Our modern practice eschews such licenses. It
will often compress into an act of half-an-hour more events than would
probably happen in real life in a similar space of time, but not such a
train of occurrences as to transcend the limits of possibility. It must
be remembered, however, that the standard of verisimilitude naturally
and properly varies with the seriousness of the theme under treatment.
Improbabilities are admissible in light comedy, and still more in farce,
which would wreck the fortunes of a drama purporting to present a sober
and faithful picture of real life.
Acts, then, mark the time-stages in the development of a given crisis;
and each act ought to embody a minor crisis of its own, with a
culmination and a temporary solution. It would be no gain, but a loss,
if a whole two hours' or three hours' action could be carried through in
one continuous movement, with no relaxation of the strain upon the
attention of the audience, and without a single point at which the
spectator might review what was past and anticipate what was to come.
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