The Scene Change

Text 1: Counterweight, by Rowan Vale

An original novel extract.

The mistake announced itself without a sound. Imani pulled the rope marked yellow, and the painted palace wall stopped halfway above the stage. Beneath it, exposed in the white glare, were the bare bricks and stacked chairs the audience was never meant to see. The actors continued below the dangling scenery, speaking with the careful brightness of people walking across ice. In Imani's headset, Mr Keene said only her name.

She let go. Around her, twenty ropes descended from the darkness, their labels fluttering. During rehearsals, they had seemed like a map: every colour leading somewhere certain. Now they were a forest. The red cue lamp stared at her. Five seconds remained before the next scene change. Her first thought was to pull everything; her second was to run. Neither thought moved her hands.

Imani pressed her thumb into her palm until the sting sharpened the room. She followed the strained rope upwards, found the metal catch and eased it free. Three breaths. One to see. One to choose. One to act. She seized the rope beside the yellow marker and hauled. The palace wall shuddered, rose and disappeared. At once, she released the next line. A cloth painted with a winter sky dropped towards the stage, unfolding as it fell. From beyond the curtain came a silence so wide that she heard the ropes ticking against one another. Then the queen began her next line, and Imani could not tell whether the pause had been written into the play.

How does Rowan Vale use language and structure to present Imani's recovery from panic and to make the reader uncertain whether she completes the scene change in time?

You should use relevant subject terminology to support your answer.