The focus of this book falls less on performance and more, as its title suggests, on how the playtext may be approached from a theatrical viewpoint. In the theatre, the playtext, addressed traditionally to the theatre professional rather than the average reader, is usually read by the company at an initial stage in the production of a play. Some directors/actors may even favour spending numerous sessions reading the text. The process by which this type of reading 'opens' the text, which differs from a literary reading of the text, must be of interest when reading plays in the academy and, in particular, with reference to Theatre Studies. The result of such an analysis gives new insights into the theatrical text and the playwright's coded directions as to how to translate its content from page to stage.