Discovery Scenes

Abstract

Discovery scenes are ones in which the machinery and mechanisms of stage business (for example, the revealing of an interior room, or garden or closet behind the set) coincide with the revelation of key new information to characters or audience, and usually, the consequent turning of the play’s action towards resolution. The new theatres of Restoration London were constructed with a proscenium arch, and side shutters to enable the swift changing of scenes, and most dramatists were eager to incorporate the theatrical possibilities offered by these technical improvements. Most, but not all, discovery scenes occur in the latter part of the play’s action. Revelation through unveiling one set behind another thus acts as a spatial metaphor for plot and character revelations. In cases where such stage mechanisms are used earlier in the plot, we need to pay attention to why the dramatist chooses to stage an early scene in this way. Of the extracts that follow, two are from Act 5 (The Rover and The Lucky Chance), whilst one, from The Feigned Courtesans, occurs at the opening of the second scene. By relating the stage mechanisms to the meanings invoked by a scene and its positioning, we can discuss Behn’s stagecraft, plotting, and ability to use contemporary theatrical conventions to her own dramatic ends.