ABSTRACT
It is true that the dramatic elements of a play are sometimes to be found in the dialogue. A boy stands before his father, who says: ‘Now, be honest. Did you chop down the cherry tree?’ Both the question and the boy’s answer constitute a dramatic event, a kind of turning-point or a moment of significance. There are many occasions, though, when the dramatic event is not found in what the characters are saying but in what they are doing (or not doing) —‘head-in-the-bin’ moments, if you like. In Richard III, Richard of Gloucester offers Lady Anne a sword so she can take revenge on him for the murder of her husband. Lady Anne refuses to take it. Both the offer and the refusal are dramatic events. At the end of The Cherry Orchard everyone except Firs, the old servant, leaves the Ranevskaya home, and this emptying of the stage is a dramatic event. Sound and light can also provide dramatic events. The sound of the axes on the Ranevskaya orchard is a dramatic event. So, in a less event way, is the gradual darkening of the garden outside of the room in which Harold Pinter’s Ashes to Ashes takes place. In this case
the event is subtle and unfolds during the course of the play: it is not like the momentary act of the offering of a sword, but nevertheless is part of what happens and has significance. Even costume changes can constitute events. Through several scenes in Alan Bennett’s monologue Soldiering On, from Talking Heads, we see the speaker’s costume becoming more dowdy as her circumstances worsen. Our recognition of these changes is part of our experience of the play.
