The No-Subtext Play

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'I'm drawn to [directing] plays and screenplays that are about people in situations, not situations that simply have people in them.'

-- Scott Elliott
With this sort of animal, characters tell us everything they think or feel, as if they were on one of those awful bare-all TV talk shows. What they do -- or the playwright forces them to do -- is to tell us everything we don't want to hear. This kind of writing is a fine example of the impact of the Tube on playwriting.

It is possible to find fame and fortune by having your characters speak almost nothing but subtext. KEELY AND DU, by the possibly fictitious Jane Martin, is a classic example of this TV-drama-sort-of-play that wears its subtext around its neck.

Here's what this sort of thing can sound like . . .

				JOAN
	You're such a wimp! 

				LARKIN
	I know I am. But you're a murderer.

				JOAN
	Yes, but I'm paid to do that by the CIA. And he deserved 
	it. You know he burned down orphanages.
	
				LARKIN
	That's true, but it still makes me very uncomfortable to be
	around you.

				JOAN
	You're so judgemental.
				
				LARKIN
	I am not! You're just a creep!

One of the down-sides of allowing characters to spend a lot of time speaking subtext is that dramatic conflict drains away. What's left is argument, not conflict. Or to be crass about it: characters who just stand around and yell at each other. But no matter how grim and earnest this genre may seem . . .

No-Subtext Plays Work
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