Dec 24, 2009

The Oxford Dictionary of Plays - About | Preface

Preface

This volume sets out to provide useful information and brief commentaries on the 1,000 most significant plays of world theatre.

The term ‘play’ is here defined as a dramatic text intended to be performed by live actors that may be staged on its own (thus a trilogy will count as three plays, even if they all appear under the same entry). It normally excludes stage adaptations of novels, films, television and radio plays, unless they have become particularly significant in their own right, the fame of the adaptation often exceeding that of the original (e.g. The Bells, Lady Audley's Secret). Texts that require music, like musicals and most operas, are excluded, but works that stand as plays, even if somewhat impoverished without music (like Brecht's The Threepenny Opera or melodramas) may be included.

In deciding what is ‘significant’, the author, with the guidance of expert advice, including especially that of Professors Peter Holland and J. Michael Walton and Dr Jean Chothia, has attempted to identify the 1,000 plays likely to be of most interest to the anglophone theatregoer, reader, and scholar. This naturally raises questions about the relative significance of a play's importance for the development of a dramatic genre, its popularity in the theatre both in the past and today, its literary merit, etc. While it is probable that a consensus might be arrived at for about two-thirds of the entries, the remaining choices will be much more contentious, and readers and reviewers may have fun complaining that one of their favourite plays is omitted. The author accepts complete responsibility for such disappointments.

Each entry contains the following information (where appropriate):

Title:	ordered alphabetically, letter by letter (so Heracles comes before He Who Gets Slapped), except ‘St’ is read as ‘Saint’. Where two plays have the same title, they are ordered chronologically (e.g. Sophocles' Antigone before Anouilh's) (Foreign language or original title)
Alternative Title:	Alternative title(s) – often variant translations
Author:	Author(s)
Date Written:	Date of Writing – given only where the date of composition preceded the first performance or publication by five years or more
First Performance:	Date and place of first performance. Where the premiere took place abroad, the first performance in the native language is normally also given
Published:	Date of first publication
First English Translation:	Date of first published translation into English
Genre:	Genre; number of acts (given as ‘acts’ even where the original calls them ‘parts’, ‘episodes’, etc) or scenes; original language (if not English); whether in prose or verse. After 1850 it is assumed, unless otherwise stated, that all English-language plays are in prose. The following designations of genre are used:
	Auto sacramental	Spanish morality play written to accompany Corpus Christi Day processions
	Ballad opera	A play linking episodes with songs
	Burlesque	A play poking fun at contemporary theatrical practice
	Com.	Comedy, a play intended to provoke laughter, with a happy ending
	Commedia erudita	An Italian Renaissance genre, distinguished from commedia dell'arte by its literary elements
	Documentary drama	A play based almost entirely on historical documents
	Drama	Any play not categorized under one of the other terms
	Fairy tale	A play containing unreal characters, situations, and magic
	Farce	A comedy, the humour of which derives from improbable situations
	Folk drama	A play featuring simple country people
	Hist. drama	A play re-enacting historical events
	Interlude	A play of edifying content intended to be performed during a banquet
	Kabuki play	Traditional Japanese play, including more comedy and action than Nō plays
	Kyōgen play	Traditional Japanese play, more farcical and improvised than kabuki
	Masque	Court entertainment with allegorical content usually in a pastoral or mythical setting, using music, song, and dance
	Monodrama	Play with only one performer
	Melodrama	A play, intended to be accompanied by music, with a plot depending on exciting action and simple morality
	Morality play	A play with universalized characters imparting a moral lesson
	Musical drama	A play of which a significant element is musical, usually in the form of songs
	Mystery plays	Medieval plays based on biblical narrative performed in cycles by amateurs
	Nō play	Traditional Japanese masked play with music
	Pastoral	A play in a bucolic setting, foregrounding the love of rural characters
	Pol. com./drama	Political comedy or drama, written primarily to convey a political message
	Romance	A play of epic time span with fantastical events including a love story
	Romantic com.	Romantic comedy, a comedy where the love interest predominates
	Scenario	dramatic outline for a performance without determining precisely characters' lines or moves
	Satire	A play holding a specific target, familiar to the audience, up to ridicule
	Satyr play	Play performed at the end of a cycle of Greek tragedies, characterized by the comedic antics of satyrs
	Trag.	Tragedy, a serious play, ending with death or irrevocable loss suffered by the protagonist
	Tragicom.	Tragicomedy, a play combining laughter or a happy ending with tragic elements
	Zaju play	Classical Chinese play telling a simple story and accompanied by songs
Setting:	Setting and time of action. Where a specific date cannot be given, the following terms are used: indeterminate period mythical past medieval period (5th–15th centuries) Renaissance period (15th–early 17th centuries) Restoration period (1660–1714)
Cast:	Composition of cast. ‘Extras’ are normally understood to be characters who are not named and have at most only a few lines to speak

Brief synopsis (sometimes omitting the sub-plot).

Brief commentary.

Play titles prefaced with an asterisk have individual entries elsewhere in the volume. Particularly where a famous play has been commented on widely elsewhere, the comments may well appear infuriatingly abrupt. The intention of this volume is to serve as a work of reference and offer pointers for further study; it does not lay claim to summarize the significance of a drama in a few words.

The volume concludes with two indexes:

1. an index of major characters, which may be used to identify in which plays they are to be found and to trace the occurrence of major historical and legendary characters in world drama.

2. an index of all playwrights (with dates) mentioned in the volume.

For those who like statistics – or ‘Don't put your daughter on the stage, Mrs Worthington’Discounting extras, choruses, and children, the average cast of the 1,000 plays listed here comprises 9.7 male characters and 3.8 female, i.e. a ratio of 2.6 : 1. Although the balance is more even with women playwrights, male performers are still slightly favoured, the averages being 5.5 male characters and 4.8 female, a ratio of 1.2 : 1. Only 6.5% of the 1,000 plays are by women, but this proportion increases in the latter half of the 20th century (14% from 1965 onwards, and 37% from 1975 onwards).