What Makes a Good Play?

There are many plays written, performed, thought up, reviewed, discussed, taught, and learned every day in the world. Who decides which of these plays are good? Who decides which of these are worthy of discussion? Who decides which of these plays ought to be performed? Taught? Learned? Who deems these plays worthy? We do; the readers, the audiences, the actors, the directors, the playwrights, the students, the teachers, the critics, the people. How do we, as those people, rank such a thing as a play? How do we go about labeling one play as better than another? Can everyone agree on a standard by which to “grade”, if you will, these plays in question? No. I don’t believe that we can. I believe that everyone will judge a play on his or her own standards. However, I also believe that there are benefits in knowing what scale of criteria one judges a play on.

How Does One “Judge” a Play?

A play is a performance, just like every act in one’s day-to-day life. With that in mind, knowing the scale of criteria on which one judges plays provides an insight as to what that person feels is important in life. Now, realize there that I said it provides an insight. I do think it would be absurd to say that the way in which one judges a play runs absolutely parallel with one’s worldviews and beliefs. However, I do believe there is something to be said for one person finding a play offensive, while another finds the same play to be enjoyable. For example, let’s look as SIUC’s production of Arthur Miller’s The Crucible last year. I thought that the play was fantastic, while my high school English teacher thought it was awful. We have many things in common, she and I do. We are both Christians, women, we love kids, she is an English teacher, I want to be an English teacher, among other things. Why is it that she looked upon that particular production of the play with disdain while I enjoyed it and thought it a useful, thought-provoking tool for today’s society? It’s because of what we value and how we perceive things that makes this difference.

The Four Factors

With all that said, now it is time for me to exposit what factors I believe constitute a good play. There are four major points I would like to focus on in this discussion. Those are that of depth, meaning, reality, and, most importantly, viability. Each of these tie very closely in with the others, however, I believe it valuable to discuss the importance of each individually.