Close Quarters
A long-form format for small ensembles set in a confined space - a lift, a waiting room, a submarine. Characters are trapped together and must navigate the tension that creates.
About
Close Quarters is a character-driven long-form format that uses physical or circumstantial confinement as its central dramatic engine. When characters cannot leave, every relationship must be worked through rather than escaped. The format produces unusually truthful scene work because the characters have no choice but to deal with each other.
How to Play
- 1
The audience suggests a confined location (a lift between floors, an overnight train compartment, a fallout shelter) and an event that brought these people together.
- 2
Two or three characters establish themselves in the space. The confinement must be real - no one can simply leave.
- 3
Characters want incompatible things. The tension of proximity forces them to negotiate, argue, confess or change.
- 4
New information can arrive (a phone call, a letter slipped under a door) but no new characters can enter the space.
- 5
The form ends when the confinement ends - the lift moves, the train arrives - and the audience sees what has changed.
Variations
- -Time-lapse confinement: the scene fast-forwards through 24 hours, showing the characters at different points in their shared imprisonment.