Ancient Greek Theatre

In the Beginning…

• Theatre evolves out of religious festivals that date back to 1200 BC

• In northern Greece, in an area called Thrace, a cult arose that worshipped Dionysus, the god of fertility, wine and procreation (and eventually theatre). This Cult of Dionysus, which probably originated in Asia Minor, practiced ritual celebrations which may have included alcoholic intoxication, orgies, human and animal sacrifices, and perhaps even hysterical rampages by

women called maenads.

Cult of Dionysis

• The cult's most controversial practice involved, it is believed, uninhibited dancing and emotional displays that created an altered mental state. This altered state was known as 'ecstasis', from which the word ecstasy is derived. Dionysiac, hysteria and 'catharsis' also derive from Greek words for emotional release or purification. Ecstasy was an important religious concept to the Greeks, who would come to see theatre as a way of releasing powerful emotions through its ritual power. Though it met with resistance, the cult spread through the tribes of Greece over the next six centuries. During this time, the rites of Dionysus became mainstream, more formalized, and symbolic. The death of a tragic hero was offered up to Dionysis rather than the sacrifice of say, a goat. By 600 BC these ceremonies

were practiced in spring throughout much of Greece.

The Dithyramb

• An essential part of the rites of Dionysus was the dithyramb. The word means 'choric hymn'. This chant or hymn was probably introduced into Greece early accompanied by mimic gestures and, probably, music. It began as a part of a purely religious ceremony, like a hymn in the middle of a mass describing the adventures of Dionysus. In its earliest form it was lead off by the leader of a band of revelers, a group of dancers, probably dressed as satyrs dancing around an altar. It was probably performed by a chorus of about fifty men dressed as satyrs -- mythological half-human, half- goat servants of Dionysus. They may have played drums, lyres and flutes, and chanted as they danced around an effigy of Dionysus. Some accounts say they also wore phallus-like headgear. It was given a regular form and raised to the rank of artistic poetry in about 600 BC

The Dithyramb continued

• Introduced into Athens shortly before 500 BC, dithyramb was soon recognized as one of the competitive subjects at the various Athenian festivals. For more than a generation after its introduction the dithyramb attracted the most famous poets of the day. By this time, however, it had ceased to concern itself exclusively with the adventures of Dionysus and begun to choose its subjects from all periods of Greek mythology. In this way, over time the dithyramb would evolve into stories in 'play' form: drama.

Thespis

• In about 600 BC, formal lyrics for the dithyramb were written down. Some time during the next 75 years, an actor was added who interacted with the chorus. This actor was called the protagonist, from which the modern word protagonist is derived, meaning the main character of a drama. Introduce a second speaker and one moves from one art, that of choric chant, to another, theatre. Tradition ascribes this innovation to one Thespis, and even gives him a date; he is said to have performed Athens about 534 BC.

Athenian Drama Compeitions

• In 534 BC, the ruler of Athens, Pisistratus, changed the Dionysian Festivals and instituted drama competitions. Thespis is said to have won the first competition in 534 BC. In the ensuing 50 years, the competitions became popular annual events. A government authority called the archon would choose the competitors and the choregos, wealthy patrons who financed the productions. Even in ancient Greece, the funding of the arts was a way of tax avoidance. In return for funding a production, the choregos would pay no taxes that year.

Amphitheatres

• During this time, major theatres were constructed, notably the theatre at Delphi, the Attic Theatre and the Theatre of Dionysus in Athens. The Theatre of Dionysus, built at the foot of the Acropolis in Athens, could seat 17,000 people. During their heyday, the competitions drew as many as 30,000 spectators. The words theatre and amphitheatre derive from the Greek word theatron, which referred to the wooden spectator stands erected on those hillsides. Similarly, the word orchestra is derived from the Greek word for a platform between the raised stage and the audience on which the chorus was situated.

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Performances

• Plays were performed in the daytime. The annual drama competitions in Athens were spread over several, entire days. Actors probably wore little or no makeup. Instead, they carried masks with exaggerated facial expressions. They also wore cothornos, or buskins, which were leather boots laced up to the knees. There was little or no scenery. Initially, most of the action took place in the orchestra. Later, as the importance shifted from the chorus to the characters, the action moved to the stage.

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Styles of Greek Theatre - Tragedy

• Between 600 and 500 BC, the dithyramb had evolved into new forms, most notably the tragedy and the ‘satyr’ play. Tragedy, derived from the Greek words tragos (goat) and ode (song), told a story that was intended to teach religious lessons. Much like Biblical parables, tragedies were designed to show the right and wrong paths in life. Tragedies were not simply plays with bad endingsTragedy was viewed as a form of ritual purification. They depicted the life voyages of people who steered themselves or who were steered by fate on

collision courses with society, life's rules, or simply fate.

