The following text is an excerpt from The Unlit Candle, a play by Marla Venn. In a church vestry one evening, the elderly Deacon Hollis folds vestments while Fenn, a young man in his coat, tells him he no longer believes.
Title: The Unlit Candle
Setting: A narrow vestry. A single window, grey with evening.
Characters: DEACON HOLLIS (sixty, folds vestments with great care), FENN (twenty-three, stands by the door, his coat already on)
**Barbecue Shakespeare **
Setting: A small flat in London. Evening. Books are scattered on the floor and a mug is perched precariously on the arm of a sofa.
Characters: MEG (early 30s, sharp, self-conscious), EDWIN (mid-30s, calm, observant)
The following are two previously unseen literary passages, from two different literary forms. Write a guided analysis of each passage.
Text 1 is a poem by Della Fenwick.
Text 2 is an excerpt from Return to Sender, a play by Ambrose Kito. In the attic of an old house, Philip helps Margot clear her late aunt's belongings and finds a box of unopened letters addressed to Margot, who left the house at nineteen.
Title: Return to Sender
Setting: An attic under the roof of an old house, late afternoon. A slant of dusty light. Cardboard boxes, a broken lamp, a dressmaker's dummy standing in the shadows.
The following text is an excerpt from The Overlooker, a play by Tomas Bright. In a near-empty weaving shed, Agnes, a veteran weaver, and Dev, a younger man, discuss the automated frame that will soon replace her loom.
Title: The Overlooker
Setting: A weaving shed. One loom is running; the rest stand silent under dust sheets.
Characters: AGNES (sixties, works at the live loom, threading), DEV (late twenties, enters carrying a tablet)
The following are two previously unseen literary passages, from two different literary forms. Write a guided analysis of each passage.
Text 1 is a poem by Corin Alvestad.
Text 2 is an excerpt from The Nightporter's Door, a play by Emmet Larkspur. Late at night outside a locked office building, Nell, locked out without her pass, pleads with Hodge, the night porter inside, to let her in.
Title: The Nightporter's Door
Setting: A small pool of light outside a glass office door. Night. A buzzer intercom on the wall.
Practice IB English A Lit Topic Drama / Play Extract with authentic exam-style questions for both SL and HL students. This question bank focuses on the exact syllabus content for Drama / Play Extract and mirrors Paper 1, 2 style where relevant.
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MEG:
Exactly. It’s the whole middle class back home. They’ve replaced wine with ‘relevance’ and think quoting Hamlet gives them depth.
EDWIN:
(sitting now, amused)
You once cried during a Globe performance of Twelfth Night.
MEG:
That was different. That was real. Not over a scorched snag with plastic chairs and “Would you like another chop, Polonius?”
(Pause.)
EDWIN: Why does it bother you so much?
**MEG: **
(with forced brightness)
It doesn’t. It’s just... overwritten. All of it. You know? The whole literary canon. Should be more honest.
EDWIN:
(not letting her off)
Your tone says otherwise.
MEG:
(snaps, then softer)
I just wish she’d say something about my book. I sent it three months ago. Not even a “well done.”
(pause)
I just want a reaction.
(EDWIN watches her. There is a long silence. The mood shifts.)
**EDWIN: ** Have you asked her?
**MEG: **
(sighs)
No. That would be... needy. And if there's one thing she can't stand, it's need.
(She sets her glass down. For a moment, her performative tone slips.)
**EDWIN: ** Maybe it's not about Shakespeare. Or Chaucer. Or sausage-fuelled soliloquies.
**MEG: **
(small smile)
Maybe not. Maybe I just wanted her to say it mattered. That I mattered.
(Pause.)
**EDWIN: ** Well, I read it. Twice. And it mattered.
(They sit in the quiet. The tension has dissolved, replaced by something gentler.)
**End Scene **
Characters: MARGOT (sixty, stands with her arms folded), PHILIP (thirties, in work clothes, kneels beside a tea chest)
DEV. (quietly) It can.
AGNES. (turning to him, not unkind) I don't doubt it, love. (beat) But it can't mind. That's the difference nobody costs in. The new frame will detect the broken end in nine milliseconds and it will not mind that it broke. I mind. I've minded every thread for thirty-one years. (She threads a fresh end.) That's not in your logs, is it? Minding.
DEV. (looking at the tablet, then setting it face-down on the crate) No. (beat) No, there's no field for it.
AGNES. (returning to work) Monday, then.
DEV. Monday.
(He does not leave. He stays, watching her hands, as if trying to memorise something the frame will not record.)
Characters: HODGE (a night porter in a too-large uniform, sits inside with a flask), NELL (knocks on the glass, insistent)
