Cloudcuckoolander/Theatre

"I think Crab, my dog, be the sourest-natured dog that lives. My mother weeping, my father wailing, my sister crying, our maid howling, our cat wringing her hands, and all our house in a great perplexity, yet did not this cruel-hearted cur shed one tear. He is a stone, a very pebble stone, and has no more pity in him than a dog...Nay, I'll show you the manner of it. This shoe is my father. No, this left shoe is my father. No, no, this left shoe is my mother. Nay, that cannot be so neither. Yes, it is so, it is so--it hath the worser sole. This shoe with the hole in it is my mother, and this my father. A vengeance on't! There 'tis. Now, sir, this staff is my sister, for, look you, she is as white as a lily and as small as a wand. This hat is Nan, our maid. I am the dog. No, the dog is himself, and I am the dog--O, the dog is me, and I am myself. Ay, so, so."
 * Rosencrantz from Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead is an excellent example, though he's also more canny than he lets on. Probably. (Guildenstern also has his moments.)
 * For that matter, Hamlet himself is frequently considered to only be pretending at insanity; that he is "not in madness/ but mad in craft", i.e. not insane, but angry.
 * Harper the Valium-addicted Mormon housewife from Angels in America, who has various interesting hallucinations, several of which include her imaginary travel agent, Mr. Lies.
 * Quite a few of William Shakespeare's characters qualify.
 * Launce from Two Gentlemen of Verona takes this Up to Eleven. He describes his departure from home thus:


 * And that's just his opening monologue. The rest of the play reveals him to be an excessively melancholy Pungeon Master who regards his dog as a human being.
 * Launcelot Gobbo, while a less severe case, nonetheless thinks it's perfectly acceptable to argue with his conscience and "the fiend" out loud and run around in the middle of the night pretending to be going hunting. Some productions have played him as a stoner or a schizophrenic to explain his behavior.
 * Nick Bottom starts out by expressing his desire to play all the characters in the same play. Later, when fairies show up out of nowhere and begin waiting on him, he hardly seems surprised.
 * The point of a Blue Man Group show is that the Blue Men are not of this world, and frequently express amazement and surprise over such things as cell phones, watches, and eating Twinkies with utensils.