The Aggressive "Theatrum Mundi" of Edward Bond: Narrow Road to the Deep North

Abstract

As a rather late but outstanding instance from the variety of Spanish "autos sacramentales," the Gran Teatro del Mundo by Calderon de la Barca can well be chosen as a model for comparison. Calderon's picture of the world from the Christian theocentric perspective and his use of allegory are both metaphysical. For that matter, his structural concept is also perfectly in line with the pattern of the ancient Greek metaphor of the "theater of the world" which provided the play's title: the role performance of each figure and all display of worldly affairs are shown to become meaningful only under the eyes of God. From a more mundane point of view, however, the empirical impact of the "stage" itself will remain the most important issue of the concept. Although the metaphysical dimension may be removed and the observer become restricted, as it were, to a more limited perspective, the performance ought still to be a challenging object for investigating the foundations as well as the ultimate meaning of man's existence.