Identify and apply the conventions of theatre genres such as tragedy, comedy, satire, verbatim, documentary and children's theatre in devising and performance.

What this dot point is asking

The course defines genre as the category or type of theatre, the kind of story being told, as distinct from style, which is the manner of telling it. Genres carry audience expectations: a comedy promises a different experience from a tragedy, and a verbatim piece makes a different contract with the audience again. The course expects whole-class and devised work to be built within a genre or theatre practice, so you need to understand what each genre demands and what an audience anticipates from it. Choosing a genre is choosing a set of conventions and a relationship with your audience.

Tragedy is among the oldest dramatic genres, originating in ancient Greece. Its conventions include a serious tone, a protagonist of significance who suffers a downfall, a fatal flaw or error (the hamartia of classical tragedy), and an ending in loss or death intended to produce catharsis, an emotional purging in the audience. Tragedy asks the audience to take the stakes seriously and to feel pity and fear, so it depends on building genuine investment in the protagonist before the fall.

Comedy aims to amuse and usually to resolve happily. Its conventions include misunderstanding, mistaken identity, reversal, exaggeration, comic timing and a movement from disorder to order, often ending in reconciliation or union. Comedy ranges from gentle to broad farce, and it depends heavily on timing and on the elements of contrast and rhythm. Satire is a related genre that uses comedy as a weapon, ridiculing people, institutions or social conditions to expose folly or provoke change. Satire overlaps with Brechtian intentions because its laughter carries a critical, often political, point.

Verbatim and documentary theatre build performance from real material. Verbatim theatre constructs its script from the actual recorded words of real people, interviews, testimony, transcripts, performed as spoken, so its authority comes from authenticity. Documentary theatre more broadly dramatises real events and issues using factual sources, letters, reports, news, to inform and provoke. Both genres make a truth claim to the audience, which carries an ethical responsibility: the maker must represent real people and events fairly. These genres suit issue-based devising because they ground a social question in evidence rather than invention.

Children's theatre, named explicitly in the course as an option for whole-class work, is theatre made for a young audience. Its conventions include clear and direct storytelling, strong physical and visual elements, audience participation, bold characters and a confident pace that holds short attention spans, usually built around an accessible moral or emotional journey. Making theatre for children is a genuine discipline, not a simplification: it demands precise audience awareness, clarity of intention and disciplined energy, and it tests an ensemble's ability to pitch and sustain a performance for a specific audience.

Applying genre well means honouring its conventions and the audience contract while still making fresh choices. A tragedy that never earns the audience's investment in the protagonist fails to land its catharsis; a comedy with poor timing dies; a verbatim piece that distorts its sources betrays its own claim to truth. Genre and style work together: you might tell a tragic story (genre) in an expressionistic manner (style), or a documentary subject (genre) using Brechtian conventions (style). Keeping the distinction clear lets you make and analyse work precisely.

When you choose a genre for devised or whole-class work, justify it against your intention. Saying you made a comedy proves little; explaining that you chose satire so the audience would laugh at a corrupt official and then recognise the real injustice behind the laughter shows you understand genre as a tool for an intended audience effect.