Types of Drama

Types of Drama

Dramatic performances are generally classified into specific categories according to the mood, tone and actions depicted in the plot.Some popular types of drama include

Comedy

Lighter in tone, comedies are intended to make the audience laugh and usually have happy endings. Comedies place off-beat characters in unusual situations causing them to do and say funny things. Comedy can also be sarcastic in nature, poking fun at serious topics. There are also several sub-genres of comedy, including romantic comedy, sentimental comedy, a comedy of manners and tragic comedy.

Tragedy

Based on darker themes, tragedies portray serious subjects like death, disaster and human suffering in a dignified and thought-provoking way. Rarely enjoying happy endings, characters in tragedies, like Shakespeare's Hamlet, are often burdened by tragic character flaws that ultimately lead to their demise.

Melodrama

The word melodrama is coined from melo (music) and dran (drama). It is, therefore, a play that utilises music extensively. But the utilisation of music is not the only factor in melodrama, what really makes it melodrama, is its portrayal of the protagonist and the antagonist. The protagonist suffers a lot, but triumphs in the end, while the antagonist suffers, so melodrama can be defined as a play that has serious action caused by a villain and a destruction of the villain which brings about a happy resolution in the play.

Tragic-Comedy 

We have seen that tragedy is a serious play that ends on a sad - note while comedy ends happily. In traditional tragedy, playwrights were not allowed to bring in any comic action. In Oedipus Rex, for instance, we will observe that the atmosphere is tense from the beginning to the end. As time went on, even from the Elizabethan period, comic characters were included in tragic plays. This is called 'comic relief'. Tragic-comedy is a play that mixes both comic and tragic elements in equal proportion. It therefore elicits both tragic and comic emotions. In these plays, the characters take on tragedy with humour in bringing serious situations to happy endings.

Farce

Farce, which is referred to as comedy of situation, is a humorous play on a trivial theme, usually one that is familiar to the audience. The themes that are treated in farce include mistaken identity, elaborate misunderstanding, switched costume (men in women's clothes) heroes forced under tables, misheard instructions, discoveries, disappearances and many such situations. it presents physical activities that grow out of situations. Farce does not treat serious social issues.

Opera

This versatile genre of drama combines theatre, dialogue, music and dance to tell grand stories of tragedy or comedy. Since characters express their feelings and intentions through song rather than dialogue, performers must be both skilled actors and singers. The decidedly tragic La Boheme by Giacomo Puccini and the bawdy comedy Falstaff by Giuseppe Verdi are classic examples of opera.