One-act play
play that has only one act, as distinct from plays that occur over several acts
A one-act play is a play that has only one act, as distinct from plays that occur over several acts. One-act plays may consist of one or more scenes. The 20-40 minute play has emerged as a popular subgenre of the one-act play, especially in writing competitions. One act plays make up the overwhelming majority of fringe theatre shows including at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
The origin of the one-act play may be traced to the very beginning of recorded Western drama: in ancient Greece, Cyclops, a satyr play by Euripides, is an early example. The satyr play was a farcical short work that came after a trilogy of multi-act serious drama plays. A few notable examples of one act plays emerged before the 19th century including various versions of the Everyman play and works by Moliere and Calderon. One act plays became more common in the 19th century and are now a standard part of repertory theatre and fringe festivals.
One act plays were very popular in the 20th century and it is regarded by many to be a modern product.
One-act plays by major dramatists
Euripides – Cyclops
Moliere – The Flying Doctor (1659)
Edward Albee – The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “One-act play” as play that has only one act, as distinct from plays that occur over several acts. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the arts & letters register because the source frames it as play that has only one act, as distinct from plays that occur over several acts. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 31, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1194583. The Library of Congress control number is sh85094741. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1659.
Later fame can flatten the distinction between original context, subsequent adaptation and institutional collecting history. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “One-act play” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.