The Murder of Gonzago is an old-fashioned, rhetorical, bombastic tragedy, structured like a morality play, beginning with a dumb show and filled with stiff formal speeches.
And the play is structured like a cobwebbed haunted-house mystery, with the attendant shivery feelings of suspicion and suspense.
It's structured like a Greek tragedy.
"Went to Coney Island" is structured more like a play than a movie.
In 1937, when John Steinbeck wrote his classic novella "Of Mice and Men," he intentionally structured it like a play, seemingly aware that it would find a life on the stage.
"We've always had the sensibility that you work on the set and you structure it, much like a play, where once you've got the lines down and blocking right, you freeze it, and then you go out and do what you're doing night after night," he said.
My only quibble concerns Tarbox's editorial decision to structure the discussions and supplementary materials like a play (complete with stage directions for curtains, scrims, and lighting).
In fact, the book, in structure and execution, is more like a play than a novel, and at times seems like a cross between "No Exit" and "The Condemned of Altona".
Not a bad structure for a play.
The point is that when it comes to a relatively well-defined and structured task like playing an instrument or taking an exam how hard you work and how supportive your parents are have a lot more to do with success than we ordinarily imagine.
