French pièce bien faite
Play constructed according to strict technical principles that produce neatness of plot and theatrical effectiveness.
The form was developed с 1825 by Eugène Scribe and became dominant on 19th-century European and U.S. stages. It called for complex, artificial plotting, a buildup of suspense, a climactic scene in which all problems are resolved, and a happy ending. Scribe's hundreds of successful plays were imitated all over Europe; other practitioners of the form included playwrights Victorien Sardou , Georges Feydeau , and Arthur Wing Pinero , who brought the form to the level of art with The Second Mrs. Tanqueray (1893).