The following categories and questions offer a useful starting place to explore how a play creates an experience for an audience. There is no single correct interpretation of any play, but careful consideration of these issues will help ensure that your understanding of a script is sound and stage worthy.
How are the actions structured? What happens first, next, last, and why? How is each action connected to the next? Are there many events, or few? How quickly do they occur (pace)? Are the events mainly personal, political, social, comic or serious, natural or unnatural? What or who makes them happen? What desire or series of desires drives the action forward? What stands in the way of the fulfillment of this desire? Is the nature of the resulting conflict primarily, psychological and internal, social and interpersonal, political, metaphysical, or some combination of these? How is the audience's sense of anticipation about the outcome manipulated throughout the play?
What basic biographical facts does the script provide about the characters (ie age, occupation, etc)? Are they individuals or types (realistic vs. abstract or stylized)? What are the relationships among individuals or groups ("constellations of characters")? What do they want? Why do they want it? What prevents them from getting it (obstacle/conflict?) What do they do to get it? What happens when they do or do not fulfill their desires?
Place -- Where does the action occur? Is it a theatrical or representative place? How many places are there? What kinds of places are they? How does the action move from one place to another? Time --When do the actions occur? What is the time span of the play (fictional time)? What is the relationship between "fictional time" (represented in performance) and "real time" (actual length of performance)? How important is setting (time and place) to the story? What is the relationship between the characters and the setting? What vision of the world (social, political, metaphysical) is suggested by the setting?
Concrete: What do we see and hear on stage? This includes actions, places, people, and objects. Described: What do we see in our mind's eye? (accomplished largely through language.) Are there recurring images? Does one type of image dominate? When and how do the images occur? How do groups of images relate to, compliment, or contradict each other? How do images suggested by the title relate to the action of the play?
Does one dominate? How are the various ideas and issues related?
What is the way in which the actions, words (language), and images of a play are presented? What kind of theatrical reality does the play create? What conventions of theatrical production are used to create this level of illusion? Are they simple or complex realistic or abstract; romantic; satirical; farcical; tragic; heroic; etc? How does the style of the play help to produce its effect?