DRAMA

Basics of Drama

Definition

Drama may be defined as an articulate story presented in action. There are thus three aspects by which a drama could be defined. Firstly, there needs to be a story, that is, a sequence of events. Secondly, it is to be performed in the form of action. Drama unlike novel is not a narrative but a performative art. Thirdly, the enactment must be articulate (ie) in dispersed with dialogues. An enactment without dialogues is not a drama but a pantomime.

Constituent Elements

Fundamentally four elements are required to produce a drama. In the first place, we need an idea, the seed from which the plot is evolved. In the second, we need actors to perform the plot with action and dialogues. In the third, we need a space or venue where the performance could take place. Finally in the fourth, we need an audience to view the performance.

Basic Types

Broadly speaking, there are three types of drama. These are tragedy, comedy and tragicomedy. Tragedy is a serious play with a sad ending. It invariably involves characters drawn from the upper class of the society with dialogues forged in a predominantly lofty or poetic style. Comedy is a light-hearted play with a happy ending. Its characters are invariably derived from the middle or the lower walks of life with the dialogues forged in an essentially commonplace or prosaic style. Tragicomedy is a play with a happy ending in which both serious and light hearted elements are intermingled. It often involves characters who are drawn from both the upper and the middling/lower walks of life, with dialogues written in a style that is both poetically grand and prosaically ordinary.

Basic Structure

A play’s structure basically consists of five parts. The first part is called exposition. It is the initial part in which the central point of contention will be set forth. The second part is called the rising action in which the aspect of tension in the play steadily mounts. The third part is known as climax, which represents the peak point of tension. The fourth is called falling action in which the tension gradually starts to decline. The falling action is also called denouement. The term denouement is invariably reserved to refer to the falling action in a comedy or a tragicomedy. The final part of the play is called resolution or catastrophe in which all the loose ends will be tied up. The term catastrophe is invariably used to refer to the last part of a tragedy, while the term resolution is employed to denote the last part of a comedy or a tragicomedy.

 

Revenge Tragedy

Definition

A type of tragedy that centrally revolves around the idea or theme of revenge.

Features

(i)         Revenge in a revenge tragedy is pursued not as an ethical obligation in which the revenger seeks to ensure justice is served. It is rather pursued as an emotional obligation that the revenger owes personally to the killed.

(ii)          Plot of a revenge tragedy is typically gory. It is permeated with many scenes of violence and mutilation. Of particular note in this connection is the final scene of the play in which the stage would be littered with corpses all over.

(iii)       Human nature is shown to be essentially corrupt in revenge tragedy. To highlight this point revenge plays invariably deal with the lives of the noble or wealthy classes. The ultimate message conveyed is that higher the stakes and status, higher will be the degree of corruption.

(iv)         Plots of revenge plays are particularly noted for two stylistic features. Set speeches which is a long monologue delivered at one stretch, and stichomythia which typifies a rapid exchange of line by line dialogues. The two are meant to counter balance each other in the plot.

Examples

The two most well known instances of revenge tragedies are The Spanish Tragedy by Thomas Kyd and Hamlet by William Shakespeare. Other examples include The Duchess of Malfi by John Webster and The Revenger’s Tragedy by Cyril Tourneur.

 

Heroic Tragedy

Definition

A type of tragedy whose basic features are derived from heroic poetry or epic.

Features

(i)            The subject of a heroic tragedy will be an event of historical or even mythic proportion as the founding of a nation, the conquest of a great city or clash between two noble civilizations. The event however would mainly serve as a background. The plot’s main focus will not be affairs of the state but the private history of the central characters in the plot.

(ii)      The hero of a heroic tragedy will be a person of eminence such as a king, prince, military general or warlord. The nobility of his status however must not be taken to mean that he is a man of honour who is bound by laws of morality. The grandeur of a heroic play’s hero actually arises from the point that he frequently breaches the bounds of moral virtue to realise his ambition. He is a man of purpose and excess, but by no means perfect.

(iii)         The dialogues in a heroic play would be fashioned in a style that is self-consciously ornate and poetic. John Dryden who propounded this dramatic genre recognizes  heroic couplet as the best medium for heroic tragedy.

