Duologue Competition: What It Is, Where It’s Run and How It’s Judged

A short scripted scene for two actors, entered and marked as one pair on how well each plays a character and how well the two play off each other.

A duologue is a scene written for exactly two speaking parts. The pair choose a published scene, or in some classes an extract from a longer play, and perform it as a single entry with the same two actors from start to finish. Unlike a monologue, nobody can carry the round alone: the story moves only when one actor listens, reacts and hands the next line across. That shared responsibility is what makes the duologue the first real ensemble class many young speakers meet.

A round runs quickly. The pair are called to the stage, announce the title of the piece and the author, take their opening positions and begin. There is normally no set, so a chair, a table block or a single prop does the work of a room. The adjudicator watches the relationship as much as the lines: who wants something, who is resisting, and whether the pace changes as the scene turns. Many festivals ask for a cut of no more than a few minutes, so a good entry is a complete mini-story with a clear start, a turning point and an ending, not the first pages of a long play.

On paper an entry is one named pair, the title of the piece and the roles. Across the templates that carry it, the class is set up as a Team item for boys and girls together, in English, usually in several age bands from the youngest primary years up to teenage entrants. Time limits are counted per head and range from about two and a half minutes for the youngest bands to around six minutes for the older ones. Some templates mark out of 10 and others out of 100, and none prints separate criteria, so organisers should tell entrants how characterisation, interaction and delivery will be weighed.

Organisers run the class because it is a gentle step between a solo recitation and a full play. It teaches listening, shared timing and trust, gives two friends or a teacher and pupil a reason to rehearse together, and produces a varied programme that audiences enjoy because every pair makes different choices from the same genre.

Where Duologue is run

Duologue appears on eighteen eTalenter templates, almost all of them speech and drama sections of long-running local festivals and eisteddfods in the United Kingdom, Australia, Guernsey, Canada and Zimbabwe. It usually sits in the Action category beside monologue, mime and group drama, and a few templates place it under Drama instead. Spelling varies, so you will also see it written as Duologues or Dramatic Duologue on other festival programmes.

• United Kingdom
• Australia
• Guernsey
• Canada
• Zimbabwe

Key facts

• Team entry of exactly two performers, boys and girls together
• Performed in English from a scripted scene, with the same two actors throughout
• Offered in age bands that run from the youngest primary years up to older teenagers
• Time limits on the templates run from roughly 2 and a half minutes to 6 minutes, counted per head
• Marked in Marks, out of 10 on most templates and out of 100 on a few; no separate criteria are printed
• Different from a monologue, where one actor carries the whole piece, and from a group drama of three or more

On eTalenter, Duologue is filed under Action, Drama and typically scored with Marks. It appears in 18 ready-made event templates — each one can adjust its time limit, age-group assignment and scoring setup independently.

Across the templates that use it, Duologue is most often entered as an Team competition, typically scored out of 10, commonly time-limited to 2–8 minutes where a limit is set.

What judges look at in Duologue

What a Duologue panel is actually weighing up, and where the marks are usually won or lost:

• Characterisation: each actor commits to a distinct person with a clear want, shown through voice, posture and face
• Interaction: lines are picked up on cue, eye contact and reactions are real, and the pair listen while the other speaks
• Balance: both parts carry weight, so neither actor dominates or fades into the background
• Clarity of delivery: words are audible and the sense of each line is plain, even at moments of tension or comedy
• Pace and timing: pauses and pick-ups are used on purpose, and the scene builds towards its turning point
• Use of the space: positions and movement are simple and motivated, with no wandering or turning away from the audience
• Command of the text: lines are secure, with no prompting, and the scene ends cleanly inside the time limit

Treat these as the judging focus, not a fixed rubric: publish your own weighted criteria for Duologue under Scoring Setup, or start from the full drama & skit judging criteria guide.

How to prepare for Duologue

How entrants and their teachers usually get Duologue right on the day:

• Choose a scene where both parts have real things to say and a reason to disagree, rather than one speaker feeding the other
• Read the full play, or at least the scene before and after, so you know what each character knows and wants
• Decide the relationship first: friends, rivals, parent and child, boss and worker. Every line should sound different once that is clear
• Learn the lines separately, then rehearse with cues out loud so the pick-ups are tight and the pauses are chosen
• Block simply: agree where each person stands at the start and end, and move only when the story gives a reason
• Time the piece with the announcement and walk-on included, and trim a speech if you run over your age band’s limit
• Perform it for an audience of two or three people and ask who they believed, then adjust the weaker character
• Practise recovering: if one actor loses a line, the other helps by staying in character and giving a natural prompt

Frequently asked questions

Is Duologue judged individually or as a team?

Across eTalenter’s templates it’s most often run as an Team entry, though an organiser can set either participation type when assigning the item to an age group.

How many people take part in a duologue?

Two. The pair enter together, perform together and are marked as one team.

What is the difference between a duologue and a monologue?

A monologue is one performer speaking alone, while a duologue is a scene between two characters played by two actors. In a duologue the marks depend on the partnership as well as each individual.

How long can a duologue be?

It depends on the event and age band. The templates here run from about 2 and a half minutes for the youngest bands to around 6 minutes for older ones, so check your festival’s syllabus and time the piece with the announcement included.

Can we write our own duologue?

Many festivals expect a published scene, and some offer a separate own-choice or original class, so read the syllabus. Where a template allows only published work, an original script would not be eligible.

Want the full judging picture? Read the full drama & skit judging criteria guide, or browse every action competition item.