Which Wall?

[dukealien]

Which Wall?

When a character who acts
in a play within a play
addresses audience directly
does he break the fourth wall
or the eighth?

[Keith]

I like this it got me thinking, but I would have to go for the fourth wall because each play exists in its own dimension so it can only ever be the fourth, dead pool 2 must be out soon

[LunaDeLore]

and if you did break the fourth wall
would you go for an eighth
by breaking it twice?

Luna

[ellajam]

theater live
leaves cinema behind
when walls crumble

[dukealien]

Thinking out loud (with a lot of static) -

If we think of the play-within-a-play as temporally displaced (i.e. in 4 dimensions) it could be a tesseract... in which case it's no longer obvious which play is within the other, and someone could be breaking the 24th wall.

[Keith]

Look its simple the actors in the secondary play don't have an audience its only when those actors reach the outer edge of the primary play that the audience appears. Still the 4th wall

---

Unless of course the play within a play has its own audience then were in a timewarp again, Its just a jump to the left.

[Brownlie]

4th wall = metaphor or idiom right? Is a new word for addressing the audience in a play within a play necessary? Pass the damn popcorn.

[RiverNotch]

Which Wall?

When a character who acts
in a play within a play
addresses audience directly
does he break the fourth wall
or the eighth?

Which audience?

[dukealien]

Which Wall?

When a character who acts
in a play within a play
addresses audience directly
does he break the fourth wall
or the eighth?

Which audience?

Very astute question.  Taking the Hamlet play-within-a-play, if the Player King addresses the Danish royal family assembled, it would be the PK's fourth wall, but to the audience watching Hamlet, simply part of the play's action.  If the PK addresses Hamlet's audience directly ("Look at me, Shakespeare gave Rosenkrantz and Guildenstern names, but for me, just 'Player King.'  Sucks to be me - but even more to be Hamlet") something else would be going on.  Probably not too far out of whack unless Hamlet responds, Who you talkin' to, dog?