
In How Plays Work, distinguished playwright David Edgar examines the mechanisms and techniques which dramatists throughout the ages have employed to structure their plays and to express their meaning. Written for playwrights and playgoers alike, Edgar's analysis starts...

How Plays Work has grown out of David Edgar's teaching in the University of Birmingham's MA course in playwriting studies, which he founded twenty years ago. Through historical and modern examples, the book analyzes the basic elements of dramatic structure, action, plot, character,...