Meanings
plural well-made plays
- A play belonging to a 19th-century neoclassical theatrical genre involving a tight plot and a climax close to the end. The story depends upon a key piece of information kept from some characters, and moves forward in a chain of actions that use minor reversals of fortune to create suspense.
Ultimately Ibsen denies the basic philosophy of the well-made play, that there is meaning and progress in time, and that all human beings are rational creatures, subject to the reassuring process of cause and effect.
1983, George Stade, European Writers: The Romantic century, Charles Baudelaire to the well-made play, Scribner, →ISBN
Origin
- Frenchpièce bien faite
- Englishwell-made play
Calque of French pièce bien faite, developed by the French dramatist Eugène Scribe (1791–1861).
More words from French
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
well-made play. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/well-made%20play
“well-made play.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/well-made%20play. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “well-made play,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/well-made%20play.
Source: well-made play on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.