English A1: Part 3 – Drama essay questions
1. What kinds of dramatic conflict have you found to be characteristic of twentieth-century
theatre and in what light have the conflicts been presented in the plays you have studied?
(M95 HL Twentieth-Century Theatre)
2. ‘We’re a bit unused to happy endings in modern drama. Nowadays we usually end plays on a
melancholic note of elegant despair. It suits the climate of the age.’ (Adapted from the words
of a twentieth-century director of plays.) In the light of this remark, consider the suitability,
both to the play and to the age, of the note on which your chosen playwrights have concluded
their works. (M95 HL Twentieth-Century Theatre)
3. In what ways do the plays you have studied dramatize either the depths to which some human
beings can sink or the ridiculousness of some human actions? (M95 HL Art of Drama)
4. An English playwright records an incident from his childhood: ‘When I was a small boy I
lived in a part remote from theatres. One day a friend, about the same age, that is eight years
old or so, came to me and said that he had been to a London theatre and see Lord Nelson on
the stage. Weary sophisticate that I was I patiently explained to him that what he had seen was
an actor representing Nelson. The boy would have none of this. He had seen Nelson in
person. But Nelson was dead, I said. This made no difference. A form of re-incarnation had
taken place: Nelson was there on the stage. I persisted. I began an explanation of illusion and
reality, fact and fiction. This so maddened the child that he picked up a piece of lead piping
which was lying by, and struck me on the head so that I fell senseless to the ground.’ Explain
why you think we should give serious attention to the plays you have studied when they can
be acknowledged, as in the anecdote above, to be illusion rather than reality. (M95 HL AoD)
5. Plays which succeed with audiences must communicate some aspects of the thoughts and
motivations of characters. How far and by what means have dramatists in your study
conveyed the interior lives of their characters? (Specimen HL)
6. The performance of a play usually offers the audience some interval(s) of relief from dramatic
tension. Compare and contrast plays which you have studied by discussing the breaks that
have been indicated in the action in each play (or lack of them) and the dramatic effects
achieved. (Specimen HL)
7. Discuss the use and effects of conflict or confrontation in plays you have studied. (Specimen
SL)
8. ‘Characters in a play are often motivated by strong passions or desires.’ Compare and contrast
plays you have studied in the light of this statement. Discuss, in each case, the dramatic
effects created by the exploration of such motivation. (Specimen SL)
9. ‘The shedding of easy solutions, of comfortable illusions may be painful, but it leaves behind
it a sense of freedom and relief.’ How far do you find this a profitable approach to two chosen
plays? (May 98 HL Twentieth-Century Theatre)
10. ‘All drama is political, in the widest sense of the word.’ How far have you found in twentieth
century plays you have studied that there is a close connection between what is happening on
stage and what is happening in the world? (May 98 HL Twentieth-Century Theatre)
11. ‘Plays are written to be acted on the stage, which suggests that plays are likely to be more
than simple or abstract statements about issues or themes.’ Discuss plays you have studied in
the light of this view. (May 98 HL Art of Drama)
12. How far and in what ways do plays you have studied support the idea that communication
between human beings is difficult or perhaps impossible? (May 98 HL Art of Drama)
13. The words of a play have been called “a violent, sly, anguished or mocking smokescreen for
what we don’t hear”. In what ways have playwrights in your study used words to cover or
suppress significant aspects of their plays and/or how far have words served to highlight the
central business of a given drama? (Nov 98 HL Twentieth-Century Theatre)
14. “The tradition of a theatre of dissent has remained a significant factor throughout twentiethcentury theatre” in the view of one drama historian. How far and by what methods do plays in
your study manifest the impulse to speak “against the grain”, or to be “questioning and
oppositional”? (Nov 98 HL Twentieth-Century Theatre)
15. Isolation, either mental or physical, can lead to despair or enlightenment. In the plays you
have studied show how playwrights have used isolation of any kind to heighten the dramatic
effect of their plays and develop their characters. (Nov 98 HL Art of Drama)
16. In order for play production to be available to many different kinds of theatre troupes,
playwrights have often enlisted characters to help fill out the stage set. In what ways have
playwrights in your study used speeches of characters to embellish or provide detail to the
place(s) in which they are acting out their roles? (Nov 98 HL Art of Drama)
17. A recent writer on contemporary theatre has commented on ‘the accusatory finger pointed at
the audience’ as a feature of modern work on the stage. To what extent have you experienced
this aspect of drama in plays you have studied, and how effective has it been in the complex
relationships between play and audience? (May 99 HL Twentieth-Century Theatre)
18. ‘The embodiment of cruelty and violence in modern plays mirrors modern life.’ Consider the
positive and dramatic use made of these features of modern life in plays you have studied.
(May 99 HL Twentieth-Century Theatre)
19. A recent review of a new play said ‘…it appears to be set in the mind of the characters’. This
is a useful reminder that the ‘setting’ of a play is not a simple par t of the drama. Compare and
contrast the ‘settings’ of plays you have studied to explore some of the different uses
dramatists have made of them. (May 99 HL Art of Drama)
20. Drama is often an expression or investigation of power: characters can, at different moments
in a play, be oppressors or victims, dominant or subservient, users and used. In terms of
power and its effects, discuss three or four characters from plays you have studied, and say
what this power-play adds to the play as a whole. (May 99 HL Art of Drama)
21. There are many ways in which dramatists control and vary dialogue in twentieth century
theatre to maintain the interest of the audience. Compare the effects achieved by both
conventional and innovative use of dialogue in plays you have studied. (Nov 99 HL TCT)
22. The “past” of characters – their implied or recollected experiences – are often used by
playwrights to enlarge and enrich character portrayal. Evaluate the use and the importance of
characters’ lives prior to the events of plays in your study to explain or complicate the events
included in the plays. (Nov 99 HL Twentieth-Century Theatre)
23. Playwrights employ specific techniques to lead an audience to respond either positively or
negatively to particular characters. How far and by what means have playwrights in your
study made clear their vision of individual characters? (Nov 99 HL Art of Drama)
24. Disputes and arguments can provide some truly dramatic opportunities for the stage. From
your study of plays, discuss how playwrights have effectively used such elements to heighten
interest and offer provocations for a theatre audience. (Nov 99 HL Art of Drama)
25. A director has said that “the theatrical text is a strange text because it is an incomplete text”.
Discuss comparatively the ways playwrights in your study have planned that productions of
their plays will complete what is suggested in the words. (Nov 00 HL Twentieth-Century
Theatre)
26. A play is a complex web of conflicting emotions. Compare the ways in which playwrights in
your study have presented emotional conflicts so as to make an impact on the audience.
(Nov 00 HL Twentieth-Century Theatre)
27. It has been said of a dramatist that “he could not write a scene that was not dramatic”.
Considering the plays you have studied, identify and compare the effect of some scenes in
plays that you believe to have the quality of being authentically “dramatic”. (Nov 00 HL Art
of Drama)
28. Human illusions have always been a powerful subject of plays, both tragic and comic. In what
ways have plays in your study considered this aspect of human behaviour and with what
effects? (Nov 00 HL Art of Drama)