Protagonist

• The tragic protagonist is one who refuses out of either weakness or strength to acquiesce to fate. Most often, the protagonist's main fault is hubris, a Greek, word meaning false or overweening arrogance. It could be the arrogance of not accepting ones destiny (i.e. as in Oedipus Rex), the arrogance of assuming the right to kill or the arrogance of assuming the right to seek vengeance Whatever the root cause, the protagonist's ultimate collision with fate, reality, or society is inevitable and irrevocable.

The Culture that Created Tragedy• Tragedy did not develop in a vacuum. It was an

outgrowth of what was happening at the time in Athens. One hand, Greek religion had dictated how people should behave and think for centuries. On the other, there was a birth of free thought and intellectual inquiry. Athens in the 4th and 5th centuries BC was bustling with radical ideas like democracy, philosophy, mathematics, science and art. It boasted philosophers like Plato, Socrates, and Aristotle. In these respects -- a blossoming of free thought after years of religious dicta -- ancient Athens resembled Renaissance England, which not coincidentally spawned the next great era in theatre.

• In essence, the ancient Athenians had begun to question how nature worked, how society should work, and what man's role was in the scheme of things. Tragedy was the poets' answer to some of these questions -- How should one behave? How can one accept the injustices of life? What is the price of hubris? Read a soliloquy from a Greek tragedy, or from Hamlet or Macbeth, and what you will hear is these questions being asked.

Great Playwrights• Around 484 BC there appeared on the Athenian

theatre scene a playwright named Aeschylus. Aeschylus turned the dithyramb into drama. He added a second actor (the antagonist) to interact with the first. He introduced props and scenery and reduced the chorus from 50 to 12. Aeschylus' crowning work was The Oresteia, a trilogy of tragedies first performed in 458 BC. They tell the legend of Agamemnon, the Greek war hero who was murdered by his wife Clytemnestra, and the pursuit of justice by his children, Orestes and Electra. Aeschylus makes a point that has been echoed for centuries since: that the root of evil and suffering is usually human arrogance.

Great Playwrights

• Sophocles' contribution to drama was the addition of a third actor and an emphasis on drama between humans rather than between humans and gods. Aristotle used Sophocles' play, Oedipus Rex for his classic analysis of drama, The Poetics. Sophocles' plays are suffused with irony. In The Oedipus Trilogy, Oedipus seeks the truth about his father's murder. The truth that awaits him, however, is that he is the murderer. Sophocles' plays are about the folly of arrogance and the wisdom of accepting fate. Sophocles believed in the Greek gods, but his plays are suffused with existential insights.

Great Playwrights• Euripides has eclipsed both Sophocles and

Aeschylus in modern popularity. The attraction to him stems largely from his point of view, which finds a strong echo in our attitudes. His plays were not about Gods or royalty but real people. He placed peasants alongside princes and gave their feelings equal weight. He showed the reality of war, criticized religion, and portrayed the forgotten of society: women, slaves, and the old.

• Euripides is credited with adding to the dramatic form the prologue, which "set the stage" at the beginning of the play, and the deus ex machina, which wrapped up loose ends at the close. Aside from those devices, there is less contrivance, fate or philosophy in Euripides than in either Aeschylus or Sophocles. There is instead a poignant realism. During his life, Euripides was viewed as a heretic and was often lampooned in Aristophanes' comedies. Extremely cynical of human nature, he became a bookish recluse and died in 406 BC, two years before Sophocles.

Comedy - Great Playwright• Greek comedy had two periods: Old Comedy,

represented by Aristophanes; and New Comedy. Aristophanes used three actors, a chorus that sung, danced, and sometimes participated in the dialogue. The Chorus's address to the audience reveals the author's opinion. In these speeches, he ridicules the Gods, Athenian institutions, popular and powerful individuals, including Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides. Aristophanes invited satire aiming his lampoonery at those who stuck their heads above the crowd:

New Comedy • By 317 BC, a new form had evolved that

resembled modern farces. The use of overt satire, topicality and the pointed lampooning of celebrated characters to be found in Aristophanes' style were replaced by mistaken identities, ironic situations, ordinary characters and wit. This period is called New Comedy. From these works they were incorporated into Shakespeare's Comedy of Errors, Stephen Sondheim's A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.

• Unlike Aristophanes, these characters were not celebrities but ordinary people. The chorus in resembles a modern chorus -- singers and dancers who provided filler between acts; sometimes portrayed them as drunken audience members. Characters were classic comedy archetypes, such as the curmudgeonly old man in The Grouch, who would become staples of comedy. Most of all, the style of comedy with its emphasis on mistaken identity, romance and situational humour, became the model for subsequent comedy, from the Romans to Shakespeare to Broadway.