(Pause.)

THE PLAYWRITING SEMINARS > FORMAT > FORMAT EXAMPLE > PAUSE

(Pause.) means just that: a brief silence. Harold Pinter claims that the only real communication between characters happens, not when they're speaking to each other, but in the (Pause.) -- a stage direction he made famous.


				LARKIN
	Fine . . . fine.

			(Pause.)

 				JOAN
	That's not what I was asking.

A (Pause.) comes in handy for . . .

Signaling the start of a new "Beat" or movement in the conflict between the characters.
Signaling the introduction of the Inciting Incident of the Suspense Plot.
And it's also good for those times when silence can have far more emotional impact that words.

When this is used as a Character Stage Direction within a speech by a character, there's usually no period: (Pause)
Who knows why, but it's what playwrights do.

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