Literature in English · Lesson 3

Drama: types, structure and dramatic techniques

JAMBWAECNECO

What the syllabus asks

JAMB: Drama: types, interpretation of prescribed texts (theme, plot, setting, socio-political context), dramatic techniques (characterisation, dialogue, flashback, mimesis, soliloquy, aside etc.)

WAEC: Drama: types (tragedy, comedy, tragicomedy, melodrama, farce etc.), dramatic techniques, characterisation, structure, stage terms; context questions on the Shakespeare text (Paper 1); essays on African and non-African drama (Paper 3)

NECO: Drama: types (tragedy, comedy, tragicomedy, melodrama, farce etc.), dramatic techniques, characterisation, structure, stage terms; context questions on the Shakespeare text (Paper 1); essays on African and non-African drama (Paper 3)

What you will learn

Define drama and state its distinctive features.
Distinguish the main types of drama and their features.
Describe the structure of a play.
Explain how characters are revealed in drama.
Identify dramatic speech forms and techniques and their effects.
Answer context and essay questions on drama.

Key points

Drama: story through dialogue and action, for performance; playwright writes the play.
Tragedy: noble hero, tragic flaw, reversal, recognition, catharsis of pity and fear.
Comedy: happy ending; kinds include romantic, satirical, manners, errors; farce is extreme.
Tragicomedy mixes; melodrama is sensational with flat characters.
Structure: exposition → rising action → climax → falling action → resolution.
Characterisation through speech, action, others’ comments, stage directions, soliloquy, aside, foils.
Techniques: dramatic irony, suspense, foreshadowing, flashback, comic relief, song and dance, messenger speech.
Stage terms: proscenium, arena, thrust; downstage nearer audience; exit/exeunt; props.
Context questions: who, to whom, where, when; then character, theme, device.

Start here: What is drama?

Drama is the genre of literature written to be performed. A novel reaches you through a narrator; a play reaches you through actors who speak and move before an audience. When you read a play in class, you should always imagine it on a stage.

Drama is a form of literature that tells a story through the dialogue and action of characters, written to be performed by actors before an audience. The written text is a play; its writer is a playwright (dramatist).

The Greek philosopher Aristotle, writing in the Poetics in the fourth century BC, described tragedy as an imitation of an action. This is the principle the JAMB syllabus calls “direct imitation in play”: drama does not describe life; it re-enacts it.

Distinctive features of drama

Dialogue carries the story.
Stage directions (usually in italics or brackets) tell actors how to move and speak, and describe the set.
It is divided into acts and scenes (some modern plays use “movements” or simply scenes).
There is a cast list (dramatis personae) at the start.
It uses spectacle: costume, lighting, music, dance, props and scenery.
It is a collaborative art: playwright, director, actors, designers and audience.

Drama in African tradition

Long before printed plays, African communities had dramatic performances: masquerades, festival re-enactments, ritual ceremonies, and storytelling with songs and mimicry. Many West African playwrights draw on these: dance, drumming, masks, praise singing and audience participation.

Worked example 3.1

State three features that show an extract is from a play and not a novel.

Speeches are introduced by characters’ names.
There are stage directions in brackets or italics.
It is divided into acts and scenes, with no narrator describing events.

Named speakers, stage directions, acts/scenes (no narrator)

Try it yourself. What is the list of characters at the start of a play called?

Show solution

The dramatis personae (cast list).

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Practice questions

1. Drama is literature written mainly to be

performed by actors before an audience
read silently
sung only
printed in newspapers

Show answer

A: performed by actors before an audience
Dialogue and action carry the story.

2. A serious play in which the hero falls through a flaw in character is a

comedy
farce
melodrama
tragedy

Show answer

D: tragedy
The flaw is the hamartia.

3. The feeling of release of pity and fear at the end of a tragedy is

hubris
peripeteia
catharsis
hamartia

Show answer

C: catharsis
It was described by Aristotle.

4. A play with exaggerated characters, improbable situations and slapstick is a

masque
farce
tragedy
tragicomedy

Show answer

B: farce
Farce aims only at laughter.

5. A play with sensational events, stereotyped heroes and villains and strong emotion is a

melodrama
comedy of manners
tragedy
masque

Show answer

A: melodrama
Good is usually rewarded and evil punished.

Key words

Drama: Literature written to be performed through dialogue and action.
Playwright: The writer of a play.
Dramatis personae: The list of characters in a play.
Stage directions: Instructions in a play about action, setting and manner.
Act: A major division of a play.
Scene: A smaller division of an act.
Tragedy: A serious play showing the downfall of a hero.
Hamartia: Tragic flaw or error.
Hubris: Excessive pride.
Peripeteia: Reversal of fortune.
Anagnorisis: Recognition of the truth.
Catharsis: Release of pity and fear.

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