Deus ex machina literally means 'god out of a machine'. In Greek drama a god was sometimes lowered onto the stage to change the way the plot was developing. The term is used today to describe an unlikely twist in the plot or an improbable coincidence.
Ask students to work in pairs to identify any examples of deus ex machina. Discuss the effect of these events on the plot and on the way that the students interact with the play and its characters.
Now ask students to create a deus ex machina of their own that will change the ending of the play that they are studying. These should be developed and typed up. Once this has been done the deus ex machina are redistributed at random around the students or they could be drawn from a bag. Students must then write the ending that they have drawn trying so far as possible to keep true to the characters as they understand them.
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