A night to remember – a linear structure
Look at this example of a linear structure in a play:
- Scene 1: Karen passes driving test and plans a celebration.
- Scene 2: Karen is excited to go to her boyfriend’s birthday party.
- Scene 3: Karen and her friends getting ready to go out. She decides to take the car but won’t drink alcohol.
- Scene 4: Party scene. Karen is persuaded to drink so boyfriend says she can stay over.
- Scene 5: Argument with boyfriend. Karen is drunk and says she is driving home. Friends try to stop and tell her to go home with them, but she leaves.
- Scene 6: Crash. Bystander phones ambulance. Young father killed and his son seriously injured.
- Scene 7: Karen in hospital, she is unhurt. Police arrest her for drunk driving and break the news of what has happened to her friends and family.
- Scene 8: Courtroom scene. Karen is given a custodial sentence.
- Scene 9: Friends in pub talking about Karen - how they should have stopped her.
- Scene 10: Emotional monologueA speech by a single person, speaking alone, often revealing something about their past or personality. by Karen to audience: Her guilt and how she wishes she could change things.
Scene breakdown
- Scenes 1, 2 and 3 are the beginning of the drama. They introduce characters and set up the action to come.
- Scenes 4, 5 and 6 are the middle of the story. The tension builds and the action intensifies to a climax in the car crash scene.
- Scenes 7, 8 and 9 are the end of the story. The outcome of events is clear. Denouement ends in catastrophe.
- The final monologue, Scene 10, is the first time that the character speaks directly to the audience. It acts as an epilogueThe closing part of a speech, book or performance. The opposite of a prologue. and reinforces the moral of the work, ‘Don’t drink and drive.’