Metatheatre

About

The concept of Metatheatre was first proposed by Lionel Abel in his 1963 book Metatheatre: A New View of Dramatic Form. According to him, metatheatre is neither tragedy nor realistic drama. True examples include William Shakespeare's Hamlet, Bertolt Brecht's epic theatre, Henrik Ibsen's Peer Gynt, and Luigi Pirandello's Six Characters in Search of an Author. Following Abel, the concept has expanded in light of post-dramatic theory. This performance is a metatheatre in the sense that it is a self-aware, reflexive theatrical production that eschews a fictional world to remain conscious of its own artistic-performative existence. In this production, readings will be performed with multimedia support from Sophocles' Antigone, Selim Al-Deen's Chaka, Munier Chowdhury's Kobor, multiple recreations of Behular Bhasan based on Manasamangal, Rabindranath Tagore's poem Sonar Tari, and various historical documents. The foundation of this reflexive interpretation is based on theoretical discussions by Victor Turner and Ernest Renan regarding "What is a Nation" and "Social Drama." Through these lenses, the performance raises questions and argues that as long as the bodies of victims of various genocides and political figures in Bangladesh's history are not given a symbolic political 'burial' through national reconciliation, and as long as the people living in this land do not heal from the wounds of these killings, genocide and political assassinations will continue in this country. The performance concludes with a Ghaibana Janaza (funeral prayer in absentia) seeking peace for the souls of all assassinated political leaders and ordinary people.