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AQA EXAM FOCUS

Key Scenes & Proxemics

Manipulating the Empty Space

AQA practice: using space precisely

In a minimalist or thrust-stage interpretation, actors can use proxemics, levels and direct audience contact to create setting and shifting power. Other stage configurations are possible if the response explains their effect.

AUDIENCE AUDIENCE AUDIENCE DOWNSTAGE CENTER UPSTAGE SCAFFOLDING C S E E E E E E

The Private Beach (Act 1)

What happens: Callum and Sephy secretly meet at their private beach, naive to the reality of the society around them.

AQA Exam Focus & Proxemics:
  • Intimate Proxemics: Callum and Sephy sit tightly together downstage-center, completely exposed to the audience on three sides to show their vulnerability and innocence.
  • The Ensemble: The rest of the cast stands frozen on the upstage scaffolding, physically distant. This spatial gap shows that, for a brief moment, the oppressive society cannot touch the teenagers.
  • The Set: The crates are scattered upstage, unused. The stage is deliberately left bare to create a sense of vast, open natural space.