You should be able to comment on how and why characters report off-stage action.

Blanche tells Mitch: ‘I don’t think I’ve ever tried so hard to be   and made such a dismal   of it’ (Scene Six, p. 59).

Ask yourself: Why does Williams have Blanche comment on their evening rather than showing it on-stage?

Possible answer: Williams confines the action to the Kowalski apartment – apart from the opening scene just outside it. This creates intensity, but means that any action taking place outside it has to be reported. It is also possible that Blanche and Mitch’s dull evening would make equally dull theatre.