Shakespeare Theatre Terms

Act

A major division on a play like a chapter in a book. An act can be a sub-divided into scenes. The five-act structure became the convention in Shakespeare’s period, but playwrights today prefer to use the three-act structure.

Anagnorisis or Recognition

This is a term that comes from Aristotle’s Poetics about tragedy and refers to the scene in which the tragic hero recognizes his mistakes or gains some insight into the meaning of life before he dies at the end of the play.

Aside

Words spoken by an actor directly to the audience, but not “heard” by the other characters on stage during a play.

Blocking

The planned movement of the actors on the stage as planned by the director to best execute the dialogue and action of a play.

Catharsis

The purging of the feelings of pity and fear in the audience. According to Aristotle’s Poetics, the audience should experience catharsis at the end of a tragedy.

Character Foil

Two characters who are in similar situations in the play, but they make different decisions. One often makes a wiser decision than the other while the other character’s decision can lead to tragedy. The character foil serves as a comparison study of character in the play.

Character Motivation

Character motivation includes the thoughts, desires, wishes, and will of the character to accomplish a specific task or attain a specific goal. This motivation can lead the character to make mistakes or make wise decisions.

Climax

The major turning point of the action in the plot of a play and the point of greatest tension in the work.

Comic Relief

Comic relief provides a moment of “relief” from the drama of a play. Typically, these scenes parallel the drama they interrupt.

Complication

An intensification of the conflict in a play in which the situation is worsened for the main character.

Cosmic Irony, Irony of Fate

This occurs when a deity “toys” with the character in such a way that the outcome is clear to the observer, but the character hopes for escape. The deity may permit - or even encourage - the character to believe in self-determination, thereby raising false hopes that the audience knows will be crushed. Cosmic irony always involves a tragic outcome. Ultimately, the character’s struggle against a destiny will be in vain.

Deus Ex Machina

This term means “machine of the gods” and refers to the Ancient Greek machinery that would enable actors to float on stage to play the parts of gods since gods did not touch the ground. In theatre terms, this applies to plot incidences that occur outside of the protagonist’s power - events that “magically” occur. Aristotle saw this as a weak plot device and argued that events must result from the actions of the characters. When an external source resolves the entanglements of a play by supernatural intervention. The Latin phrase means, literally, “a god from the machine.” The phrase refers to the use of artificial means to resolve the plot of a play.

Dialogue

The conversation of characters in a literary work. In plays, characters’ speech is preceded by their names.

Dramatic Irony

A type of irony in which the audience is privy to information that another character does not know. This device provides dramatic tension.

Dynamic Character

Tragic Heroes in Shakespeare’s work undergo an important change in the course of the play. The character undergoes a change in insight, understanding core beliefs, or values. The opposite is a static character who remains essentially the same.

Exposition

The first stage of a pay in which essential background information is introduced to the audience including key characters, conflicts, setting(s), and situations.

Falling Action

This is when the events and complications begin to resolve themselves and tension is released. We learn whether the conflict has been resoled or not. Note in comedy, the conflict is resolved but in tragedy, the conflict “resolves” the tragic hero, meaning that the conflict causes the tragic hero to change.

Flashback

An interruption of a play’s chronology (timeline) to describe or present an incident that occurred prior to the main time-frame of the play’s action.

Flat Character

Flat characters are stereotypical, static characters who do not change in the course of the play.

Foreshadowing

Foreshadowing is a literary technique in which an apparently irrelevant element is introduced early in the story, and its significance becomes clear later in the play.

Fourth Wall

The imaginary wall that separates the spectator/audience from the action taking place on stage. In a traditional theatre setting this imaginary wall has been removed so that the spectator can “peep” into the fictional world and see what is going on. If the audience is addressed directly, this is referred to as “breaking the fourth wall.”

Hubris

The Greek term hubris is difficult to translate directly into English. This negative term implies both arrogant, excessive self-pride or self-confidence, and a lack of some important perception or insight due to pride in one’s abilities. This overwhelming pride inevitably leads to a downfall.

Inciting Incident

The first incident leading to the rising action of the play. Sometimes the inciting incident is an event that occurred somewhere in the character’s past and is revealed to the audience through exposition.

Linear Plot

A traditional plot sequence in which the incidents in the drama progress in chronological order.

Monologue

A speech by a single character to another character or group of people in which they do not respond.

Peripeteia or Reversal

The point at which the action of the plot turns in an unexpected direction for the protagonist - from failure to success or success to failure. This term comes from Aristotle’s Poetics.

Point of Attack

The point in the story at which the playwright chooses to start dramatizing the action; the first thing the audience will see or hear as the play begins. This is part of the exposition of the play.

Resolution/Denouement

The sorting out or unraveling of a plot at the end of a play, novel, or story.

Rising Action

The series of complicating events that lead to the climax of the play.

Scene

Plays are traditionally broken into acts and then further sub-divided into scenes. Scene breaks occur when the setting changes, the action shifts, and/or the events change.

Situational Irony

Situational irony occurs when the opposite of what we expect to happen actually happens.

Soliloquy

A speech meant to be heard by the audience but not by other characters on the stage - this speech reveals the character’s inner thoughts to the audience.

Stage Direction

A playwright’s narration that provides readers (as well as actors and directors) with information about the dialogue, setting, and action of a play.

Staging

The scene a play presents in performance, including the position of actors on stage, the scenic background, the props and costumes, and the lighting and sound effects.

Static Character

A static character is one that does not change over the course of a story and is, therefore, more of a stereotypical character that is used as a plot device to fulfill necessary parts of the action.

Stock Character

A stock character is a recognizable character type found in many plays such as the jester or the naive fool.

Subplot

A subsidiary or subordinate or parallel plot that coexists with the main plot. The subplot exists to highlight an element of the main story.

Suspension of Disbelief

A story expects us to suspend our disbelief and accept the story as real and believable as it is presented.

Tragedy

A type of drama in which the characters experience reversal of fortune, usually for the worse. The tragic hero experiences a downfall as the result of a tragic mistake or hubris.

Tragic Flaw

A weakness or limitation of character, resulting in the fall of the tragic hero.

Unity of time, place, and action

This concept comes from Aristotle’s Poetics and refers to limiting the action and timing of a play to a 24-hour period of time.

Verbal Irony

This occurs when the opposite is said from what is intended for emphasis. It should not be confused with sarcasm which is simply language designed to wound or offend,