The+Well-Made+Play

A term used by French playwright Eugène Scribe (1791-1861) to describe a play with the following elements:


 * a very tight PLOT that typically revolves around a missing element--letters, a lost or stolen document, and absent person.


 * SUBPLOTS that are related to the missing element and add tension to the work. These subplots do not have to be substantial, and they often involve revelation of information, that is, who knows what at any given time in the story.


 * a CLIMAX or scene of revelation, in which the missing element is revealed. This scene often saves the hero of the play from ruin or embarrassment.


 * a DÉNOUEMENT, or closing scene, in which explanations are supplied to resolve all the earlier questions or mysteries in the play. This scene is to follow soon after the climax. In French, the word means "untying" so the term suggests unraveling all the knotted conditions or circumstances in which the initial problems--and the plot--were based.