Meta-Theater

During one scene of King Lear, Edgar, disguised as Mad Tom, leads his father, Gloucester to the cliffs of Dover, where his father intends to throw himself down to his death. Only Edgar doesn’t go to Dover. He tells his father that he has reached Dover, and Gloucester ceremoniously throws himself down, only to land face-first on the stage.

It’s a bizarre episode, but becomes more so when we consider the impression that the scene would make if we had never seen or heard of Lear before. After all, there are no cliffs of Dover on stage anyway, and Gloucester’s fall to the ground could just as easily be a fall from cliffs as a fake fall onto the flats. It’s a fake fall whether it is a “real” fall or not.

This episode illustrates neatly David Bevington’s thesis that Shakespeare’s theater is inherently meta-theatrical, a theatricality that constantly calls attention to itself.