the key differences between plays and films explained

The event vs. the object

Plays

• Are events

• Exist only in the moment of performance

• Each night is a new version

Films

• Are objects

• Fixed once completed

• The same every time they’re watched

Presence vs. mediation

Plays

• Happen in shared physical space

• Actors and audience breathe the same air

• Risk is visible; failure is possible

Films

• Are mediated by camera and edit

• The audience is removed from the act of making

• Risk is erased through repetition and polish

Control vs. surrender

Plays

• Surrender control to performers and circumstance

• Meaning shifts with casting, staging, and audience

• The work is porous

Films

• Exert control through framing, cutting, and sound

• Meaning is engineered

• The work is sealed

Time felt vs. time shaped

Plays

• Time is felt

• Silence takes real duration

• Waiting is part of the experience

Films

• Time is shaped

• Silence is edited

• Waiting is usually removed

Space imagined vs. space shown

Plays

• Space is symbolic and incomplete

• The audience collaborates in imagining the world

• One space can be many

Films

• Space is concrete and specific

• The camera insists on reality

• Each space must be built or found

Language vs. image

Plays

• Language often is the action

• Speech creates reality

• Listening is central

Films

• Image is primary

• Dialogue supports what is already seen

• Watching dominates

The audience’s role

Plays

• The audience is present and complicit

• Their attention, laughter, silence alters the performance

• The fourth wall is fragile

Films

• The audience is invisible and passive

• Their response doesn’t change the artifact

• The fourth wall is enforced by the screen

Longevity

Plays

• Can be reborn endlessly

• Survive through reinterpretation

• Age through performance

Films

• Age as artifacts

• Are remastered, not reimagined

• Their meaning shifts culturally, not formally

Core distinction

Plays are encounters. Films are constructions.