Entertainment / Literature / Metadrama: Drama in which the subject of the play is dramatic art itself, especially when such material breaks up the illusion of watching reality. When Macbeth cries out, 'Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player / who struts and frets his hour upon the stage, / and then is heard no more,' his references to 'shadows' and 'players' (Renaissance slang for actors) and his discussion of the stage serve to remind the audience forcefully that they are watching a dramatic artifice, not a real historical event. The references break down verisimilitude to call attention to the fact that viewers are watching a staged performance. Likewise, the opening to Taming of the Shrew forcefully emphasizes that the events we see are a fiction, as does Hamlet's plan to use The Mouse-Trap as an ethical litmus test for Claudius: The play's the thing / wherin i'll catch the conscience of the king.
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