A play is not a novel with the descriptions removed. It is a script for an event, and reading one means constantly asking what an audience would see and hear.
The parts
| Term | What it is |
|---|---|
| Act / scene | The structural divisions; a scene change is a change of place or time |
| Dialogue | What characters say to each other |
| Soliloquy | A character alone, thinking aloud — the audience gets the inside |
| Aside | A line to the audience while others are on stage |
| Monologue | A long speech to other characters |
| Stage direction | An instruction; in Shakespeare, mostly implied by the dialogue |
| Dramatic irony | The audience knows what a character does not — see Irony |
| Comic relief | A funny scene inside a serious play, usually raising the tension rather than releasing it |
Tragedy, as this play uses it
A tragedy follows a protagonist to a catastrophe that their own choices help produce. Two arguments worth having about Romeo and Juliet:
- Is it a tragedy of character or of circumstance? How much is haste and how much is a plague quarantine and an undelivered letter?
- Whose tragedy is it? The play is named for two teenagers; the Prologue blames the parents.
Reading a scene as a director
Ask, for every scene: who is on stage, who wants what, where is the audience’s attention, and what is the last image before the lights go down. Those four questions produce better essays than any amount of theme-hunting, and they are exactly what The Scene, Staged assesses.
Performance is interpretation
Two productions of the same scene are two arguments about the play. When we watch, we watch for choices: what was cut, who was cast, where it was set, what the director did with silence. Nobody stages a neutral Romeo and Juliet, and the pretence that there is one is worth attacking.
Curriculum connection
B2.1
identify a variety of characteristics of literary, informational, and graphic text forms and explain how they help communicate meaning (e.g., explain the function of setting in a short story; explain the function of rhyme in a sonnet; explain the role of a refrain or repeated phrase in a ballad or story; explain the function of transition words in an opinion piece or argument; explain the role of a comparison and contrast structure in a persuasive essay or a book review; explain why some characters in a Shakespeare play speak mainly in verse and others mainly or only in prose)
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A2.3
communicate in a clear, coherent manner, using a structure and style appropriate to the purpose, subject matter, and intended audience (e.g., identify and use specific references from a text to strengthen arguments in a presentation; present an argument that has a clearly stated purpose, point-by-point development, and relevant supporting details)
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D1.2
interpret media texts, including increasingly complex texts, identifying and explaining the overt and implied messages they convey (e.g., the use of talking animals as characters in a TV program or on a website often signals an intention to appeal to children; in a fashion feature, models’ facial expressions and body language, as well as the setting and lighting of the photographs, create a mood or attitude that is associated with the fashions themselves)
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