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From: ronc@fai.UUCP (Ronald O. Christian)
Newsgroups: net.games.trivia,net.tv
Subject: Re: Meta-humor (by the skin of our teeth)
Message-ID: <50@fai.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 8-Jan-86 13:36:32 EST
Article-I.D.: fai.50
Posted: Wed Jan  8 13:36:32 1986
Date-Received: Mon, 13-Jan-86 08:05:40 EST
References: <69@decwrl.UUCP> <123@idacrd.UUCP>
Reply-To: ronc@fai.UUCP (Ronald O. Christian)
Organization: Fujitsu America, Inc., San Jose, CA
Lines: 45
Xref: watmath net.games.trivia:2388 net.tv:3837

You want Meta-humor?  Try 'By The Skin of our Teeth', a play
recently aired on PBS.  (And again and again... if I know PBS.)
It was, in a word, wierd.  I don't think some of the stuff would
have worked, had one of the center characters (the maid) constantly
pointed out logical errors during the course of the play.

Some things that happen:

During the maid's entrance speech, she stops the play, walks off
the stage and sits with the audience, there to discuss how hard
it is for an actress to get a job these days, and how she got stuck
in such a wierd play.

When she gets to the next character's entrance, the door sticks.  So
she goes through the entire monolog again at breakneck speed.

The same character stops the play again during a love scene when
she objects to some of the lines.

At the begining of the last scene, the director comes out and
confesses that 7 of the cast members took sick from take-out
at the Deli across the street, and he makes substitutions from
various crew members.  He also goes on to explain what several
special effects would have looked like.

At the end, we get what I'd describe as meta-drama.  During one
very powerful scene, an argument between father and son (who had
been on opposite sides during world war III) a fight breaks out
between the two characters on stage.  The play is stopped.  The
actor playing the son sits on the edge of the stage muttering
"I can't play this part.  I can't play this part.  It hits too
close to home."  The actor playing the father takes responsibility
for the fight, saying he got too much into the character.  The
'son' is led off the stage by one of the cast.  Really moving.

I highly recommend this play.  I caught the very beginning late
at night when I really wanted to go to bed, and ended up staying
awake for the whole thing.  See it.
-- 
--
		Ronald O. Christian (Fujitsu America Inc., San Jose, Calf.)
		ihnp4!{pesnta,qubix}!wjvax!fai!ronc

Oliver's law of assumed responsibility:
	"If you are seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it."