Metaphor and Theatre

Abstract

This paper aims to analyze how metaphor operates in the theatrical realm. Metaphor viewed from a linguistic point of view has a certain impact on theatre and is a consequence of looking at theatre as language. But viewed from a pragmatic point of view, beyond the linguistic aspect, as a model of thinking, metaphor becomes a cognitive tool. Between these two perspectives lies a wide range of ways in which theatrical metaphor intervenes in the scenic creation. At the same time, seen as a metaphor of life, theatre assumes, through a series of successive metaphors, a creative freedom which, however, can become anarchic and end up in what is called dead metaphor. For this reason, metaphor, from the point of view of theatre creators, must be assumed insofar as it is a conceptual tool, which has the ability to penetrate the various levels of reality in order to achieve a meaning concomitant with a sense of the scenic action. This may be the real freedom that the use of metaphor offers in theatre: the ability to achieve a meaning concomitant with a sense of the scenic action in the absence of the chain of cause and effect. Only in this way can metaphor remain an element of vitality in a living theatre.