Plays

A play is a literary work written for the theater that dramatizes events through the performance of dialogue and stage directions. The authors of plays, called playwrights, structure the performances into acts and scenes, which help build the tension and present the story in a compelling way for audiences. There are a few types of plays, such as those written for the stage, for radio (radio plays), and for television or motion pictures (screenplays).

Plays are typically divided into two main genres: dramas, which are serious in tone and often tragic, and comedies, which are lighthearted and funny. All plays, however, aim to entertain and share meaningful insights into this human experience. Even when plays are more experimental or absurdist in nature, they speak to emotional truths and inspire critical thought.

The word play, meaning a dramatic performance,

originates from the early fourteenth century, with roots in the Greek paizo,

meaning “to act.”

A.   Euripides, Medea

Euripides’s

Greek tragedy follows Medea as she exacts an unthinkable revenge against her

wayward husband, Jason. Jason left Medea with the hopes of marrying a woman of

higher class and rank. Medea follows him, with their two children in tow, and

brings him back into her confidence. Once she regains his trust, she murders

their two children. Jason mourns the loss of his children and any hope he had

of a profitable remarriage as Medea flees in a chariot.

B. Ntozake Shange, For Colored Girls

Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow Is Enuf

Shange’s

1976 choreopoem is a play comprised of a series of music- and dance-connected monologues—vignettes

capturing the experiences of seven African American women, named only by the

colors they wear. They each share stories of racism, sexism, anger, pain, and,

ultimately, empowerment. Among the monologues are that of the Lady in Yellow,

who talks about losing her virginity; the Lady in Blue, who discusses having an

abortion; and the Lady in Orange, who preaches her love of dance, saying she

dances to keep from crying, a sentiment with which the other ladies onstage can

relate.

C.   John Patrick Shanley,

Doubt: A Parable

Shanley’s

Pulitzer Prize-winning 2004 play is a character study set at a New England

Catholic school. Sister Aloysius Bouvier is the principal who rules the school

with an iron fist. Sister James is a young nun and teacher still finding her

place, both in the school and in the cloistered life. Father Flynn is a

charismatic priest who challenges the old ways so championed by Aloysius. When

Aloysius suspects Father Flynn of molesting a young African American boy, she

embarks on a personal and ruthless crusade to find the truth, even if it means

destroying everyone involved in the process. Ultimately, she succeeds in

getting Father Flynn reassigned, but she expresses her doubts about his guilt.

Shanley left the ending ambiguous to encourage audiences to come to their own

conclusions about Father Flynn and the rightness, or wrongness, of Aloysius’s

actions.

Dramas and comedies are the two main genres of plays, but you can further split these into more detailed subgenres.

Farces

A farce is a comedy with an overly ridiculous plot,

buffoonish characters, and exaggerated situations. Farces rely on a sense of

the lighthearted and absurd, and they’re intended to be great fun for the

audience. Popular farces include The

Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde, Boeing-Boeing by Marc Camoletti, and Noises Off by Michael Frayn.

Documentary Theater

Documentary theater dramatizes real-life events,

often by using existing materials—interviews, newspaper and magazine articles,

government records, etc.—to tell the story. Some productions will utilize

multimedia footage to bring the experience more fully and realistically into

the theatrical space. Fact-based dramas stretch as far back as ancient Greece,

but documentary plays as their own theatrical form are largely the product of

more contemporary playwrights and activists like Heinar Kipphardt, Anna Deavere

Smith, and the Tectonic Theater Project.

Melodramas

A melodrama overemphasizes the emotions of its characters and the

emotional underpinnings of the story to elicit a response from the audience.

Melodramas can be soap operatic or campy, but most aim to appeal to the

viewer’s emotional sensitivities. Many mystery and morality plays of the Middle

Ages, Shakespeare plays, and operas are melodramatic.

Operas and Musical Theater

Operas and musical theater are plays set to music, and the actors sing

some or all of the dialogue. Opera tends to be more classical in style, with

sweeping musical arrangements, swelling and overly emotive voices, and lavish

sets and costumes. Musical theater has a generally lighter tone; a musical

theater production is likelier to include spoken dialogue between the songs,

more subdued—but still impressive and often majestic—vocal stylings, and fun,

engaging plotlines. Verdi’s La Traviata and Puccini’s La Bohème

are two world-famous operas, while Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg’s Les Misérables

and Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton are modern classics of musical

theater.

Tragedies

There was a time when all plays were either comedies

or tragedies; if all or most of the main characters were not dead by the final

curtain, the play was a comedy, regardless of the tone of the rest of the play.

Tragedies of the classical theater include The

Bacchae by Euripides and Antigone

by Sophocles. Modern tragedies may not end in mass death, but they still

typically conclude with a sense of bleakness or despair; see ‘night, Mother by Marsha Norman and Bent by

Martin Sherman.

• Poetry.