(iv)          Heroic tragedy is a play of not action but emotional exaltation. Its ultimate goal is to appeal to the audience by exciting their emotions. The plot thus often presents scenes in which characters indulge in passionate outbursts meant to move the spectators.

Example

John Dryden is undisputedly identified as the best exponent of heroic tragedy. Some of his important plays in this regard include The Wild Gallant, The Rival Ladies, The Indian Emperor, The Indian Queen, The Conquest of Granada and All for Love.

 

Comedy of Humour

Definition

A type of comedy that derives its central inspiration from the medieval medical theory of humour.

Features

(i)             The plot will be classical in framework. It will strictly follow the classical rule of the three unities, the unity of action, time and place.

(ii)           The play will be essentially satirical in intent. It would take as its central focus the attacking of a folly with the objective of correcting or reforming it.

(iii)         The central character of the plot would be a humour character or an oddity, whose entire personality would be defined by a single trait. This is essentially owing to the imbalance of the humours in the said characters system, with the personality of the character taking the trait attributed to the humour in excess.

(iv)          The milieu of the play would invariably be urban, particularly London. A city is essentially chosen as the milieu because it is supposedly teeming with follies, and the main intent of the play is to satirize a folly.

Examples

The 16^th century playwright Ben Jonson is universally acknowledged to be the best exponent of this type of drama. Some of his chief efforts in this regard include Every Man in his Humour, The Alchemist, Volpone, Bartholomew Fair and Every Man Out of his Humour.

 

Comedy of Manners

Definition

A type of comedy that focuses on the polished veneer of the upper or the wealthy class in society.

Features

(i)             The plot exclusively deals with the lives of the upper class, for whom appearances mean everything and therefore manners carry a great deal of significance. In fact, for the upper class dealt with in the plot, manners not only typify a sign of refined behaviour but character.

(ii)         The plot is full of intrigues in which the characters constantly plot against one another to realise their ambitions of profit and pleasure. Thus, though outwardly very elegant, in real nature the characters are essentially corrupt. They are essentially unscrupulous individuals for whom the only thing that matters is self-satisfaction.

(iii)         The most redeeming feature of the comedy of manners is the witty conversations that take place between the characters. However, here again the primary intention of the characters is to get the better of one another. The conversations therefore often take the form of a verbal fencing contest called repartee, in which the characters constantly try to outwit their opponent.

(iv)         The female characters in a comedy of manners typically represent empowered women who refuse to be overpowered by their male counterparts. They are by nature bold, confident, and intelligent beings who are not only capable of holding their own against men, but of actually overshadowing them.

Examples

William Congreve is widely regarded as the best exponent of comedy of manners. His important works in this regard are The Old Bachelor, The Double Dealer, Love for Love, and The Way of the World. Other important playwrights of comedy of manners include William Wycherley and George Ethrege. Wycherley’s noteworthy plays are The Country Wife and The Plain Dealer and Ethrege’s telling plays are The Man of Mode and She Would If She Could.

 

Tragicomedy

Definition

A type of drama in which the traditional features of a tragedy and comedy are intermingled.

Features

(i)            The plot will promptly violate the classical rule of the three unities. It would be constituted by several storylines in the form of many sub-plots, its time span will often cover many days running into several weeks or months, and its action will be set in many locales which are far from each other.

(ii)          The milieu of the plot would be an exotic one, an out of the way place where the characters are not bothered by the concerns and problems of everyday life. It would be an idealised milieu, a rainbow world that is fashioned along the lines of a utopia.

(iii)         The plot would invariably involve abrupt reversals of situation and character. For instance, persons shown to be dead in the middle of the play would unexpectedly return to the plot towards the end, and persons shown to be originally villainous or evil would be portrayed to undergo sudden reformations.

(iv)          The plot involves characters drawn from both the upper and the middle or lower walks, who freely socialise with each other with no regard for their class distinction. Dialogues which are composed in a mixture of grand and humble style are also indiscriminately attributed to the characters with no regard to their breeding.

Examples

William Shakespeare is often credited with establishing tragicomedy as a dramatic genre on the English stage. Some of is noteworthy works in this connection are The Merchant of Venice and Much Ado about Nothing. It is however the twin dramatists who are acknowledged to be the playwrights Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher who perfected the genre. Two of their most notable efforts in this regard include Philaster and A King and No King.