white-telephone play
- noun
- Archaic
:
obra de teléfono blanco
- Many early Italian directors specialized in the melodramatic style of the white-telephone play.
Examples
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The set design of the white-telephone play featured elegant furniture and lavish decor.
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The white-telephone play was a huge success in the 1920s.
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Her performance in that white-telephone play was outstanding.
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Have you ever seen a white-telephone play?
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The white-telephone play depicted the extravagant lives of the rich with emotional depth.
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Critics praised the elaborate costumes in the white-telephone play for their authenticity.
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She has always loved the romantic storylines typical of a white-telephone play.
Surface Forms
Morphology
white-telephone + play
The label 'white-telephone' is a culture-historical genre marker whose meaning (melodramatic plays depicting wealthy upper-class settings) is not derivable from the literal words 'white' and 'telephone'; a B1 learner who knows the constituents would likely interpret it literally (a play about a white telephone) rather than infer the specialized genre. Because the meaning is culturally specific and must be learned as a conventional label, the expression is not compositionally transparent.
Etymology
The name white-telephone play comes from old stage and film sets where a small white telephone sat in rich people's homes as a clear sign of wealth. These plays showed elegant rooms and emotional stories about the upper class, so the name came to mean 'a sentimental drama' set among the rich.
