ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts covered in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book builds on and contributes to the 'grammar of dramatic technique' by examining three aspects of it in Euripides: entrances and their announcements; preparation for and surprise in entrances; dramatic connections between exits and entrances and the lyrics that they frame. In recent years several impressive studies of dramatic technique have appeared, including Oliver Taplin's The Stagecraft of Aeschylus. Drama, especially Euripidean drama, plays on the audience's expectations. The book looks at the ways in which Euripides, playing on the audience's expectations, employs surprise entrances. It considers the specific dramatic links between the lyrics and the following entrances and the preceding exits, the connections at the major structural junctures of the plays. It considers the specific dramatic links between the lyrics and the following entrances and the preceding exits, the connections at the major structural junctures of the plays.
