theatrical comedy
Funny live performance
Theatrical comedy is drama intended to amuse, performed on stage before a live audience.
The term distinguishes stage comedy from film, television, or literary humor.
It encompasses everything from ancient Greek comedies to modern farces and musicals: She studied theatrical comedy at drama school.
The form relies heavily on timing, physical humor, and audience rapport.
- Commedia dell'arteItalian improvised masked theater
- farceAbsurd, laughable situation
- physical comedyHumor from bodily mishaps
- improvisationSpontaneous, unplanned creation
- comic timingHumor's rhythmic precision
laughter · timing · absurdist comedy · fourth wall · satire · slapstick · sight gag · funny business · romantic comedy · black comedy · burlesque · stage direction · opening night · parody · ensemble acting · punchline · running gag · laugh out loud
- comedy typesclown, satire, parody, farce, slapstick
- Greek comedyAristophanes, Old Comedy, The Birds, Greek drama, Dionysian
- MoliereTartuffe, Don Juan, Psyche
- Italian comedycommedia, Boccaccio, Decameron
- Baroque LiteratureJohn Milton, metaphysical poetry, Pilgrim's Progress, sacred verse, religious verse
- Japanese Comedydouble act, straight man, funny man
theatrical comedytragedy
Disastrous or sorrowful event
Greek tragedy · Shakespearean tragedy · tragicomedy · melodrama · classical tragedy
theatre, theater, theatrical, theatric, theatrics, theatricality, theatrically, comical, comically