Mimesis

mi·me·sis

 [mi-mee-sis, mahy-]

noun

1.

Rhetoric . imitation or reproduction of the supposed words of another, as in order to represent his or her character.

Put another (simpler) way, mimesis is all about art's imitation of life. Why am I giving you this definition? Because story ideas :D

I was purging my files, something I try to do before the beginning of every new semester and came across a note I had written to myself concerning the dichotomy of the actor and character in theater. Said note must have been written in a hurry, because that's all I can read of it, but I'm sure it was an interesting idea. Somewhere off to the side, I had "Hamlet" in quotation marks. I did write a paper on the metatheatrical nataure of Hamlet two semesters ago, which is likely where that came from and the tangent sent me back to the word "mimesis," which I think is a fantastic word <3 

I no longer recall what my original intent was, but thinking upon it, I have two guesses for what I could do with this: one, I could use the scene with the Players. Two, "The Murder of Gonzago." Both scenes are interesting on a metatheatrical level to me.

The strength of the first scene must come from the actors – the First Player must be astoundingly good if the audience is going to be able to take Hamlet’s following soliloquy seriously. The actor cast into the position of the First Player has a twofold role on two different levels: to impress Hamlet (in the theater level) and to make his reaction believable to the audience (the “real” level). This duality of character and actor can only exist upon the stage, where the world is not self contained. Unlike film, whose principal purpose is to create a world independent of the actors, the stage cannot escape its players.

Meanwhile, in "The Murder of Gonzago" we see another version of Hamlet within Hamlet (insert your own Inception joke here). In this scene, Hamlet has chosen to weaponize mimesis and in the process comment upon the power of drama. The fourth wall between the audience and actors, given the right production, can be very nearly or even completely dissolved by "The Murder of Gonzago;" as spectators to both plays, we become, in essence, part of the theatrical production.  We are even well rehearsed actors – even infrequent visitors to drama understand theater etiquette. 

I like the idea of writing a short story in which the audience becomes part of the production. Or rather, the entire audience is part of it, but one attendant gets really into character. Maybe I'm just a total nerd, but I find the concept fascinating <3

 Hee.