Dialogue & Rhythm
There’s a nice feature in the Sunday New York Times about Tom Stoppard, noted playwright and screenwriter (Brazil, Shakespeare in Love). In it, there is an interesting bit of business about dialogue:
“When you write, it’s making a certain kind of music in your head,” he [Stoppard] explained. “There’s a rhythm to it, a pulse, and on the whole I’m writing to that drum, rather than the psychological process” — the time it takes for one character to digest and respond to what another said — “which creates its own drumbeat.”
Mr. Stoppard, who won an Oscar for his screenplay for “Shakespeare in Love,” admires the split-second timing in Hollywood’s classic comedies like “It Happened One Night” or “His Girl Friday.”
“They’re completely truthful, but they’re completely unreal because they just go boom, boom, boom, boom, boom,” he said, rapidly clapping his hands in time. “It would be completely inappropriate for ‘Arcadia,’ but at the same time there are moments when you think, ‘Just do that with that line.’ ”
David Leveaux, who is directing the revival in New York as he did in London, later explained that lines echo one other, and if a beat arrives even fractionally later than it ought to, it can affect the emotional response, particularly in a play of this complexity. “You don’t want a moment in ‘Arcadia’ when anybody sits back,” he said.
That’s an interesting observation about dialogue, isn’t it? We may start with the the basic truth about dialogue, noting it is conversation with a point. We may then take it to the next level by digging into our characters to try our best to ‘hear’ their respective voices. But then there are those almost intangible qualities that elevate dialogue from serviceable to memorable — such as rhythm.
“When you write, it’s making a certain kind of music in your head… there’s a rhythm to it, a pulse, and on the whole I’m writing to that drum, rather than the psychological process… which creates its own drumbeat.”
Do you feel that rhythm when you write dialogue? How do you go about getting in touch with that rhythm, that pulse, that drumbeat?
I have some thoughts, but would like to give you a chance to share your thoughts about dialogue and rhythm.
For more of the NYT’s article about Stoppard, go here.