List of theatre that breaks the fourth wall

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The following is a list of examples in theatre that breaks the fourth wall for dramatic or comedic effect. It does not include situations in which the fourth wall is broken inadvertently, such as when a mirror or other reflective surface catches a film crew and the editors fail to notice it.

1 Examples
2 References
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] Examples

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Cats - Members of the cast, as their cat characters, rub against the legs of the audience.

The Drowsy Chaperone - A musical theatre nut speaks directly to the audience for the whole show. He asks us how we feel, and asks us also if we would like to hear "The Drowsy Chaperone" record (the answer of which, undoubtedly, is yes). He narrates the action for us as it happens, and when something should happen that is unusual or not planned in the sequencing of the story, he comments on it and tries to make the situation better for us.

The Good Person of Sezuan (by Bertolt Brecht) - Ends with one of the characters exhorting the audience to not be angry with the unpleasant conclusion to the story, and encouraging them to make a happy ending themselves. Brecht breaks the fourth wall at the end of The Threepenny Opera (Die Dreigroschenoper) for similar reasons.

Into the Woods - In the second act, the actors sacrifice the narrator to a giant and then can not continue the story.

The Knight of the Burning Pestle - (by Francis Beaumont) carries it one step further dismissing the actors during the performance and drawing (shill actors) from the audience to take their places.

Love! Valour! Compassion! - (by Terrence McNally) Numerous characters address the audience, illustrating plot points and commenting on the action of the scene as it is taking place, as well as addressing each other.

Murder in the Cathedral (by T. S. Eliot) - The knights address the audience to try to justify their murder of Thomas Becket.

The Mystery of Edwin Drood (musical) The fourth wall is broken throughout the play. For instance an actor is enraged by the cast and crew and quits half way through a scene or in another case an actor never shows up so the director must fill his spot. In the end the audience gets to vote who the murderer is (the play is based on the book by Charles Dickens who died before he could finish it).

The Night of January 16th (by Ayn Rand) - People chosen from the audience are used to compose a jury in which they decide the verdict, leading to one of two possible endings.

Our Town (by Thornton Wilder) - Several characters (chiefly the Stage Manager) speak directly to the audience.

Peer Gynt (by Henrik Ibsen). During the fifth act, the unknown passenger, after having frightened Peer, concludes: "Nobody dies in the middle of the fifth act", before he goes off stage.

Peter Pan -to revive Tinkerbell, the audience is asked if they believe in fairies and to clap their hands if they do.

The Producers - At the start of Act Two, Max asks Ulla when she painted the office. She replies, "Intermisssion."

Rent (musical) - In the song "La Vie Boheme", the characters address the audience in the second person. In "Finale", Mark Cohen's film is projected at and onto the audience of the theatre. Also, during Maureen's performance of "Over the Moon" she begins to moo like a cow and encourages the audience to moo with her.

Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead (by Tom Stoppard) - Rosencrantz yells the word "Fire!" to the audience.

Six Characters in Search of an Author (by Luigi Pirandello) - Some actors are getting ready for rehearsal when six characters whose author has died, leaving them incomplete, enter the room. The director includes the new characters in the play they are rehearsing, and soon all the lines between fiction and reality disappear.

The Skin of Our Teeth (by Thornton Wilder) - Many things go wrong with "the play", including missed cues, set falling apart, and actors getting sick. Also the audience is asked to do things at various points.

Spamalot - Multiple references such as, "we're lost in a dark and very expensive forest." At the beginning of show, when the narrator introduces medieval England, the company performs the song Finland/Fisch Slapping Dance, to which the narrator has to publicly correct the cast, saying, "I SAID ENGLAND!" The Song That Goes Like This makes parodies Andrew Lloyd Webber love ballads, and proclaims that "Once in every show, there comes a song like this." Run Away! specifically states, "we're stuck in a nasty position, why don't you take a short intermission, have a drink and a pee..." followed by Act II with the cast attempting to get a show on Broadway. The Lady of the Lake has her own number called "Whatever Happened to my Part?", lamenting the absence of her character in Act II, and being "constantly replaced by Britney Spears." In the end of Act II, the Grail is found within the theater.

Sunday in the Park with George - At the beginning of act two, the entire cast poses like the figures in the painting Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte by the French Pointillist painter Georges Seurat. After another character makes reference to how everybody remains perfectly still, Dot turns her head and stares out into the audience.

Urinetown - Officer Lockstock, the play's narrator, frequently breaks the fourth wall, commenting on the play's events directly to the audience and often referring to the play as "Urinetown (the musical)" and acknowledging the different acts.

We Will Rock You - The cast mentions that the band members of Queen produced a musical based on their work in the early 21st century, then turn to the audience suggestively.

Sweeney Todd: During the opening song, Sweeney says "What happened then, well thats the play, and he wouldn't want us to give it away."

A Man for All Seasons: The character of the Common Man serves as the play's narrator. He speaks directly to the audience and both takes part in and comments on the action. He plays several minor characters (steward, publican, jailer, etc.) and at the end of the play, in the final courtroom scene, the "jury" consists of sticks which are topped with the hats of all of the characters he has played.

Also,

Much of William Shakespeare's works include examples of "direct address", meaning that the actor speaks directly to the audience. For instance, in Puck's narration at the end of A Midsummer Night's Dream, he states that if the audience were somehow offended, they should think it but a dream "and all shall be mended". Elsewhere in A Midsummer Night's Dream, actors in Pyramus and Thisbe, the play within a play, explain crucial details to their audience. Also, the last piece of dialogue in The Tempest has Prospero directly asking the audience for applause to help him sail home. Some believe that this is actually the voice of Shakespeare himself saying goodbye to writing for theatre as The Tempest is his last known play.
In English medieval mystery plays the characters do not hesitate to address the audience when appropriate. For example, in The Killing of Abel in the Towneley cycle, just after he has slain his brother Cain says to the audience: "If any of you think I did amiss, I shall amend it worse than it is." ^[1]

The Reduced Shakespeare Company often will interact with the audience during their performances.

The 2006 adaptation of The Taming of the Shrew by the Wang Theater's Shakespeare on the Commons troupe frequently broke the fourth wall in various unscripted side comments; in one scene, the character Biondello leaps off the stage, turns to his pursuers, and exclaims, "STOP! FOURTH WALL! Only union actors can break the fourth wall!" and proceeds to make good his escape while his pursuit turns back in frustration. This was a gag in every production of the show.