Understanding Theatrical Texts: Key Elements & Characteristics
Theatre: Understanding Theatrical Texts
Theatrical texts aim to represent reality through character dialogue. These texts can be written in verse or prose.
1. Character Dialogue
Character dialogue drives the action. Unlike narratives, plays lack a narrator. Dialogue serves to introduce characters, reveal their personalities, and advance the plot. Communication between characters and informing the audience can take several forms:
- Dialogue between characters sharing the stage.
- Monologues used to inform other characters and the audience about offstage events.
- Asides, where a character expresses true feelings in a low voice, feigning discretion.
- Soliloquies, where a character reflects alone on stage.
- Apparent monologues, where a character speaks by telephone or other means with another character offstage.
2. The Stage
Theatrical texts include stage directions alongside dialogue, providing information about staging. These directions, often in parentheses, offer crucial details:
- Describing the setting and environment of the scenes.
- Locating objects on stage and their arrangement.
- Marking character entrances, exits, and movements.
- Describing characters’ physical and psychological aspects, specifying tone and gestures for dialogue delivery.
3. Dramatic Structure
The external structure is divided into acts, which are further organized into scenes (segments defined by character entrances and exits). Sometimes, the division uses tables that correspond to the parts of the text that are developed in one place. The internal structure typically follows a beginning, middle, and end.
4. The Characters
Characters reveal themselves through dialogue and actions. They can be actors or characters, and their behavior can evolve (rounded characters) or remain consistent (flat characters). Dramatic characters are often defined by:
- Their name, which may reflect character traits.
- Physical appearance, gestures, movements, and costumes.
- Psychological characteristics and behavior displayed on stage.
- Manner of speaking, reflecting a particular register.
5. Genres
The primary theatrical genres include:
- Tragedy: Works of serious tone with tragic outcomes.
- Drama: Representing passions and conflicts.
- Comedy: Plays with happy endings, intended to evoke laughter.
Comedy subgenres include:
- Sketch: Short, humorous work in one act.
- Vaudeville: Conflicts often arise from infidelity and love, with dynamic stage movement and surprises.
- Farce: Grotesque comic work relying on exaggerated characters, jokes, and pranks for laughter.
6. Linguistic Characteristics
Dramatic dialogues are characterized by:
- Abundance of personal pronouns and deictic pronouns/adverbs referring to elements in the scene.
- Frequent use of vocatives and labels.
- Varied intonations, adjusted to the dialogue’s intention.
- Use of different registers, ranging from vulgar to refined.
- Presence of conversational markers indicating the speaker’s attitude.