theatrical dialogue
Words actors speak
Theatrical dialogue is the written or spoken words exchanged between characters in a play or dramatic performance.
Unlike natural conversation, it's crafted to reveal character, advance plot, and project to an audience: The playwright's theatrical dialogue crackles with wit.
The term sometimes describes speech that feels stagey or performative in everyday life: His theatrical dialogue made the apology seem rehearsed.
- classical dramaAncient theatrical tradition
- reparteeQuick, clever conversation
- stage whisperLoud whisper for spectators
- fourth wallInvisible stage-audience barrier
- breaking characterLeaving a performed identity
metaphor · subtext · inner monologue · realism · dialect · delivery · dramatic pause · line reading · cadence · pacing · rapid fire · absurdism · irony · Shakespearean language · alliteration · exposition · melodrama · rhythm
theatrical dialoguemonologue
Uninterrupted solo address
soliloquy · dramatic monologue · solo performance · one-man show · aside
theatrical, dialogue, theater, theatre, theatric, theatrics, theatricality, theatrically, dialogic