in class roman theatre

7/27/2019 In Class Roman Theatre

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Roman Theatre

Muses of Tragedy and Comedy


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Alexander the Great (died 323 BC)

In 336 BC, Alexander the Great ascended theMacedonian throne and undertook a series ofcampaigns which united the known world from

Macedonia to the western borders of India.


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Hellenistic Period (323 30 BC)

The Hellenistic Period is generallyconsidered to be the epoch that fallsbetween the death of Alexander the Greatand the Roman conquest of Egypt.

Following the death of Alexander (in 323BC) his Empire became subject fell intodissaray.

Out of the almost constantly shiftingpolitical topography, a new culture ofmultiple nations unified by the Greeklanguage emerged.


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The Spread of Roman Power

As the Roman

Empire spread

throughout the

known world, it

carried with it theculture, laws, and

government of

Rome.

Thus, Roman societywas spread and

integrated into the

cultures of the

Mediterranean.


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Middle Comedy No chorus

No public impersonations

strayed away from political during Alexanders

reign Domestic situations

Burlesques and social satires

Stock characters (no names)

Hellenistic Seeds of RomanComedy:

Tragedy declines This is the ageof the rise of comedy.


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New Comedy

New Comedy isthe ancestor ofsitcoms, withplots focusing on

domestic issues,usually involvingboy-meets-girl-parents-forbid-

marriage and theintervention of aclever slave tosave the day.


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Menander(342 BC - 292 BC).

Many ancient critics consideredhim the supreme poet of NewComedy.

However, despite havingcomposed over one hundredplays, he achieved success atonly eight of Athens twice-yearly dramatic festivals.

In Menanders lifetime, comedy had moved away from itsAristophanic roots in politics and the machinations of publicaffairs, and was beginning rather to focus on fictitious set-

characters from ordinary life.


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The role of the chorus istherefore generally confined toperforming brief interludesbetween acts.

Menander made elaborate useof masks to provide for thewide range of characters.

These more caricatured maskshelped audiences to becomefamiliar with his developingdramatis personaeof stockcharacters.

Menanders particular skill layin generating convincingexaggerated representations ofstern fathers, young lovers,intriguing slaves and so on.


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Democracy only works with equality, and Menander uses lovebetween people of different classes and social status as a meansof helping to create an equality within the city.

In 321 He produced hisfirst play, Orge("Anger").

In 316 he won a prize at aminor festival with theDyscolusand gained hisfirst victory at the CityDionysia the followingyear.

Only extant New ComedyTHE GROUCH(Dyscolus)

By 301 BC he had writtenmore than 70 plays.


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Atellan Farce (native performance)

a non-scriptedtheatrical form whichmade use of stockmasks (characters)

and slapstick gags. It was very similar to

the commedia dell'arteof the Italian

Renaissance

not unlike improvtheater today e.g.Saturday Night Live.


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Roman Comedy

The actors of Romancomedy were all men,

and about five of themshared out all thedifferent roles in the play.


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The costumes were fairlysimple, consisting of atunic and a pallium

(square cloak), which waslong for femalecharacters and short formale characters.

The actors also wore

masks, which werewildly distortedstereotypes, not veryrealistic, but funny.


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These plays wereperformed at

religious festivalssponsored by juniorofficials in theRoman government.

The audience wasrowdy, and dramacompeted for

audience attentionwith tightropewalkers, jugglers,and gladiatorial

combats.


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Plautus(Titus Maccius Plautus)

(ca. 254-184 B.C.)

He took his familiarity with song,dance, and native Italian farce and

combined it with characters andplots from the New Comedy ofHellenistic Greece.

His comedies, like Greek New

Comedy, did not have a chorusand did not deal with contemporarypolitical or social issues.

His plays were written to entertain.

Plautus was the mostpopular of all Romancomic writers.

He wrote in the latethird century and theearly second centuryB.C.


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Play Structure

Plautus gave new life to an old plot formula: boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl.

The many theatrically effective twists and turns of theplotscaused by some characters scheming and tricks

or simply through accidental misunderstandingsarehappily straightened out in the end.

Often, a clever slave drives the plot, taking charge ofevents for a young master who is too overwhelmedwith love to accomplish much on his own.

In performance, Plautuss plays may haveresembled modern musical comedies,because it is believed that a good portion of the

dialogue was sung.


