A script does not exist in a vacuum. Every play was written at a particular moment in history, by a playwright shaped by specific cultural, political and personal forces, for an audience with certain expectations. Understanding context unlocks the intended meaning of a script and informs decisions about whether and how to update it for a contemporary audience.
The time period in which the play is set or was written:
- Example: Tennessee Williams wrote A Streetcar Named Desire (1947) in post-WWII America, when traditional gender roles were being simultaneously reinforced and contested.
The social customs, beliefs, values and identity of the world depicted:
- Example: The culture of 1960s working-class London is inseparable from Pinter’s The Birthday Party — class anxiety and post-war displacement permeate every exchange.
Power structures, inequality and political movements of the era:
- Example: Brecht’s plays emerge from Marxist politics — understanding this transforms how a production team interprets alienation effects and didactic structure.
The playwright’s own life and experiences:
- Example: Arthur Miller wrote The Crucible during McCarthyism — the witch trials are an allegory for political persecution that only makes sense when you know this history.
Theatre style describes the aesthetic and structural conventions a production uses to communicate with its audience. Key styles include:
| Style | Key Features | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Realism/Naturalism | Lifelike sets, dialogue and behaviour; fourth wall intact | Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard |
| Epic Theatre (Brecht) | Alienation effects, direct address, fragmented structure | Mother Courage |
| Theatre of the Absurd | Illogical situations, repetitive dialogue, existential themes | Waiting for Godot |
| Expressionism | Distorted sets/lighting to represent inner states | Buchner’s Woyzeck |
| Physical Theatre | Movement-led storytelling, minimal text | DV8’s productions |
| Verbatim Theatre | Exact speech of real people, documentary | The Laramie Project |
REMEMBER: A single script can be performed in multiple styles. Directors regularly apply a different style to a classic text — this is recontextualisation.
Intended meaning refers to what the playwright wanted to communicate — the central message, ideas or emotional truth embedded in the script. Uncovering it requires:
- Careful reading of the full text and all stage directions
- Dramaturgical research into context
- Analysis of character arc, conflict and resolution
- Attention to recurring images, symbols and motifs
Recontextualisation means setting a script — or key elements of it — in a different time, place or cultural framework from the original. This can:
- Make the play’s themes more relevant to a contemporary audience
- Offer a new critical lens on familiar material
- Challenge or subvert the original’s assumptions
Example: Setting Shakespeare’s Macbeth in a corporate boardroom recontextualises power, ambition and betrayal as themes relevant to modern capitalism. The language remains, but the visual world is transformed.
EXAM TIP: When proposing a recontextualisation, always justify it in relation to the intended meaning of the original script. Recontextualisation should illuminate the play’s core ideas, not just be a novelty.
VCAA FOCUS: VCAA regularly asks students to propose and justify recontextualisation possibilities. Always connect your proposed setting or style shift to specific themes or intended meanings — never change context for its own sake.
When working in your own production roles, your contextual research should directly inform your design or performance choices. A set designer who has researched the social housing conditions of post-war Britain will make different choices about texture, scale and colour than one working from imagination alone. Document these connections explicitly in your production journal: what did you research, what did you discover, and what specific production choice did that discovery produce? This chain of reasoning — from context through analysis to decision — is the hallmark of strong dramaturgical practice.
