plays about plays

[Denis Johnston]

>Since theatre today no longer pretends to be a representation of the world,
>it has no other object but itself. I am interested in a very particular
>form of metadrama, that which occurs when the framed drama is well-known.
>
Like Mr Verdecchia, I think your assumption here is deeply flawed. Like him
too, though, I offer an example of a play which uses a well-known play as
its setting (but not its object): Tom Stoppard's "The Real Inspector Hound,"
a comic evisceration (and much more!) of stage whodunits in general, and
"The Mousetrap" in particular.
 
Is "The Dresser" based on King Lear, to some degree? This opens up another
area, that of plays about the theatre -- "theatrum mundi" and all that.
Denis Johnston
Academy of the Shaw Festival
drj at shawfest.com