ABSTRACT
Since the eye tends to anticipate, the reader always knows (until just before the page turn) how much more a particular character has to say. There is, therefore, a temptation to impose a sense of structure that is essentially non-dramatic. However, when a character starts to speak on stage, an audience cannot know whether it will be a short speech or an extended utterance. Theatre works moment-by-moment and long speeches are built – they do not appear on stage ready assembled.1
