What is the Currency of Your Play?
Your characters must want something but may not be able to afford it.
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If you’ve ever read Elinor Fuchs’ Visit to a Small Planet, this will sound familiar.
In it, she says: treat the play like a planet. Ask:
How does time work here?
What rules govern this world?
What do people value?
To be honest, I’ve never read it. But I learnt it. (I know I should)
But when I learnt Small Planet, the question was:
What is the currency of your play?
Money isn’t the only thing that has value.
Every play runs on something.
Something your characters want. Deeply.
Something they’re willing to trade for, fight for, destroy for.
Maybe it’s power.
Maybe it’s forgiveness.
Maybe it’s approval, or peace, or a single text back.
Whatever it is — that’s the currency.
Good characters are desperate for it.
A deeply cut, emotionally charged character must be craving something.
Freedom. Recognition. Love. Pain. Validation. Escape.
The currency is what they’ll cry for.
Lie for. Walk into fire for.
And they almost are always too stubborn about it.
If you know what the currency is, everything else: the dialogue, the actions, the betrayals will start to make sense.
Because everyone is either trying to get it, trying to keep it, or trying to pretend they don’t care about it.
For example:
In Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, the currency is illusion — keeping/destroying it.
In Wicked, it’s perception — how you’re seen = how powerful you are.
In POLY, it’s truth — one wins over the other with answers.
In AFTERTASTE, it’s desire in the most horrible way.
If you can name the currency of your play,
you can start building scenes where the transaction is clear.
Where the stakes feel truly earned.
Where characters aren’t just talking — they’re trading. Sometimes, to the death.
So ask yourself:
What are your characters fighting for?
And are they willing to pay for it?
By any means possible.
So, what is the currency of the play you’re working on now?