The
well-made play (, pronounced ) is a
dramatic genre from
nineteenth-century theatre that French dramatist
Eugène Scribe first codified. Dramatists
Victorien Sardou,
Alexandre Dumas, fils, and
Emile Augier wrote within the genre, each putting a distinct spin on the style. The well-made play was a popular form of entertainment. By the mid-19th century, however, it had already entered into common use as a derogatory term.
Henrik Ibsen and the other
realistic dramatists of the later 19th century (
August Strindberg,
Gerhart Hauptmann,
Émile Zola,
Anton Chekhov) built upon its technique of careful construction and preparation of effects in the genre
problem play. "Through their example", Marvin Carlson explains, "the well-made play became and still remains the traditional model of
play construction."