Apparent Repetition

THE PLAYWRITING SEMINARS > WORKING > EDITING > DIALOGUE > VARIANT LINES > REPETITION

'I do a lot of history plays. But for me, history is a metaphor because things haven't changed. I wish these plays were archaic, set in time, but they're really set in transported time because we're still dealing with the same issues . . ..'

-- Carlyle Brown

Apparent Repetition is a subtle way of waving a red flag at your audience that significant Subtext waits for them if they compare version #1 with version #2 of what appears to be the same story. It's the kind of repetition you don't cut.

This kind of repetition is usually based on at least two Monologues that seem at first hearing to tell the same story. But the similarity is a ruse.

The impact of Apparent Repetition comes from the fact that we think you're telling us the same old story we heard earlier in the play. But the variation in facts in the last version -- usually the true version of the event -- suddenly tells us much about the character who conned us the first time around.

Tennessee Williams created a classic example of Apparent Repetition by having BIG DADDY tell two versions in Act II of how he got those 20,000 acres of the richest land this side of the Valley Nile.

Version #1: Horatio Alger pays off.
The old guy tells this first tale in front of the whole family. He worked hard, lived clean, and got the plantation as his just reward when the two men who owned it died.
Version #2: Leaving a lot unspoken.
The old goat tells us the "How I got it" tale, but this time only to his son, BRICK. In a Character Stage Direction the playwright warns us to watch for the differences. And what a difference. Listen carefully, and we understand why BIG DADDY is so sympathetic to what he assumes is BRICK's confused sexuality.

The advantage you gain with Apparent Repetition comes from letting audiences discover the truth through their own detective work. The facts and Subtext come to light by their comparing the contradictory versions presented by the same character. This is usually more powerful than taking the simpler approach of just having another character dump the real story on us.

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