Set

Set, the surroundings, visible to the audience, in which a play develops. Originally the phrase was ‘set scene’—that is, an arrangement of painted and built components prepared or ‘set up’ in advance and revealed by the opening of a front scene, as opposed to a ‘flat scene’, where the flats slid on and off stage in full view of the audience. An alternation of set and flat scenes was common in the English theatre until almost the end of the 19th century, and with the elaboration of built stuff in Victorian times, a specially written front scene, the carpenter's scene, was often provided to allow time for its erection. The word ‘set’ now covers everything arranged on the stage, ranging from the simplicity of a curtain set to the detailed naturalism of a box-set, and its derivative, ‘setting’, has become the general term for the whole theatrical art of designing and staging the scenery of a play. (See also MULTIPLE SETTING.)