Historical Drama: The Ancient World


Figure 1.--Latin used to be the core of the curriculum at British and American private schools. These schools would sometimes produce Roman plays in Latin. (Greek was attempted only by the particularly capable boys.) Here is a production at a private school in America. We are not positive, however, if it is a Roman play or one of Shakespeare's plays set in the ancient world. A reader writes, "Looks like a classical play to me. The boy in the center with the white beard might be a clue. The Roman plays of Shakespeare ("Julius Caesar". and "Antony and Cleopatra", "Coriolanus") don't have any obviously very old men. And I don't see any Roman militry costumes which these plays would have. "Troilus and Cressida" does have an old man (Nestor), but for various reasons this would be quite unlikely play for boys to perform. So I suspect a classical play--maybe in Latin.

Drama was an important literary form in the classical era. Theater was popular in both Greece and Rome. Some of these plays have survived to the modern age, but many Greek plays are lost. We have tragedies by Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides from the Greek period. Probably the most famous of these is "Oedipus Rex" (Oedipus the King)--a tragedy about a royal figure who unwittingly killed his own father and committed incest with his mother, then put his own eyes out when he learned of the horrors he had committed. Aristotle wrote a famous critical work, entitled The Poetics, in which he holds up the "Oedipus Rex" of Sophocles as the ideal tragedy, the example to be imitated. Greek dramatists competed with each other in play-writing contests, the winner being highly honored. The plays were often performed at a pagan festival such as the Feast Day of Dionysus. The actors performed using large masks through which they spoke to outdoor audiences seated, usually, in amphitheatres with seats in a semicircle and rising row by row (as in a modern stadium). The Roman drama of Seneca (for tragedy) and of Plautus and Terence (for comedy) derived ultimately (with many changes of course) from the drama of Greece. We assume there may have been theatrical performances of some type in other ancient societies, but we have virtually no information at this time. The knowledge of the great dramas of Greece was almost totally lost during the so-called Dark Ages. After the fall of Rome, theater disappeared as Europe slipped into the dark ages. Theater did not emerge again until the late medevil era. And when it did emerge again in Europe, the individuals involved had no knowledge of the classical tradition in drama. The dramacists of the Renaissance did, however, have some familiarity with classical traditions of drama. This developed as Renaissance scholars recovered ancient manuscripts from Arab, Spanish, and Byzantine sources. The knowledge of clasical drama, however, developed only very gradually in the Renaissance. The Latin drama of Rome was, for instance, a huge influence on Shakespeare and other Elizabethan dramatists.

Greek Drama

Drama was an important literary form in the classical era. Theater was popular ancient Greece. I'm not sure about its origins. Some of these plays have survived to the modern age, but tragically many Greek plays are lost. We have tragedies by Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides from the Greek period. Probably the most famous of these is "Oedipus Rex" (Oedipus the King)--a tragedy about a royal figure who unwittingly killed his own father and committed incest with his mother, then put his own eyes out when he learned of the horrors he had committed. Aristotle wrote a famous critical work, entitled The Poetics, in which he holds up the "Oedipus Rex" of Sophocles as the ideal tragedy, the example to be imitated. Greek dramatists competed with each other in play-writing contests, the winner being highly honored. The plays were often performed at a pagan festival such as the Feast Day of Dionysus. The actors performed using large masks through which they spoke to outdoor audiences seated, usually, in amphitheatres with seats in a semicircle and rising row by row (as in a modern stadium). The masks (in Latin referred to as "personae") functioned as megaphones as well as helping audiences to distinguish characters from each other. Hence our modern term, "Dramatis Personae" (meaning the list of characters in a play), derives from the use of actors using masks during performance. Greek theater faced a number of technical problems, especially the challenge of sound and light. The Greeks thus performed their dramas outdoors in specially designed ampitheaters with semi-circular tiered seating.

Roman Drama

Drama was also an important art form in ancient Rome. Drama was both an art form and like the gladatorial contsts, a public spectacle. Thus they were performed in huge ampitheaters. Rome had a nunber of large theaters. The challenge of sound and lighting faced by the Greeks was handled in the same way--outdoor ampitheaters. Rome itself had several large ampitheaters especially designed to perform plays. The best surving example is the theatre Marcellus. Unlike Greece, drama was not an indegenous Roman art form. The Roman drama of Seneca (for tragedy) and of Plautus and Terence (for comedy) derived ultimately (with many changes of course) from the drama of Greece. Despite the design of the amphhiaters, seeing the stage and hearing the actors was a problem. Roman audiences were notorious for making noise. This led to a degree of styliazation, inluding a range of conventions. Masks and costumes helped to clue the audience into what was happening even if the actors could not be heard well. The masks were color coded, brown for men and white for women. Masks might be smiling or sad. This was determined by the type of play. Costumes were used to identify the character. A purple costume identified a rich man. Boys wore striped togas. Other conventions were: short cloak (soldier), red toga (poor man), and short tunic (slave). There were no women actors, this was considered inappropriate. Thus a male actor of small stature or a boy would play the female roles. Roman dramas hd two sets of actors. There was an actor who spoke the character's lines. A diiferent actor mimed the part on stage. The gestures used were also styilized to emphasze the lines. A way of identifying some one who was sick, for example was to take his pulse. Boys were important in Roman theater because so many of the femle roles were played by them.

Other Civilizations

We assume there may have been theatrical performances of some type in other ancient societies, but we have no information at this time. We know that after the decisive Battle of Carrhae (53 BC) Cassius was killed. The Parthian General Suren delivered Crassius' severed head to King Orodes II, flinging it on stage at a play. We know nothing, however, about Parthian drama. We suspect it may have been an artifact of Greek culture, but do not in fact know.

Influence

The knowledge of the great dramas of Greece was almost totally lost during the so-called Dark Ages. After the fall of Rome, theater disappeared as Europe slipped into the Dark Ages. Theater did not emerge again until the late medevil era. And when it did emerge again in Europe, the individuals involved had no knowledge of the classical tradition in drama. The dramacists of the Renaissance did, however, have some familiarity with classical traditions of drama. This developed as Renaissance scholars recovered ancient manuscripts from Arab, Spanish, and Byzantine sources. The knowledge of clasical drama developed only very gradually in the Renaissance. The Latin drama of Rome was, for instance, a huge influence on Shakespeare and other Elizabethan dramatists. The influence of Seneca can be shown in many of the tragedies such as Kyd's "Spanish Tragedy" and Shakespeare's "Richard III." The plot of "The Comedy of Errors" derives directly from Plautus, the Roman comic dramatist. Knowledge of the great Greek playwrights, however, was much slower to come to Europe because only a tiny minority of scholars could read Greek. But eventually, the Greek plays were read, translated, and commented on by scholars in the 17th anbd 18th centuries. It took a long time to recover the history and tradition of Greek drama, although a knowledge of Roman drama (in Latin) began much earlier.






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Created: 2:36 PM 6/20/2006
Last updated: 11:11 PM 7/18/2006