How Plays Work: New Edition

In How Plays Work, distinguished playwright David Edgar examines the mechanisms and techniques which dramatists throughout the ages have employed to structure their plays and to express their meaning.

Written for playwrights and playgoers alike, Edgar's analysis starts with the building blocks of whole plays—plot, character-creation, genre and structure—and moves on to scenes and devices. He shows how plays share a common architecture without which the uniqueness of their authors' vision wou...