The Effect of Employing Meta-theatre in the play  Pseudolu's by Plautus on Audience Satisfaction

Titus Maccius Plautus, commonly known as Plautus, is one of the ancient Roman playwrights. Plautus and Terence, as another famous ancient Roman comedy writer, have had a large influence on Moliere, the well-known comedy writer in seventeenth century in France. The evidence suggests that Plautus’s very successful plays satisfied the audience more than Terence’s. One distinguishing feature of Plautus’s works is the use of Meta-theatre. Five characteristics of Meta-theatre are: play within the play, ceremony within the play, role-playing within the role, literary and real-life reference, and self-reference. In this paper, after a brief introduction of Plautus and his play ‘Pseudolus’, the concept of ‘Meta-theatre’ is briefly discussed and its features are enumerated. Then these features are discussed in the play by ‘Pseudolus’ Plautus. The study attempts to show how Plautus, while employing the drama features of Meta-theatre in ‘Pseudolus’, attempts to provide the audience with a delightful experience. This study id descriptive-analytic and uses library resources and authentic online databases.