6.5–Writing About Drama

Drama holds a unique position among literary genres as it exists both as a written text and performed texts. It is similar to film in this regard, but unlike film, the written script itself (as opposed to any performance) is what is analyzed. This is not to say that individual performances cannot be analyzed, but that this approach is far less common in English and literature classes. Theater and performance classes, however, will privilege the individual performance.

If you are to analyze a specific performance for an essay, that performance will likely be available as a filmed version or have primary accounts or images that you can draw from. In essays that focus on a particular performance, you’ll be thinking about the dramatic elements—how an actor portrays their character, how different characters interact, how lightning and sound affect a particular scene, and how the camera or staging frames a character. All performances are adaptations of a script, and as adaptations, you may wish to judge them accordingly. The criteria for an adaptation will vary; however, the strongest analysis will be less concerned with fidelity to a particular script (unless that was an aim of the performance) and more judging the performance on its own merits as a piece of art, entertainment, or criticism.

When writing about a script (as opposed to a specific performance), you may use all of the traditional literary tools associated with close reading, both prose and poetry. The challenge of drama is that the majority of information on setting, character, and theme will be conveyed in dialogue. As a reader, you will need to pay attention to clues (some obvious, some less so, and many open to interpretation) in what characters are saying. Moreover, as plays are meant to be spoken, you can pay attention to the individual sounds characters make. A character may have their own distinct speech patterns as a way for a listener to distinguish them more readily from other characters, or the playwright may choose to write in verse following a particular poetic structure.

Writing about drama often entails writing about the culture in which the play was created and performed. For most cultures, drama serves as a way to think through popular ideas, whether those be humanity’s relationship with the divine, power structures, and the multiple facets of human identity. As you read and write, what sorts of ideas seem to be underlying the worldview espoused in the play? How do those ideas compare with the worldviews that would have been popular at the time or are popular today? How does the playwright present those views? Are they to be accepted? Are they critiqued or modified? Once again, look to the dialogue and the relationships among the various characters. A character’s actions (or inaction) and the other characters’ reactions to them will often indicate a playwright’s intended meaning.

The final note on writing about drama for you to consider is that most drama is designed to be flexible in meaning. What you are looking for in an analysis is not necessarily the “correct” interpretation, but one that is supported by the script and the reasonable ways it may be performed. Multiple meanings exist in drama by design as the final form of a performed text only occurs after analysis and play by readers, directors, actors, and the many contributors it takes to put on a performance. Ultimately, you will need to be attuned not only to words in the script but also the many ways those words can be delivered.