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Plays, like novels, tell stories about people interacting with the world. They’re just as rich in plot and character, language, moral theme; they’re just as entertaining, funny, sad, enlightening, emotional.

We real novels to ourselves, by ourselves, in silent solitude. Plays are written to be spoken.

Spending time with other people who read plays is in itself well worth the time. Reading a play is entertaining, learning line by line, scene by scene, sharing the plot and characters, the theme, the language, rhythm—all of Aristotle’s elements but spectacle (live on stage).

It’s like a book club, only we read plays aloud, together, stopping to discuss along the way, instead of reading silently alone and talking after.

It’s like any parlor game, from poker to Parcheesi, speaking lines in turn, like playing cards or tokens on a board—or trivia games, charades, Pictionary. Only everybody wins.

Or Bible study, where the scripture is the script.

Posts pertaining to the pleasure of cold reading appear in Category: Amusement.

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Book clubbers read works in prose in solitude and silence and gather to discuss what they discovered.

Cold readers read dramatic works aloud with others, sharing the discovery, and discussing as they go.

Books are typically long and prose is mostly narrative. Reading them aloud takes time that people had a century ago, when there was little else to do (and audio books are popular today). These days one reads to oneself.

Plays consist almost exclusively of spoken dialogue—people talking to one another. Tailor-made for quality time with friends!