chronicle play

American  

noun

1. a drama based on historical material, usually consisting of a series of short episodes or scenes arranged chronologically.

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chronicle play British  

noun

1. a drama based on a historical subject

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Etymology

Origin of chronicle play

First recorded in 1900–05

Example Sentences

The recorder had featured in his incidental music for the 1970 BBC radio production of John Ford's chronicle play Perkin Warbeck, and Dodgson remembered vividly the dynamic playing of David Munrow in the sessions.

From The Guardian

The English chronicle play had evidently not yet made any stir at court; but many of the classical plays were drawn from Livy.

From Project Gutenberg

It animated Marlowe no less than Drake, and the author of the least successful chronicle play as well as admiral or counselor.

From Project Gutenberg

The spectacular features are a characteristic element, a battle-scene being perhaps the most indispensable element or ingredient of a chronicle play, but this again fails to supply even more than a superficial criterion.

From Project Gutenberg

In the structure of his plots Marlowe forsook the Senecan models and began with the methods of the chronicle play.

From Project Gutenberg