Gavin Maxwell offers, ‘A good transition is efficient, seamless, and more than just functional. It links ideas, subplots, and details, driving the narrative while transporting the audience to a new time, place, or environment. Some of the most effective transitions happen in an instant—there’s no fixed duration for how long or short a great transition should be.’

I would suggest a good transition is all of these but is also brave. That ‘transporting the audience’ Gavin talks about is an exciting opportunity to blend moments, to allow unresolved emotions to linger while you move on to the next scenario. It might help to consider how a character is left at the end of a scene rather than simply the practicality of getting the next scene on.

There was a moment in Othello where, as he instructs Desdemona and Emilia to leave, they defy him and run into the women’s toilet. He does not follow and is left outside. The practicality of beginning the next scene involved the toilet to be revealed as the set revolved. This was interesting on its own, but we asked Othello to remain on stage at the end, stewing in his own rage at being defied by Desdemona, and go to listen at the toilet door. He them pulls on the wall and we see that it is his power that is turning the set and revealing the women. The moment connected his rage, his desire to overhear them, their sense of injustice and the importance of the sanctuary of the women’s toilet for their conversation. It also suggests to the audience that Othello is still waiting for Desdemona outside the toilet and any sense of sanctuary is temporary. This is not necessarily what the women feel but the audience get a sense of the danger that is waiting on the other side of the wall. The choice to make the function of turning the set connected to Othello’s emotion paid off handsomely.