Play Review Examples

Lucky Guy by Nora Ephron

June 10th, 2013

Nora Ephron deceased at the age of 71 in June last year and at a time when she was writing her third play, Lucky Guy. There were prior notions circulated that she died of colon cancer. She had managed to make a name for herself following the amazing creation of hit movies before her demise. She began her career in the movie industry by being a journalist and won her fame as a screenwriter. Lucky Guy was well-received from critics…

The Big Knife by Clifford Odets

May 31st, 2013

Dramatic Acting in the Play The Big Knife Synopsis The play The Big Knife written by Clifford Odets and directed by Robert Aldrich is mainly revolved around the character Charlie Castle. Charlie is presented to the audience as a successful Hollywood actor living an admirable person, though his life begins to falter when he is in the dilemma of his wife leaving him and having to refuse the renewing of his seven acting year contract, which makes his boss furious….

The Phantom of the Opera Review

May 31st, 2013

What Makes The Phantom of the Opera Such a Spectacular Show? According to Wade Bradford from About.com (2013), at the start of the play, an opera ghost lays havoc on the crew and cast in the French Opera House in the course of tutoring a chorus girl. The ghost achieves the corrupting of the girl by way of a soprano. The ghost’s pupil gets hitched to De Chagny, which creates a problem since the ghost has too fallen for his…

Solo Play Ann

May 18th, 2013

Holland Taylor’s Acting in the Solo Play “Ann” The Broadway show “Ann”, starring Holland Taylor, took place at the Vivian Beaumont Theater on the 7th of March. It was directed by Benjamin Endsley Klein and written by Holland Taylor. It is remarkable that the play dropped its original title, which was “Money, Marbles and Chalk: An Affectionate Sketch of Ann Richards” and has been shortened to “Ann”. The play presents the story of a memorable person – Ann Richards, the…

Find A Play Review Example And End Your Writing Suffering

A play review is preferably begun with the analysis of a small fragment, or an episode (phenomenon, scene, etc.). The review of the episode of a novel is carried out practically according to the same scheme as the review of an episode of an epic work, with the only difference being that the point of analysis of the dynamic and dialogical compositions of the episode should be added to the reasoning. A play review example will help you understand how to do an analysis of the whole work or just an episode of it.

Steps for Writing a Review of a Play Episode

To learn how to write a play review, example texts and brief guidelines are what you need (go to other link to check out the complete guide)!

  • The boundaries of the episode are already determined by the very structure of the play (the phenomenon is separated from the other components of the play); give the title to the episode.
  • Characterize the event underlying the episode: what place does it take in the course of the development of the action? (Is this an exposition, a culmination, an outcome, an episode of the development of the action of the whole play?)
  • Name the main (or unique) participants of the episode and briefly explain:
    – Who are they?
    – What is their place in the system of characters (main, capital, secondary, priceless)?
  • Reveal features of the beginning and the ending of an episode.
  • Formulate the question, the problem that is at the center of attention:
    – the author; characters.
  • Identify and characterize the topic and the contradiction (in other words, the mini-conflict) that underlie the episode.
  • Characterize the characters of the episode:
    – their relation to the event;
    – the issue (problem);
    – each other;
    – briefly analyze the speech of the participants in the dialogue;
    – make an analysis of author’s remarks (explanations to speech, gestures, facial expressions, poses of characters);
    – identify the features of the behavior of characters, the motivation of actions (author’s or reader’s);
    – determine the alignment of forces, the grouping or regrouping of characters, depending on the course of events in the episode.
  • Characterize the dynamic composition of the episode (its exposure, string, culmination, denouement, and in other words, according to which pattern the emotional tension in the episode develops).
  • Characterize the dialogical composition of the episode: what is the basis for the topic’s coverage of the dialogue?
  • Understand the author’s attitude to the event; correlate it with the culmination and the idea of the whole play as a whole; determine the author’s attitude to the problem.
  • Formulate the main idea (the author’s idea) of the episode.
  • Analyze the plot, and the imaginative and ideological relationship of this episode with other episodes of the play.

Steps for Writing a Review of an Entire Play

Now we can turn to the complex review of the entire play. The success of this work is possible only if you understand the theory of play construction and if you read through a theatre play review example to see how this type of paper should be written.

You will want to focus on the following:

  • The time of creation of the play, a brief description of the era.
  • The play’s connection with any literary trend or cultural epoch (antiquity, revival, classicism, enlightenment, sentimentalism, romanticism, critical realism, symbolism, etc.). How did the features of this trend appear in the play?
  • Kind and genre of play: tragedy, comedy (of mores, characters, positions, satirical, everyday, lyric, buffoonery, etc.), drama (social, everyday, philosophical, etc.), vaudeville, farce, etc. Refer to the meaning of these terms via the reference literature.
  • Specificity of the organization of the action of the play: separation into actions, scenes, acts, phenomena, etc. Author’s original components of the play.
  • Poster of the play (characters). Features of names (for example, “speaking” names). The main, secondary and extra-personal characters.
  • Features of conflict: tragic, comic, dramatic; social, everyday, philosophical, etc.
  • Features of dramatic action: external and internal; “on stage” and “behind the stage,” dynamic (actively developing) and static, etc.
  • Features of play composition. The presence and specificity of the main elements: exposure, increasing emotional tension, conflict and resolution, a new increase in emotional tension, climaxes, etc. How are all the “sharp points” (especially emotional scenes) related to each other? What is the composition of the individual components of the play (acts, actions, phenomena)? Here you need to name specific episodes that are these “sharp points” of the action.
  • Specificity of creating dialogue in the play. Features of sounding themes of each character in dialogues and monologues. (A brief analysis of the dialogical composition of one episode of your choice.)
  • Theme of the play. Leading topics. Key episodes (scenes, phenomena) that help to uncover the theme of the play.
  • The problematics of the work. Leading problems and key episodes (scenes, phenomena), in which problems are especially sharply stated. Author’s vision of solving the problems posed.
  • Specificity of author’s remarks, explaining:
    – the actions of the characters (the actors’ performances);
    – the situation on stage, costumes, and scenery;
    – mood and idea of scene or phenomenon;
    – specificity of the author’s position, expressed through remarks.
  • The meaning of the name of the play.

How a Play Review Sample Can Help You

When you decide to write a play, you will benefit from reading through a play review example. Be careful if you are not confident in your writing skills – writing a play review is not an easy task. Successful work is possible only with a detailed study of theoretical materials and reading through various samples.

You should read our samples with topics similar to yours. Therefore, it is worth noting that there is nothing wrong with using other samples, you just need to remember that you can’t present them as your own. Our samples were created to reveal and represent the ideas and topics which are usually assigned to students.

In order to understand how to analyze plays in detail, you need to look through samples presented on our site. All of our samples are written using supporting materials. In our examples, you can find facts about the creation of plays, problematics and ideas, compositions of the play, and so on. Our samples don’t contain any mistakes, as all of them are proofread and edited.

All play samples include personal evaluation or subjective opinion, as this is common for review writing. Examples are written of different academic levels. Semantic integrity is one of the main features of the samples written by our writers. You can visit our dissertation writing service any time and find a sample that will help you to write your own review.

The reviews answer different questions which usually can be faced in students’ assignments. Samples contain a general examination of the subject, particular features of the subject, author’s assessment, and a conclusion. You can use our reviews for free, but only for coming up with your own ideas for your future review. You will see how to make a statement, present arguments, and draw a strong conclusion.

Use our play review samples to deal with your own writing! With our examples, your writing will be simple.