Catastrophe was a very hard play to understand. I think that part of what made it difficult was the fact that it was so short. We have been trained by Hollywood to think that we should know all the details of a plot line by the time the story is finished. We are used to being presented with a problem and then in some way the problem is resolved by the end. In Catastrophe, we see that the problem is how to do the finishing scene in a play. D directs A on how to change the appearance of P to achieve his desired affect. In the end D is happy with the result and the “problem” such as it were, is solved. However this story is much different than the ones that we are used to. The problem stands alone. The audience has no clue about the context in which this problem exists, which is something that causes frustration to audiences who now expect to know the whole story.