Drawing room play
Encyclopedia
A drawing room play is a type of play
, developed during the Victorian period, in which the actions take place in a drawing room
or which is designed to be reenacted in the drawing room of a home. The common practice of entertaining a guest in the home lead to the creation of this category of plays and while the drawing room itself has fallen out of favor, the play format has continued to provide a source of entertainment.
While there is no date or authority directly ascribed to the term drawing room play, there is evidence that the term was derived from the English
habit of putting on these short works for guests while entertaining in the drawing room of the home. The American
equivalent was the parlor. In French
usage the room and the social gathering it contained are equally the salon.
, the drawing room play has evolved to encompass comedy
as well as to include the forms of the dramatic monologue. The play format itself has also grown out of the traditional drawing room performance and back into main street theater and film. Drawing room comedy is also sometimes called the "comedy of manners." Many of the Drawing Room Plays adapted some form of social criticism in the transition from the Victorian period into the Modern era.
Play (theatre)
A play is a form of literature written by a playwright, usually consisting of scripted dialogue between characters, intended for theatrical performance rather than just reading. There are rare dramatists, notably George Bernard Shaw, who have had little preference whether their plays were performed...
, developed during the Victorian period, in which the actions take place in a drawing room
Drawing room
A drawing room is a room in a house where visitors may be entertained. The name is derived from the sixteenth-century terms "withdrawing room" and "withdrawing chamber", which remained in use through the seventeenth century, and made its first written appearance in 1642...
or which is designed to be reenacted in the drawing room of a home. The common practice of entertaining a guest in the home lead to the creation of this category of plays and while the drawing room itself has fallen out of favor, the play format has continued to provide a source of entertainment.
While there is no date or authority directly ascribed to the term drawing room play, there is evidence that the term was derived from the English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
habit of putting on these short works for guests while entertaining in the drawing room of the home. The American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
equivalent was the parlor. In French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
usage the room and the social gathering it contained are equally the salon.
Types of drawing room plays
Beginning with the early forms of dramaDrama
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do","to act" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a...
, the drawing room play has evolved to encompass comedy
Comedy (theater)
Comedy is a word that Greeks and Romans confined to descriptions of stage-plays with happy endings. In the Middle Ages, the term expanded to include narrative poems with happy endings and a lighter tone. In this sense Dante used the term in the title of his poem, La Divina Commedia...
as well as to include the forms of the dramatic monologue. The play format itself has also grown out of the traditional drawing room performance and back into main street theater and film. Drawing room comedy is also sometimes called the "comedy of manners." Many of the Drawing Room Plays adapted some form of social criticism in the transition from the Victorian period into the Modern era.
Examples
- The Elder StatesmanThe Elder StatesmanThe Elder Statesman is a play in verse by T. S. Eliot first performed in 1958 and published in 1959.-Overview:T. S. Eliot once quipped: “A play should give you something to think about...
published in 1959 by T. S. EliotT. S. EliotThomas Stearns "T. S." Eliot OM was a playwright, literary critic, and arguably the most important English-language poet of the 20th century. Although he was born an American he moved to the United Kingdom in 1914 and was naturalised as a British subject in 1927 at age 39.The poem that made his...
's was the last of his drawing room works. Each marked with significant societal commentary. - Oscar WildeOscar WildeOscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish writer and poet. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s...
's The Importance of Being EarnestThe Importance of Being EarnestThe Importance of Being Earnest, A Trivial Comedy for Serious People is a play by Oscar Wilde. First performed on 14 February 1895 at St. James's Theatre in London, it is a farcical comedy in which the protagonists maintain fictitious personae in order to escape burdensome social obligations...
is one of the most widely known examples of the drawing room play. - Several of the collected works of Noel CowardNoël CowardSir Noël Peirce Coward was an English playwright, composer, director, actor and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what Time magazine called "a sense of personal style, a combination of cheek and chic, pose and poise".Born in Teddington, a suburb of London, Coward attended a dance academy...
are also considered typical of the form. - Paul RudnickPaul RudnickPaul M. Rudnick is an American playwright, screenwriter and novelist. His plays include I Hate Hamlet, Jeffrey, The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told, Valhalla and The New Century. He also wrote for Premiere magazine under the pseudonym Libby Gelman-Waxner, and for Spy.Rudnick grew up in Piscataway...
's Regrets Only is a contemporary drawing room comedy released in 2006. - Additional authors include Clement Scott, Walter Besant, Grace Luce Irwin and Arnold BennettArnold Bennett- Early life :Bennett was born in a modest house in Hanley in the Potteries district of Staffordshire. Hanley is one of a conurbation of six towns which joined together at the beginning of the twentieth century as Stoke-on-Trent. Enoch Bennett, his father, qualified as a solicitor in 1876, and the...
.