Greek and Roman Greek and Roman TheatreTheatre

Greek FestivalsGreek Festivals Festivals honored Olympian gods Ritual Competitions Olympics: Apollo

Athletics Lyric Poetry

Drama: Dionysos– Dithyrambic Choruses– Tragedy– Comedy

Greek TheatreGreek Theatre• 6th - 4th century bce• Originated in festivals honoring Dionysos• Tragedy:

– Aeschylus (524-456 bce)– Sophocles (496-406 bce)– Euripides (480-406 bce)

• Comedy: – Old Comedy: bawdy and satiric

• Aristophanes (c. 485- c.385 bce)– New Comedy: social situations:

• Menander (342-292 bce)

Theatre FestivalsTheatre Festivals• There were two festivals during which dramatic

productions were staged. • The Greater Dionysia took place at the end of March or

the beginning of April – Three days were given over to theatrical competition.

– Three playwrights each took part in the contests: Each tragedian put on a trilogy in the morning and each comic writer put on one comedy in the afternoon.

• The festival at Lenaes, staged at the end of January or the beginning of February, placed its emphasis on comedy

ACTORSACTORS No play used more than 3 actors All actors were male Costumes included character masks, and, in

later years, raised boots Acting must have more expressive than realistic

ORIGINS of TRAGEDYORIGINS of TRAGEDY Tragedy, derived from the Greek words tragos (goat) and ode

(song), told a story that was intended to teach religious lessons Arose from dithyrambic choruses: The dithyramb was an ode to

Dionysus. It was usually performed by a chorus of fifty men dressed as satyrs -- mythological half-human, half-goat servants of Dionysus.

In 600 BC, formal lyrics were written for the dithyramb. In the 6th c. bce Thespis of Attica added an actor who interacted

with the chorus. This actor was called the protagonist. In 534 BC, the ruler of Athens, Psistratus, changed the

Dionysian Festivals and instituted drama competitions. Thespis won the first competition in 534 BC.

Tragic TetralogiesTragic Tetralogies

Each tragic dramatist had to present a trilogy of tragedies: connected narratively or dramatically

The entire trilogy was performed in one day.

The trilogy was followed by a satyr play - mocking and lightening the seriousness of the tragedies

TRAGIC STRUCTURETRAGIC STRUCTURE

4-5 alternating scenes and choral odes, including the

PROLOGOS: Introductory scene

PARADOS: Entry of chorus

EPISODEION STASIMON

PAEAN: a hymn of praise to the gods

EXODOS: final scene

EPODE: final ode.

ARISTOTLE’SARISTOTLE’STHREE UNITIESTHREE UNITIES

Aristotle’s On Tragedy is usually considered the first piece of Western dramatic criticism. In it, he proclaimed that tragedy must follow the 3 unities: UNITY OF TIME: one day UNITY OF PLACE: one setting UNITY OF ACTION: one plot

AESCHYLUSAESCHYLUS 525-456 bce525-456 bce

General in Persian Wars -- fought at Marathon, Salamis, Platea

Fierce proponent of Athenian ideals The first of the great Athenian dramatists,

was also the first to express the agony of the individual caught in conflict.

Credited with adding the second actor Only extant trilogy: The Oresteia

Agamemnon The Libation Bearers The Eumenides

SOPHOCLESSOPHOCLES 496 - 406 bce 496 - 406 bce

Wrote over 100 plays, but only seven survive

Credited with adding the third actor Known as actor as well as dramatist Most interested in human dynamics THEBAN PLAYS:

Oedipus the King Oedipus at Colonnus Antigone

EURIPIDES EURIPIDES c.480-406 bcec.480-406 bce

The last of the three great Greek tragic dramatists -- 17 plays survive

Explored the theme of personal conflict within the polis and the depths of the individual

Disgust with events of Peloponnesian War brought about disillusionment with Athens

Men and women bring disaster on themselves because their passions overwhelm their reason

