Metacommunication in Plays by N. F. Simpson, D. Campton, and J. Saunders

This paper deals with the problem of metacommunication in dramatic discourse. Following the approaches of Slawomir Świontek, Patrice Pavis, Hans-Thies Lehmann and others, it discusses the ways of compensating the lack of a single mediating figure in drama. This analysis employs the concept of “semiotic profanation of a symbol” developed by Yuri Shatin. The investigation is based on several English plays that embody the poetics of theatrical absurd. Norman Frederic (“N. F.”) Simpson’s plays A Resounding Tinkle (1957) and The Hole (1958) both make extensive use of such characters as authors, critics, actors, visionaries. Characters are familiar with established interpretative models (Bergson's theory or modernist visionary poetics), even applying those models to their own actions. David Campton’s play Us and Them (1972) and James Saunders’ play Over the Wall (1977) utilize mediating figures such as the Recorder and the Narrator. While both works present themselves as parable plays, the inclusion of narrative instances does not streamline the perception of aesthetic signs. Instead, it attracts the recipient’s attention to the dual nature of drama as a media (a text for reading and a part of a theatrical performance). In addition, all four plays tend to deconstruct traditional cultural signs such as the wall, the hole / abyss, the veil, etc. The paradoxal situation of being forcedly freed from established patterns of interpretation awakens the addressee’s receptive potential.