stagecraft techniques

Ephigraph

• small quote from outside

• Langston Hughes poem

Mirrored scenes

• birthday scenes exemplify how polarised they’ve become - Act 1, scene 2 - Tracey’s birthday against Cynthia’s birthday - Act 2, Scene 3

Dramatic irony

• Chris and Jason Act 1, Scene 3 —> know they will end up in prison

Foreshadowing

• Act 1, scene 2 - “NAFTA bullshit”

Climax

Act 2, scene 6 - fight scene

Denouement - twist of the play

• act 2, scene 8 - Stan injured not oscar

Ensemble driven cast

• creates realism / whole cast on stage

• Act 1, scene 4 - all characters speaking at the same time, overlapping dialogue

Monologues

• Tracey, act 1 scene 8 - “ old reading”

• Oscar, act 2 , scene 5 - his father and their exclusion

Expository dialogue

Explaining the plot - offstage events

prolepsis and analepsis

Flash forwards / backs

Deixis

• shared knowledge - eg Freddy Brunner, act 1, scene 2