Final answer:
Suspense in a play is achieved through narrative tension, set design, lighting, and performance to keep the audience engaged. Elements like dimming lights, painted backdrops, and symbolically placed props contribute to the suspenseful atmosphere.
Step-by-step explanation:
Suspense is a literary device used to elicit feelings of anticipation and anxiety in an audience, keeping them engaged and eager to find out what happens next. In the context of a play, suspense is often created through the careful construction of narrative tension, set design, lighting, dialogue, and actor performances.
For example, the dimming of lights at the beginning of a scene can evoke a sense of mystery or foreboding, characteristic of creating suspense. A backdrop painted black may be utilized to enhance the mood and provide a visual contrast that heightens the sense of unease or the seriousness of the scene's events. The disordered placement of skulls on stage, especially if there are seven—a number often associated with mysticism or significance—can further the emblem of disorder or chaos, keeping the audience guessing about its meaning and implications as the play unfolds.
In crafting a play's ending, the playwright must decide how to resolve the tensions established throughout the story. The climactic moment is designed to be close to the end, to maintain the audience's engagement through the peak of the narrative arc before leading to fast-approaching resolution. A production that effectively uses these elements can leave a lasting impact, where the audience's experience is defined by the suspenseful journey they underwent with the characters.