Reforming Society through Metatheatre in Jean Genet's The Balcony (1956)

Drawing on the function of the metatheatre technique in Jean Genet's The Balcony, thispaper examines how metatheatre has been used as a social tool to reform the society.  It also introduces the metatheatre technique and explains its function.
    In The Balcony (1956), Jean Genet makes Irma's brothel a microcosm of the general's warehouse to make a biting satire of the aristocratic society’s power dynamics by enacting the roles of the various classes of society. Through the metatheatrical technique, the tension between the class stratifications and the efforts of resistance of the poor to free themselves from the oppression of the aristocrats are exposed. Therefore, the Marxist critical approach is adopted: its basic tenets such as class stratification, proletariat, aristocracy, and hierarchy are used to analyze the play, highlight the metatheatrical representations of reality, and provide a proof of how the society’s reform can be achieved.
    This paper attempts to find answers to the following questions: What does metatheatre mean? How is metatheatre used as a tool to reform the society? How does Genet convince the spectators throughout the metatheatre technique that theatre and society are related and cannot be separated? How are the views of Jean Genet expressed through metatheatre? How does The Balcony represent Genet's critical views of his society? Which critical approach is applied to analyze Genet's The Balcony?
    The paper concludes that the metatheatre technique is represented in The Balcony throughout the form of role-playing. This means that there is a character disguises to perform the role of another character in reality. The choice of one of the metatheatre forms over the other" relies on a self-conscious writing on the playwright's part and the self-reflexive aspect of the performance itself" (Fischer 32). In addition, the paper highlights the function of metatheatre in The Balcony. It is used to discuss the social aspect as it enables Genet to express his negative ideas about his society that is full of hypocrisy, chaos, and ruthlessness. From Genet's point of view, theatre becomes no longer a tool for entertainment and amusement, but rather a medium through which the spectators are urged to bring about a social reform for their society.