We explain what the characteristics of a play are with respect to its structure, form and content.
What is a play?
A play, dramatic work or play is a literary piece inscribed in the theatrical genre, one of the oldest in humanity, where literature and the performing arts go hand in hand.
a theatrical work It is a staging of a story or a series of situations in such a way that the public appreciates them and can be moved both aesthetically and emotionally. It is, then, a collective work of art.
Plays can be very diverse from one another, and be part of very varied traditions, schools and trends, since they have been evolving alongside different societies since ancient times.
The first plays emerged in Ancient Greece the result of certain religious rituals that over time gained scenic complexity. Thus arose the habit of recreating the great myths and stories of their religion and history in the public square, in works written by their great playwrights.
Throughout history, theatrical works played a central role not only in artistic exploration and expression, but also in the debate about the social and political ideas of the time. For example, in the 20th century, during the artistic explosion of the avant-garde, theater and politics often came together to educate the masses or expose them to fictional situations conducive to the emergence and debate of certain ideas.
Below we will review in detail each of the general characteristics of a theatrical work.
Characteristics of a play
1. Combine the scenic and the literary
A theatrical work is a scenic representation, since it takes place on a stage, through actors and other visual elements, but at the same time The performance is governed by a script, that is, by a theatrical text that is in itself a form of literature.
In this way, when we watch a play we are “seeing” the text, that is, a stage version (proposed by the director of the play), based on the literary text (written by the playwright).
For example, William Shakespeare's play Hamlet It was written in England in 1603, but is still performed on theater stages today. This is possible because the original text is interpreted by a contemporary director, who decides how the stage production will be done: which parts of the text will be used and which will not, what the setting will be like, how the characters will speak, etc.
2. He proposes something to the audience
The public that attends a play generally does so because they want to be entertained, like someone who goes to the movies. However, theatrical pieces generally are intended not only as a hobby (which would have nothing wrong), but as an event that offers a message or reflection to viewers.
It doesn't matter if the play is a comedy, a tragedy or some other genre; If in it one suffers or laughs or does both, the play seeks to move the audience and make him experience the situations that occur in front of him, live and direct, without the mediation of a narrator.
In doing so, it invites viewers to take ownership of the characters' experiences and relive their own: when we see Ophelia suffer from Hamlet's lack of love, we suffer with her and relive that feeling that we have surely experienced ourselves.
Likewise, when we see Antigone suffer over the fate of her dead brother's body, we suffer with her and question whether the laws of society should always be as rigid as those advocated by Creon, the then king of Thebes. This message stays with us after the work has finished and allows us to reflect on our real and immediate surroundings.
3. Everything happens in the present
The theatrical story always happens immediately and in front of the spectators' eyes although some precise actions may take place offstage, that is, hidden behind the scenes. In cases where the audience cannot witness what happened, it is normal for the characters to refer to it, without addressing the audience, so that the latter understands that something happened off-stage.
However, in the theater there is no narrator as in novels and stories, so that the audience only knows what happens on stage and what the characters themselves comment on in their dialogues and soliloquies (internal monologues).
4. Create a world
The same work can be staged in radically different ways if desired, and this largely depends on the proposed scenario, that is, the way in which the fictional reality contained in the script will be represented. In these scenarios different elements interact, such as:
The actors who lend their bodies to the characters so that they take on a life of their own, using clothes (costumes), costumes, masks, makeup or other bodily elements.
The prop that is, the objects that serve to assist the actors in the story, such as swords, plates, glasses, tables, chairs, etc. These moving elements appear and disappear from the scene as needed, and in some cases they are not even present, but are evoked by the actors themselves and left to the imagination of the audience.
The decoration that is, the decorative elements that tell us where the action occurs and that often change if the characters change location within the story. For a production of Hamlet, for example, you can reproduce the stone walls of the castle and the red carpets of royalty, or you can leave everything to the audience's imagination. These decorations can be of different types:
- Permanent when they are on stage throughout the performance of the play, since there are no important location changes.
- Simultaneous when it involves several different permanent sets (for example, several locations: a garden, a palace and the town street) between which the actors move when the play requires it.
- Mutable when the sets change according to each scene of the play, reorganizing themselves in the dark or behind the curtain before the actors appear.
Special effects whether lights projected onto the stage, music or sound effects (thunder, rain, bird songs, etc.) that sound at a certain moment in the piece and serve to add drama and expressiveness to what is shown. These elements may also have a symbolic meaning.
It is the director of the work who decides how these elements make up a scenic proposal. It is also possible for the playwright to specify in the text of the play how some of them should be used.
5. It has a specific structure and duration
The structure of a play, that is, the parts that compose it, is always determined by the play script, but that does not mean that the director cannot make his own proposals and alter the structure. In any case, every theatrical work is made up of:
- Acts that is, large narrative divisions marked by a fall and raising of the curtain (if any) or some similar device, since they often imply a change of scene, the passage of time or some other important aspect within the theatrical story that requires a scenic rearrangement. It is possible that a work is made up of a single act, or many.
- Scenes that is, small narrative divisions within a specific act, whose beginning and end depend on the entry and exit of the characters to the stage. An act can have as many scenes as desired.
Regarding the duration of a work, initially they were planned to last several hours, if not entire evenings. Nowadays, it is customary for them to be much shorter, and Its duration ranges between one and three hours sometimes with interludes or breaks in between.
6. The “fourth wall”
One of the fundamental principles of theater has to do with the so-called “fourth wall”, which It is invisible and it is through which we observe the work. Every stage involves a situation and a represented place, of which we can see the floor, the ceiling and the sides (where the actors enter and exit), but the characters, on the other hand, cannot see us.
That is why they often look in our direction to observe the landscape, or to talk to themselves, since that “invisible wall” or “fourth wall” hides the audience. Something similar happens in cinema, in which the characters rarely look towards the camera that films them.
In some works, however, you can “break” the fourth wall, making the characters address the audience tell her things or incorporate her into the scenario in one way or another. This is particularly common in street theater or in cases where the audience is on stage.
- Dramaturgy
- Characteristics of a literary text
- Literary and non-literary text
References
- “Play” on Wikipedia.
- “What is a play?” at the Author Institute.
- “Theatrical theory and technique” by Juan Cervera Borrás in the Miguel de Cervantes Virtual Library.
- “Elements of theatre” in The Encyclopaedia Britannica.
