Comedy of Manners & Well-Made Play

Comedy of manners is all about exposing the ridiculous behaviour of posh society through razor-sharp wit and clever dialogue. Think of it as sophisticated roasting - these plays mock the way upper-class people speak, act, and obsess over appearances rather than actual morals.

The plots typically revolve around scandalous love affairs, greed, and scheming characters who are more concerned with looking respectable than being decent people. What's brilliant (and slightly twisted) is that these cleverly unscrupulous characters often get rewarded rather than punished for their bad behaviour.

The well-made play emerged as a hugely successful genre that cleverly mixed French fast-paced entertainment with Henrik Ibsen's deeper social criticism. These plays use the past like a ticking time bomb - secrets gradually build pressure beneath the surface until everything explodes.

Quick Tip: In well-made plays, look out for physical props that often hold the key secret driving the entire plot!

Suspense is everything in well-made plays. They're carefully structured to keep you on edge, with background information delivered through natural question-and-answer exchanges in Act 1, then racing from crisis to crisis. The audience knows something the main character doesn't - creating that delicious dramatic tension.