Spectators Onstage: Metatheatrical Experiments in Early Tom Stoppard
Iswarya V.
Publication: Volume 2 Issue 3
Abstract
While listing the ground-breaking contributions of twentieth-century theatre practitioners and theorists in incorporating the audience into the scheme of performance, the metaphysical engagement of the spectators in the Theatre of the Absurd and the emerging metatheatre of the same period is often overlooked. Tom Stoppard’s early experimental plays The Real Inspector Hound and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead serve as an important link in the contemporary theatrical innovation of dissolving the strict demarcation between actors and audiences while eschewing the methods of later theatre makers who use more direct and even intrusive forms of engaging with the audience in the theatre. The present paper analyses Tom Stoppard’s attempt to include the spectator within the drama and expand the idea of spectatorship itself through his plays.
Keywords: Tom Stoppard, Spectatorship, Metatheatre, Audience Participation
Iswarya V. (iswarya.dell@gmail.com) works as Assistant Professor (English) at the Madras School of Social Work, India. Her research interests include contemporary British and European drama, metatheatre, and consciousness studies. She was previously a UGC Senior Research Fellow at Madras Christian College. Her ongoing doctoral research is on the representation of consciousness in Tom Stoppard’s drama. She has presented her work internationally and is the co-editor of the interdisciplinary anthology The Cosmic and the Corporeal (Institute of Interdisciplinary Inquiry, New Zealand).