Drames à clef

Plays in which real persons, places, or events are depicted under invented names. For plays that depict the lives of real people interspersed with fictional characters and events see [Biographical drama.]

found: Am. heritage dict.(roman à clef; romans à clef: a novel in which actual persons, places, or events are depicted in fictional guise)

found: Walbridge, E. Literary characters drawn from life, 1936(romans à clef; drames à clef)

found: The literary encyclopedia, via WWW, Nov. 15, 2012(Heinrich von Kleist: Die Hermannsschlacht. Written as a drame à clef to promote a self-evident political agenda and conceived of with typically Kleistian enthusiasm, Die Hermannsschlacht [Hermann's Battle] has met with either a warm or cool reception upon the stage almost solely on the basis of the current German political climate. Kleist intended his version of Arminius's defeat of the Romans in the year 9 CE as a propaganda play to incite the Prussians and the Austrians to unite against their common foe, France, but Napoleon's victory at Wagram rendered performance impossible.)

found: Ben Hecht biography, via YourDictionary.com, Nov. 15, 2012(The Front Page was very much a drame à clef, with the mayor based on a combination of Fred Busse and William Hale (Big Bill) Thompson, Jr.; the hapless leftist, Earl Williams, based on Terrible Tommy O'Connor who, sentenced to hang in 1921, escaped and was never recaptured; Hildy, the reporter, on Hilding Johnson, a Swedish immigrant who rose from copyboy to top reporter; and Walter Burns, the city editor, on Walter C. Howey, for whom MacArthur had worked on the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Herald and Examiner.)

Plays in which real persons, places, or events are depicted under invented names. For plays that depict the lives of real people interspersed with fictional characters and events see [Biographical drama.]