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closet drama

American  

noun

  1. drama appropriate for reading rather than for acting.

  2. a play in this form.


closet drama British  

noun

    1. drama suitable for reading rather than performing

    2. a play of this kind

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Example Sentences

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The vampirically needy Michael, the snobbish and pompous Ralph and the increasingly fanatical Hilda might have stepped out of a Strindberg closet drama — three studies in mutually inflicted torture.

From Washington Post ● Mar. 24, 2021

Like so many Golden Age mysteries, the original novel is essentially a closet drama, one that closely observes the theatrical unities of place, time and action.

From Washington Post ● Nov. 8, 2017

Only one piece is downright bad: Tennessee Williams' tasteless closet drama about D. H. Lawrence.

From Time Magazine Archive

This is a closet drama, but the closet has a window with a view of the sea.

From Time Magazine Archive

His first work, an "Italomaniac" closet drama entitled The Roman, was published in 1850; his second, Balder, in 1853.

From A History of Nineteenth Century Literature (1780-1895) by George Saintsbury

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