"Spectacular Resistance": Metatheatre in Post-Colonial Drama

Abstract

From its earliest history, theatre has incorporated references to its own theatricality. This self-referentiality, which has been co-opted by other genres, is a particularly important aspect of modem and postmodern novels that often rely on dramatic terminology to explain themselves. Metafictional moments are, according to Patricia Waugh, author of Metafiction: The Practice of Self-Conscious Fiction, there for the sake of "play.” But drama's self-conscious moments often have much more agency and purpose than Waugh's concept of "play" implies. Hamlet's mousetrap, after all, is intended "to catch the conscience of the king." Richard Hornby's conclusion to Drama, Metadrama and Perception is that metadrama is "estranging," presumably for the audience, but this definition is also too simplistic for post-colonial plays where metatheatre's signifieds communicate much more than estrangement. This paper considers metatheatre and plays-within-plays in Athol Fugard, John Kani and Winston Ntshona's The Island, Louis Nowra's The Golden Age, Wole Soyinka's Death and the King's Horseman, Derek Walcott's Pantomime, Monique Mojica's Princess Pocahontas and the Blue Spots, and Renee's Jeannie Once to offer possible ways to re-read metatheatrical moments as locations of deliberate dis-location of colonial power.