Ways in Which Meaning and Intention Can Be Communicated in the Interpretation of a Script

Two Levels of Meaning

• Intended meaning (Playwright’s intention): What the playwright wanted to communicate about human experience
• Communicated meaning (Performance interpretation): What the production team conveys — which may serve the playwright’s intention, interrogate it, or extend it

KEY TAKEAWAY: You are accountable for both levels. Know what the playwright intended and explain whether and how your interpretation realises, adapts, or challenges that intention.

How Meaning Is Communicated Through Production Roles

Acting

• Vocal choices: pitch, pace, pause, volume, accent — subtext is carried in how something is said
• Physical choices: posture, gesture, facial expression, spatial relationship
• Emotional truth: commitment to the character’s inner life makes abstract themes embodied

Direction

• Spatial organisation: where characters stand encodes power, intimacy, and conflict
• Focus: what the audience looks at at any given moment is the director’s interpretive statement
• Rhythm and pace: the timing of events controls how meaning lands and accumulates

Design

• Set: the visual world carries meaning about the dramatic world
• Lighting: colour, intensity, and shadow shape emotional and thematic reading
• Costume: visual codes of character identity, status, and psychological state
• Sound: non-verbal emotional signalling; confirms, contrasts, or undercuts what we see

Verbal and Non-Verbal Communication

Non-verbal communication often carries more meaning than words — especially in a monologue, where the body speaks as loudly as the text.

Subtext: The Meaning Beneath the Words

Subtext is what a character means versus what they say. Every line has a subtext, and every choice to reveal or conceal that subtext communicates something to the audience.

COMMON MISTAKE: Playing the text literally rather than finding the subtext. A character who says “I’m fine” while visibly not fine communicates far more meaning than a flat delivery.

Communicating Through Style

Theatre style is itself a communication tool:
- Naturalism: “What you are watching resembles real life”
- Expressionism: “What you are watching is the inner world externalised”
- Epic Theatre: “Look critically — do not simply feel”

EXAM TIP: Use the formula: “This choice communicates [specific meaning] because [specific audience response it creates].” The because is the dramaturgical work.