ABSTRACT
Theme is what the story is really ‘about’, and I will be returning to it in more detail in Chapter 8. But, for anyone – groups or individuals – it is important at the early stages to begin to engage with it. However, as with everything else concerning the craft of writing for performance, the themes do not ‘just happen’. While you are creating the skeleton of the story and fleshing it out with the actions of your characters, you will probably not be thinking about the big ideas at the heart of the play. That is probably all to the good for, as the American playwright Sam Shepherd has said, ‘a play produces ideas, ideas do not produce a play.’ When you have your story and your characters, it will be time to see what ideas you have – perhaps unconsciously – been exploring. For the moment, though, let us take a look at how theme or themes are implanted in fully formed plays from the very start.