TRAGIC ACTIONTRAGIC ACTIONARETE, ARISTEIA: excellence

HUBRIS: arrogance

HAMARTIA: fatal mistake

PERIPETEIA: reversal of fortune

ANAGNORISIS: understanding

KATHARSIS

ORIGINS of OLD COMEDYORIGINS of OLD COMEDY Arose from komos : songs of revelry, charms to

avert evil, prayers for fertility sung to Dionysus Chorus dressed ludicrously Audience responded to choral komos and were

gradually admitted into chorus Chorus became two-part group with antiphonal

song Invention of comic chorus is attributed to

Susarion Dorian and Sicilian farces were precursors of

Old Comedy

CONVENTIONS of OLD COMEDYCONVENTIONS of OLD COMEDY

Scene set on Athenian street “Events seldom occur – they are

merely talked about” Masks and fantastic costumes Satiric of contemporary events and

public figures Bawdy

COMIC STRUCTURECOMIC STRUCTURE

Komos: final choral song and exit in wild revelry

4-5 alternating scenes and choral odes illustrating the outcome of the

agon

Prologos: introductory scene

Parados: entry of 24 member chorus dressed in fantastic costume

Agon: argument “just prior to the agon, the leader of the chorus always asks - in exactly 2 lines -

one contender to present his argument, and it is this contender who always loses”

Parabasis: chorus’s great song

Episodeion Stasimon

ARISTOPHANESARISTOPHANESc. 448 - 380 BCEc. 448 - 380 BCE

30+ plays; 11 extant; 6 first prizes Plays include Clouds, Wasps,Birds,

Frogs, Lysistrata Critique of Euripides & Socrates:

reactionary conservative; social critic Plato's epitaph for Aristophanes : “The

Graces, seeking a shrine that could not fall, discovered the soul of Aristophanes.”

New ComedyNew Comedy

By 317 BC, a new form had evolved that resembled modern farces: mistaken identities, ironic situations, ordinary characters and wit.

Basic plot: Boy meets girl, complications arise, bot gets girl – ends with betrothal or marriage.

5 act structure: acts divided by interludes performed by the chorus

Stock characters: young lovers, parasite, lecherous old men, clever servants, etc.

Social rather than political satire

MENANDERMENANDER 342-292 bce342-292 bce

1905 a manuscript was discovered in Cairo with pieces of five of Menander’s plays, and in 1957 a complete play, Diskolos (The Grouch, 317 BC), was unearthed in Egypt.

The style of comedy that Menander created, with its emphasis on mistaken identity, romance and situational humor, became the model for subsequent comedy, from the Romans to Shakespeare to Broadway.

Parts of his comedies found their way into plays by the Roman playwrights Plautus and Terence, Shakespeare's Comedy of Errors, Stephen Sondheim's A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.

ROMAN THEATREROMAN THEATRE Drama flourished under the Republic but declined

into variety entertainment under the Empire Roman festivals: Held in honor of the gods, but

much less religious than in Greece Ludi Romani Became theatrical in 364 B.C.

Held in September (the autumn)and honored Jupiter. By 240 B.C., both comedy and tragedy were performed.

Five others: Ludi Florales (April), Plebeii (November), Apollinares (July), Megalenses (April), Cereales (no particular season).

Under the Empire, these festivals afforded "bread and circuses" to the masses – many performances. —including a series of plays or events. Acting troupes (perhaps several a day) put on theatre events.

ROMAN THEATREROMAN THEATRE

Encompassed more than drama : acrobatics, gladiators, jugglers, athletics, chariots races, naumachia (sea battles), boxing, venationes (animal fights)

Entertainment tended to be grandiose, sentimental, diversionary

Actors / performers were called "histriones"

INFLUENCES INFLUENCES on Roman Theatreon Roman Theatre

Greek Drama – borrowed plots and stories: less philosophical

Etruscan influences – emphasized circus-like elements Fabula Atellana – Atellan farces (town near Naples).

