizarre storyline with quite an unexpected composition. The original detective component is directed at the view on the director / playwright as a creator. The very construction of the text represents a multi-capsule where the principle of «theater in the theater» is repeated and endlessly indexed. Keywords: metadrama, the play within the play, postmodern drama, theater, irony.