Good design is clear thinking made visible, bad design is stupidity made visible
Edward TufteRead
Although you should never mention your premise in the dialogue of your play, the audience must know what the message is. And whatever it is, you must prove it.
Interpretation
What this quote means
A playwright must effectively convey their message without explicitly stating it in the dialogue.
This quote by Lajos Egri emphasizes the importance of subtlety in storytelling, particularly in playwriting. While the underlying themes or messages of a play should be clear to the audience, they should emerge organically from the narrative and characters rather than being overtly stated in the dialogues. This approach challenges the playwright to craft compelling and nuanced storytelling that invites audience engagement and interpretation.
Themes
PlaywritingMessageStorytellingArtAudience
In practice
Example use cases
A director might use this quote during a workshop on developing character-driven narratives in theater.
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