Short improvised farces, with stock characters, similar costumes and masks

based on domestic life or mythology – burlesqued, parodied popular during the 1st century B.C., then declined may have influenced commedia dell ‘Arte

Roman Theatre DesignRoman Theatre Design• First permanent Roman theatre built 54 A.D. (100 years after

the last surviving comedy)So permanent structures came from periods after significant writing

• More that 100 permanent theatre structures by 550 A.D.• Built on level ground with stadium-style seating (audience

raised)• Could seat 10-15,000 people• Awning over the audience to protect them from the sun• During the Empire around 78 B.C, cooling system installed–

air blowing over streams of water

Roman Theatre DesignRoman Theatre Design

• Skene becomes scaena – joined with audience to form one architectural unit – S tages raised to five feet, 20-40 feet deep, 100-300 feet long, – 3-5 doors in rear wall and at least one in the wings– scaena frons – façade of the stage house – had columns,

niches, porticoes, statues – painted– stage was covered with a roof– trap doors were common

• Orchestra becomes half-circle • Paradoi become vomitorium into orchestra and

audience

Theatre of Marcellus(drawing)

TYPESTYPES of Roman Theatre of Roman Theatre

Roman Drama : 2nd c. bc - 4th c. ce Livius Andronicus – 240 – 204 B.C. – wrote,

translated, or adapted comedies and tragedies, the first important works in Latin. Little is known, but he seems to have been best at tragedy.

Gnaeus Naevius – 270-201 B.C. excelled at comedy, but wrote both

Both helped to "Romanize" the drama by introducing Roman allusions into the Greek originals and using Roman stories.

ROMAN COMEDYROMAN COMEDY Chorus was abandoned No act or scene divisions Songs Everyday domestic affairs: Boy meets girl, complications, boy gets girl:

marriage Action placed in the street Bawdy Stock characters Only two playwrights' material survives:

Titus Maccius Plautus (c. 254-184 B.C.) Publius Terenius Afer [Terence] (195 or 185-159 B.C.)

STOCK CHARACTERSSTOCK CHARACTERS Senex: old man in authority Pappas: foolish old man Bucco: braggart, boisterous Miles gloriosus: braggart soldier Dossenus: swindler, drunk,

hunchback Shrew: sharp-tongued woman Courtesan Clever servant Young Lovers

PLAUTUSPLAUTUS (c. 254-184 B.C.E.) (c. 254-184 B.C.E.)

21 extant plays including Pot of Gold, The Menaechmi, Braggart Warrior -- probably between 205-184 B.C.

All based on Greek New Comedies Added Roman allusions, Latin dialog, varied poetic

meters, witty jokes Some techniques:

Stychomythia – dialog with short lines, like a tennis match Slapstick Songs

TERENCETERENCE (195 or 185-159 B.C.E.)(195 or 185-159 B.C.E.)

Born in Carthage, came to Rome as a boy slave, educated and freed

The Afer in his name may indicate that he was an African, and therefore he may have been the first major black playwright in western theater.

Six plays, all of which surviveincluding The Brothers, Mother-in-Law, etc.

More complex plots – combined stories from Greek originals. Character and double-plots were his forte – contrasts in human

behavior Less boisterous than Plautus, less episodic, more elegant language. Less popular than Plautus.

Roman TragedyRoman Tragedy

None survive from the early period, and only one playwright from the later period: Lucius Annaeus Seneca

5 act structure – later adopted by Elizabethans Elaborate speeches -- rhetorical influence Interest in morality – expressed in sententiae

(short pithy generalizations about the human condition)

SENECASENECA(5 or 4 B.C.E.– 65 C.E.) (5 or 4 B.C.E.– 65 C.E.)

Nine extant tragedies, five adapted from Euripides:The Trojan Women, Media, Oedipus, Agamemnon

His popularity declined, Suicide in 65 A.D.– at the orders of Nero Seneca had a strong effect on later dramatists. Probably closet dramas—meant to be read to

an audience rather than performed

Senecan ConventionsSenecan Conventions

• Violence and horror onstage (Jocasta rips open her womb, for example)

• Characters dominated by a single passion – such as revenge – drives them to doom: known as Senecan Revenge tragedies during Renaissance.

• Technical devices:

– Soliloquies and asides

– Confidants take the place of the chorus

– Ghosts: interest in supernatural and human connections

Roman SpectacleRoman Spectacle Gladiatorial combats Chariot races Naumachia: Naval battles

in a flooded Coliseum “Real-life” theatricals

Decadent, violent and immoral All theatrical events banned

by Church when Rome became Christianized