Dialogue

Dialogue: the theatrical term

Dialogue (sometimes spelled dialog in North American English) is a literary and theatrical form. Its chief historical origins as narrative, philosophical or didactic device are to be found in classical Greek and Indian literature, in particular in the ancient art of rhetoric and the most notable non-theatrical examples in Western literature are the dialogues of Plato.

In everyday life however dialogue is, fundamentally, a written or spoken conversational exchange between two or more people. And it is thus a primary element in a staged play, which is essentially a performance of human interaction.

Dialogue (1994): a playtext by Reza de Wet

Dialogue was the first script that Reza de Wet wrote for a danceplay done by the First Physical Theatre Company (FPTC).

Performances

The play was first performed in 1994.

A description of the text and performance was published in Juanita Finestone-Praeg. 2002. Physical Intelligence Volume 1: Experiments in Physical Theatre. Published by First Physical Theatre Company.

Sources

The text of the script and a description of the work (by Juanita Finestone-Praeg) has been published in Physical Intelligence Volume 1: Experiments in Physical Theatre (First Physical Theatre Company, 2002).

Juanita Praeg. 2018. "Drifting: Reminiscing. Remembering. Reinventing. Reza" (Draft manuscript, courtesy of the author.)

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