The story of the play which includes an introduction, a conflict or complication, dramatic action, climax, falling action, denouement and conclusion. A play may feature several narrative threads (events that connect to one another) and some narratives may overlap and interact with one another in the course of a play.

• fragmented time: Breaking up the narrative into parts that shift between pasts, presents and futures.
• leaps of time: shifts in the dramatic action ignoring the logical sequence.
• linear narratives: Narrative from beginning to end.
• non-linear narratives: Disrupted sequence of events in a story, including flashback, flash forward and circular narrative structures.