Exposition comes in the first act where we learn about the characters’ pasts and the fact that there was a large party the night before the opening act. This is important to the plot and aids our understanding of the characters. We realise that parties are quite important to these people in their social lives. We also recognise the characters of John and Peter as different generations and with different ideas. This is our first implication of there being a different attitude between the older and younger generations of this time, showing Peter as the younger gentleman here, working studiously whilst John is lazing around, doing nothing. We also find out that they both live with the Scott-Fowler couple but under very different circumstances. From this we see the character of John as a leech and Peter being much more responsible even though he is younger! As characters get introduced to the story line we also learn more about them and we even find out things about character’s that we don’t meet, for example Martin Hedges who is simply remembered as the one who feel down the stairs at one of Julia’s parties!
Complication comes in the second act with the problems between David and Helen with their newly found relationship and also the cliffhanger of Joan’s death. However these are somewhat connected. When Joan finds out about David and Helen she is upset, we can see this in Act two, scene one when Joan breaks down on John’s shoulder after hearing the news of the affair from Helen herself. The complication of David and Helen is also the well-made play’s secret in ‘After the Dance’. It seems that not everyone knows about it, just a select few, including the couple and John. Peter and Joan do not know before it is revealed and it seems to affect them the most. Peter changes dramatically, and not for the better and Joan kills herself. Some of the guests at the party it is exposed later in Act three think that Joan truly had an accident on the balcony and do not even think about the possibility of suicide.
And finally there is resolution at the end, in the third act where all loose ends are supposed to be tied up. However, we wonder what will become of Helen’s plans for David and herself in the future and whether John’s job will work out. We are also left with the question of who will take Joan’s place as party hostess. The play ends but the audience know that the characters lives do not but rather they will continue. This is a classic example of the end of a well-made play.
The end of Act one shows David purposefully leaving his drink after pouring it. This is the start of our understanding that David and Helen are becoming closer as it was Helen who first convinced writer, David, to give up drinking. Also within Act one we hear conversational banter between Joan and Julia about accidents that occur at the parties that they both host and attend. This is almost a premonition of what will come later at Joan’s next big gathering and her ‘accident’ at the end of the second act.
Joan’s unfortunate ‘accident’ off the balcony at the end of act two is a crucial moment and possibly the turning point of the play as the discovery of Joan’s death is made by John, the curtain falls, leaving the audience on the edge of their seats. With Joan being an essential character in the play it seems illogical to kill her off in the middle of it but maybe Terrence Rattigan had a reason for this. It does allow the audience to see what life is like for the other major characters without her.
After the play, while considering different endings and possible passages through the remaining characters lives, we are left with questions to ask. Why does Joan’s death come in Act two? Possibly it can be written like this to show the audience the impact it has in the Mayfair flat, however it is also just a complication in this ‘well-made play’. Act three also leaves us with questions about what is going to happen after the play to John and whether he will stick at his new job, others about David and Helen’s relationship and whether David feels too much remorse about Joan to stay with the younger model! And what will happen to Peter and his ‘new harder image’? The most significant question though will be about David and drinking due to the final cliffhanger of him reaching for the bottle, yet again.
