The
problem play is a form of drama that emerged during the 19th century as part of the wider movement of
realism in the arts, especially following the innovations of
Henrik Ibsen. It deals with contentious social issues through debates between the characters on stage, who typically represent conflicting points of view within a realistic social context. Critic
Chris Baldick writes that the genre emerged "from the ferment of the 1890s... for the most part inspired by the example of Ibsen's realistic stage representations of serious familial and social conflicts." He summarises it as follows:
The critic
F. S. Boas adapted the term to characterise
certain plays by
William Shakespeare that he considered to have characteristics similar to Ibsen's 19th-century problem plays. As a result, the term is also used more broadly and retrospectively to describe any
tragicomic dramas that do not fit easily into the classical
generic distinction between
comedy and
tragedy.