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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

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

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

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

From Time Magazine Archive

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

From Time Magazine Archive

Indeed it is by no means certain that the later plays of this class were ever acted at all, or were anything more than closet drama.

From A Short History of French Literature by Saintsbury, George