Features of Texts: Drama (VCE SSCE English): Revision Notes
Features of Texts: Drama
Drama is a unique form of storytelling that brings narratives to life through performance. While drama shares many features with novels and other narrative genres, including characters, settings, and plot structures, it has distinct characteristics that set it apart as a text type.
What is drama?
Drama is a text form that is meant to be seen as a live performance rather than simply read on the page. When you study a play, you'll typically work with the script (the printed text), but attending a live stage production provides a much richer understanding of how the work comes alive in performance.
One of the most important features of drama is that it is not a fixed or static text. While the printed script remains the same, different productions will interpret and stage the work in different ways. Each live performance is unique because the actors' delivery of their lines and their interaction with the audience varies from show to show. This means that drama allows for multiple approaches and interpretations, making it a dynamic art form.
Understanding characters in drama
Characters in drama are revealed through their words, actions, relationships with other characters, and the stage directions that describe their appearance and behaviour. Unlike in novels, there is usually no narrator to tell you what a character is thinking or feeling. Instead, you must pay close attention to what characters say and do, how they interact with others, and what the stage directions reveal about them.
Creating character summary cards for the main characters can help you track their development throughout the play. Consider each character's motivations, feelings, decisions, and relationships. You might also find it helpful to imagine interviewing a character, thinking about how they would respond to questions about their choices and attitudes.
Plot and structure in drama
Most plays are structured to create rising tension that builds towards a climax and then moves to a resolution. Understanding this structure helps you analyse how the playwright develops the narrative and creates dramatic impact.
Exposition
The exposition is the opening section of a play. It establishes the setting and characters, and sets up the situations and conflicts that the play will develop. The exposition gives the audience essential background information and introduces the dramatic premise that will drive the action forward.
Acts and scenes
Plays are typically divided into acts, which are broad sections that group the play's events together. Each act may contain several scenes, which are smaller divisions within the act. Acts help organise the play's narrative into manageable sections, each covering a particular phase of the story.
Structure Example: Shakespeare's Macbeth
The five-act structure of Macbeth demonstrates how plays build dramatic tension:
- Act 1 establishes the characters and the dramatic premise (Macbeth's desire to become king)
- Acts 2 and 3 develop the narrative tension as events unfold
- Act 4 contains a turning point where the protagonist loses support and opposing forces gather strength
- Act 5 presents the climax and resolution, where the protagonist faces consequences and order is restored
Each act generally covers a limited period of time, even when the scenes require changes of setting. Scenes can move back and forth between different locations, and they often overlap in time with the scenes before and after them. This creates narrative continuity and allows the audience to see different points of view on events happening at the same time.
Time and continuity
The amount of time that passes between acts can vary greatly depending on the play. In Macbeth, only a few hours pass between Acts 1 and 2, but in other plays like Othello, a great deal of time may pass between acts. Some plays, such as Reginald Rose's Twelve Angry Men, unfold in real time, meaning the action takes exactly the same amount of time as the performance itself, with no breaks in the timeline.
Stage directions and stage sets
Stage directions are instructions in the script (usually shown in italics) that provide crucial information about how the play should be performed. Because staging and actors' performances are central to the audience's experience, stage directions must be read closely and considered carefully when analysing a play.
Stage directions provide information about three main aspects of production: the set, props and lighting; presentation and performances of characters; and sound and music. Reading these carefully is essential for understanding how the play should be experienced.
The set, props and lighting
Stage directions describe the physical environment of the play, including the set design, props (objects used by actors), and lighting effects. For example, a direction might specify that 'an old wooden table and chairs are centre stage' or that 'a spotlight illuminates the doorway'. These elements create the visual world of the play and help establish mood and atmosphere.
Presentation and performances of characters
Stage directions guide actors on how to portray their characters. They describe physical appearance, costumes, movements, entrances and exits, gestures, facial expressions, and tone of voice. For example, directions might describe a character as 'walking stealthily towards the veranda', 'speaking furiously', or 'frowning'. These details are essential for understanding how characters should be portrayed and what their actions reveal about their emotional states and intentions.
Sound and music
Stage directions also indicate sound effects and music. They might specify that 'children shriek downstairs', 'the watchman can be heard tapping', or 'music rises'. Sound elements contribute to the atmosphere and can signal changes in mood or foreshadow events.
When studying a play, pay close attention to stage directions for a key character. Notice how their appearance, movement, costume, and the props or backdrops associated with them contribute to their portrayal. Consider how sound and lighting effects enhance the audience's understanding of the character and their role in the story.
Dialogue, soliloquies and asides
In drama, there is usually no narrative voice to describe places, explain events, or reveal characters' inner thoughts. Instead, the play relies on dialogue (conversations between characters), along with stage directions, to provide background information, establish tensions, create characters, and move the plot forward. This makes the way characters speak to each other crucial for understanding the play.
Soliloquies
A soliloquy is a speech delivered by one character who is alone on the stage. It communicates the character's private thoughts and feelings directly to the audience and allows complex ideas to be explored. Importantly, a soliloquy does not usually advance the plot; instead, it provides insight into a character's inner world.
Soliloquy Example: Macbeth, Act 2, Scene 1
The famous soliloquy 'Is this a dagger which I see before me' allows Macbeth to share with the audience his horror and inner conflict about the fact that he is about to murder King Duncan. This gives the audience direct access to his psychological state.
Asides
Asides are brief comments made by a character directly to the audience that do not interrupt the action of the play. They reveal thoughts and feelings that a character wishes to conceal from other characters who are also present on stage.
Aside Example: Macbeth, Act 1, Scene 3
Macbeth's asides when he learns he will become Thane of Cawdor reveal to the audience his secret ambition to become king, even though he doesn't share these thoughts with the other characters around him.
Creating connection and revealing truth
Both soliloquies and asides strengthen the connection between characters and the audience by creating a sense of intimacy and honesty. It is understood that a character is being entirely truthful in a soliloquy or aside, even though they may be deceitful or manipulative in their conversations with other characters.
This creates opportunities for inferred meanings in drama. A character might say one thing to another character, but because they have revealed something completely different in an earlier soliloquy, the audience can infer that the character is being deceptive and has hidden motives. This dramatic irony, where the audience knows more than some characters do, adds depth and tension to the play.
Study strategies for drama
Effective approaches for studying drama:
When studying drama, consider these approaches:
- Create flow charts to summarise the plot and track how tension builds
- Plot the main structural elements (exposition, crisis points, climax, resolution) on a graph to visualise the narrative arc
- Select key scenes and pay attention to how stage directions would translate into performance
- Analyse significant speeches by asking: Who is speaking? What does this reveal about the character? How does it develop the play's ideas and tensions?
- Consider how performing a scene (even just reading aloud) helps you understand the rhythm and impact of the dialogue
Remember!
Key Points to Remember:
- Drama is meant to be performed live, and each performance offers a unique interpretation of the script.
- Plot structure typically builds rising tension towards a climax, then moves to a resolution.
- Stage directions provide essential information about the set, character performance, and sound that shapes how the play should be understood.
- Dialogue is the main way that plays convey information, create characters, and advance the plot.
- Soliloquies reveal a character's private thoughts when they're alone on stage, while asides are brief comments to the audience that other characters don't hear.
- Paying attention to what characters say in soliloquies and asides helps you understand inferred meanings and recognise when characters are being deceptive with each other.