UNDERSTANDING METATHEATRE: Metatheatre can be defined as aspects of a work of theatre that draw attention to its nature as a work of theatre. Metatheatre can most easily be identified through the inclusion of a play-within-a-play or the use of direct address, both of which draw the audience’s attention to the fact that they are watching a play and to the nature of performance.

In the simplest terms, Dream engages in the metatheatrical through the mechanicals’ play-within-a-play of Pyramus and Thisbe; their play treats the same premise—a pair of young lovers whose parent(s) do not approve of their being together—tragically, in contrast with the main drama of Dream treating the subject comically. Critics traditionally cite the inclusion of this play-within-a-play and, by extension, the inclusion of the fifth act, as commentary on the main plot of dream, a warning of what tragic fate may have befallen the lovers.

Scholar Nathaniel C. Leonard introduces a new theoretical framework to understand the layers of metatheatrical staging that can occur, illustrated in the diagram below:  

Above, a recreation of Leonard’s diagram, depicting the “Spectrum of Dramatic Layering”.

According to Leonard:

“The locus is characterized by the ‘element of verisimilitude’ and is where ‘illusion and interpretation first begin to assert themselves.’ The platea on the other hand is the layer of performance that permeates that illusory barrier. Weimann actually describes it as the ‘theatrical dimension of the real world’ and it is where the action of the play and the audience have direct contact. The two new terms that I am introducing, meta-locus and meta-platea, are essentially similar to [locus and platea], except that they treat the locus as their audience.”

Leonard asserts that Dream has two loci—first, the human world, and second, the fairy world, which overlap in the forest. As Puck speaks, “Shall we their fond pageant see? / Lord, what fools these mortals be!” (3.2.116-117). Critics cite the actions of Oberon and Puck, in their voyeuristic nature, watching the lovers’ conflict, as mimicking that of watching a play; indeed, Dream is described as having two “plays-within-a-play”, with the fairies’ state of viewership on the lovers’ actions, and the courtly audience’s viewing of the mechanicals’ play. However, the state of viewership of the audience of Dream’s is questioned, as the fairies are able to meddle in the human loci. 

With the second “play-within-a-play”, the shift of focus turns, in part, not to the play at hand, but to the audience watching it. In Theseus’s remarks preceding the courtly entertainment, he notes what the correct behavior of an audience must be: 

The kinder we, to give them thanks for nothing.

Our sport shall be to take what they mistake;

And what poor duty cannot do, noble respect

Takes it in might, not merit (5.1.94-99).

According to Leonard, “Theseus points out, even before the ‘rude mechanicals’ enter, that the less ‘merit’ is in the performance the greater kindness is demonstrated by those who are able to appreciate that spectacle.” Attention is drawn to the behavior of the audience further through Bottom’s dialogue with Theseus, which highlights, through comic means, the audience’s responses during theatrical performance; in Bottom’s misunderstood view of how theatrical performance works, not understanding that the audience may make comments that will not affect the procession of the action on stage, he is worried that Theseus’s quip will alter the performance: 

THESEUS. The wall, methinks, being sensible, should

curse again.

BOTTOM. No, in truth, sir, he should not. “Deceiving

me” is Thisbe’s cue (5.1.194-197).

The meta-locus, or the play-within-the-play, serves as a background to reflect the meta-platea, or the theatricalized setting of the fictional world; in effect, both the locus and meta-locus frame the meta-platea, the in-world audience’s reactions, setting the spotlight on audience behavior, and giving the audience of Dream as a whole cause to reflect on the audience’s relationship to theatrical performance.

However, further, at the end of Act V, Scene 1, the fairies’ emergence to bless the house confuses the apparent representational logic, “highlighting to the viewer that the staged audience in the human locus is in fact being watched covertly by the supernatural in the other locus that houses the fairies as well as overtly by the ‘rude mechanicals’ in the meta-locus.” In effect, this suggests the existence of supernatural beings watching the humans who are watching Dream, without saying that Oberon is comparable to a monotheistic deity.

Ultimately, according to Leonard, “Act 5 of the play consists of a prolonged reflection on the theological, cultural, and political stakes of theatrical performance more generally by setting up two models of viewership, contrasting genteel non-intervention with Oberon’s manipulation, and then slowly displaying that one of those models relates to mortal audiences while the other only pertains to the supernatural.” 

Dream, on the whole, evokes the metatheatrical to ask “viewers to reimagine their relationship to the staged action and to live performance…generally.” The mechanicals’ play-within-the-play asks the audience to review the categorization of Dream as a comedy, suggesting that “a play’s position in a genre or between genres has as much to do with its execution in performance as its plot.”