ABSTRACT
The well-made play is sometimes divided into distinct parts, rather as Aristotle tried to divide a playtext: the exposition, the complication and the development, crisis, denouement and resolution. The success of the formula depends on the illusion of reality in the action, yet the plot also operates smoothly, that is, the loose ends are carefully tied together, and there are none of the contradictions and illogicalities of real life. In 1934 Brecht called the British theatre ‘antediluvian’. Its well-made plays clung timidly to the requirements of conventional dramaturgical structuring of the plot around the understandable characters, which outweighed all attempts to admit wider social, environmental or the psychological considerations. The well-made play had neither naturalism’s psychologically nuanced subtext, nor realism’s social or political underlay. Dramatically, they were a dead end, yet their hold on the British theatre lasted until the mid-1950s.