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Some of Plautus other well-known plays are: Amphitryon

The Rope Casina The Pot of Gold The Captives

The Haunted House The Girl from Persia

(The dates of individual plays by Plautus are

unknown, but they are all presumed to havebeen written between 205 and 184 B.C.)


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Terence (Publius Terentius Afer)(ca. 185-159 B.C.)

He is the most important Roman comic writer afterPlautus.

He was born in Carthage and brought to Rome as aslave. His owner freed him.

Terence stressed characterization, subtletyofexpression, and elegant language.

Terence based most of his work on Greek models.

It was Terences practice to combine plot elementsfrom two Greek plays to create one new work.


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Terences Phormiodramatizes the attempts of twocousins, Antipho and Phaedria, to overcome their

fathers objections to their lovers. Both youngmen are aided by Phormioa tricky parasiteandby dramatic coincidences.

The plot complications and stock characters are

similar to those in Plautus plays, but Phormioisless farcical and less slapstick.

Much of its humor is verbal; there is less physicalcomic action but more sparring with words.

Notethat Terences dialogue was spoken. He often used a double plot, placing two

characters in similar romantic situations andexamining their differing reactions.


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Though his plays were admired by his learnedfriends, the populace preferred more livelyentertainments. Terence had to present his play The Mother-in-Law

three times before he could get an audience to sitthrough the whole performance.

On the first two tries, audience members weredistracted by nearby circus-type entertainments,which they left the theater to attend.

Subsequent periods, such as the Middle Ages

and the Renaissance, used Terences plays asliterary models in medieval convents andmonasteries and in Renaissance schools.


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The Romans also produced tragedies these were more straightforward

translations and adaptations of the Greek

plays of the 5th and 4th centuries BCE. Costumes, masks, and language were all rather

inflated.

Although tragedy was performed in Rome

during the Republic, only fragmentsremain.

Roman Tragedy


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Lucius Annaeus Seneca, (ca. 4 B.C.-A.D. 65)

As a writer, he espoused stoicism,a philosophy of moderation andcalm acceptance of whateverhappens.

Nine plays by Senecaare theonly surviving examples of Romantragedy based on Greek myths:

The Trojan Women, Medea, Oedipus,

Phaedra, Thyestes, Hercules on Oeta,The Mad Hercules, The PhoenicianWomen, andAgamemnon.

(dates for his plays are unknown.)

H (Q i t H ti Fl )


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Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus)His essay on poetic form, The Art of Poetry,surveys the

history and theory of dramatic poetry.

Less detailed than Aristotle, Horace stressed rules, comedy and tragedy must never be combined a play should have five acts only three speaking characters should appear at the

same time gods should not be brought in unless absolutely

necessary to resolve a plot. The chorus should be used to forward the action,

set a high moral tone, and give "good and sagecounsel."

the purpose of drama was "to profit and toplease

the language and actions of characters must fit

traditional ideas of suitable behavior for their age,gender, social status, and emotional state(decorum)

Anything overly offensive or overly marvelous(fantastical) should be kept offstage.

Horace wanted writers to avoid extremes of emotionand to attempt to be truthful.

These opinions were not found in Aristotle, but Renaissancecritics made it a rule of drama.

Horace was theleading lyricpoet of his time.

65-8 B.C.


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Roman Theatres First theatres were made of wood. These

temporary structures insured that largecrowds would not gather.

A repressive state dislikes places where peoplecan listen to political rhetoric.

The first permanent stone theater in Romewas built by Pompey in 53 BCE.

He was only allowed to build his theater by

disguising it as a temple to Venus. Others soon imitated him, including the new

emperor Augustus, who built the Theater ofMarcellus in honor of his nephew.


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The Theatre ofMarcellus

The one ancient theatre tosurvive in Rome.

Building was started by Caesar

and completed by Augustus inthe year 11 or 13.

It stands on level ground andis supported by radiating wallsand concrete vaulting.

An arcade with attached half-columns runs around thebuilding.

The columns are Doric andIonic

Augustus


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In the Roman theatre

the orchestra is aplace to sit, insteadof a performing areaas the Greeks had

used it. The auditorium is a

semicircle.

often supported byconcrete vaulting.


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Theatres arefree-standingstructures.

They areincorporatedwithin theboundaries ofthe cities.

They are civicrather thanreligiousbuildings.


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The stage grows in importance and is brought intodirect contact with the audience.

scaenae frons

pulpitum


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Corridors under the tiers were used in case ofrain.

Large Theatre Pompeii


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Large Theatre, Pompeii

in class roman theatre

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