well-made play en · NOUN
Etymology
Calque of French pièce bien faite, developed by the French dramatist Eugène Scribe (1791–1861).
Meanings
-
A play belonging to a 19th-century neoclassical theatrical genre involving a tight plot and a climax close to the end. The story depends upon a key piece of information kept from some characters, and moves forward in a chain of actions that use minor reversals of fortune to create suspense.
Ultimately Ibsen denies the basic philosophy of the well-made play, that there is meaning and progress in time, and that all human beings are rational creatures, subject to the reassuring process of cause and effect.
1983, George Stade, European Writers: The Romantic century, Charles Baudelaire to the well-made play, Scribner, →ISBN:
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| well-made plays | Number=Plur | lexicographic |