HISTORY OF THE THEATER: THE CLASSICAL PERIOD

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 INTRODUCTION

A knowledge of the history of theatre of the classical period is very important to any student of the theatre.  This is not only because much of the terms by which the theatre  is known today  originated in this period, but also because the dramatic activities of this great era provide sufficient basis for comparative study of drama.

3.1     Origin of the Classical Greek Theatre

Theatre generally is a very ancient art.  Its exact point of origin is not certain because of its primordial root.   However, by 5th  Century B.C., Pisistratus, the leader of Athenian democracy gave official recognition to theatre, by making it part of their greatest national festival – City Dionysia.  He instituted prizes for the best three plays and actors.  This encouraged keen and robust dramatic activities.  Dramatists enjoyed the status of nobility, and this helped tremendously in bringing the Greek theatre to a limelight.

Although drama certainly flourished in other Greek city-states, it was from Athens that what we have today as complete examples of Greek plays  came.     Athens  maintained  as  it  were,  a  certain  degree  of superiority in theatre of the ancient Greece because it enriched its drama with materials from its immediate past history and mythology.  Thus, an understanding  of  Greek  history  and  mythology  is  essential  to  the understanding  of the  great  drama  that  grew  out  of them.    Homer recorded Greek mythology in two volumes namely, Iliad and Odyssey. In these works, Homer recorded some of the Greek gods and how they affected life on earth.   Dionysus, the god of wine and vegetation was recorded by Aristotle to have influenced the origin of Greek theatre. According to Aristotle, “tragedy, indeed, originated from those who led the dithyramb”.  Dithyramb referred to choral song chanted in honour of Dionysus.

 EXERCISE 1

What gave impetus to the development of the Greek drama?

3.2     Dramatic Genres

Three  dramatic  genres  existed  in  the  Greek  classical  theatre.  They include tragedy, comedy and satyr.

Tragedy

Tragedy, which Aristotle defined as an imitation of actions of illustrious men and women, and which aims at the purgation of pity and fear, was by far, the most esteemed of all the genres, and the first to be accorded recognition in City Dionysia.   As Aristotle said, it evolved from the improvisations of the leaders of dithyramb.  Why did the Greeks esteem tragedy over comedy and satyr?  The answer is not far to seek.  Tragedy was the only genre that provided the people an opportunity to watch their  moral  philosophy  issue  forth  in  actions.    The  classical  Greek people were quite strong and boisterous in nature.  They made a lot of conquest over nations and even over nature, and possessed the ability to meet  almost  any  emergency,  but  they  realized  that  in  spite  of the seemingly divine element in man, he has his position, very much lower than that of the gods.   So, man should know himself.   He should, no matter  the  strength  of his  wisdom  and  intelligence,  seek  to  equate himself with gods, else he will rob himself of his life.  Another Greek moral principle which tragedy helped to clarify was “nothing in excess”. According to Bowra:

The  Greeks  loved  and  admired  intelligence  whether practical  or  theoretical,  and  no  doubt  felt  that  they surpassed other people  in their possession of it, but they had qualms about its uninhibited exercise and felt that it must be balanced by other qualities of character and self-control.  If a man relied solely or chiefly on it, he was thought likely to frustrate even his own ends by being too clever and even fail to understand much that was obvious to the ordinary man (1975:43).

This is the case with King Oedipus in  Sophocles’ play  Odipus Rex, written in 5th  century B.C.   In this play, Oedipus relied heavily on his wisdom and intelligence.  He equated his wisdom with that of the gods and  thought  that he  could  solve  any riddle  of life by  means  of his wisdom.  Whatever actions Oedipus performed in the play, he did so out of arrogance, misconceived intellection and sagacity.  He felt that he had the will power to do whatever he wanted to do.  His belief in his will- power made him to be found wanting in contemplative life.  As Knox opines, “in the play, Oedipus’ will to action never falters, and it forces Tiresias, Jocasta and the Shepherd, in spite of their reluctance, to play their part in the swift progress towards the discovery of the truth and his downfall” (1984:138).

So tragedy was developed to teach the youth, the society’s conventional wisdom.   In spite of their boisterous nature, “the Greeks were keenly aware of life’s uncertainty and imminence of death … the swift passing of all that is beautiful and joyous” (Hamilton, 1973:24).  This is why the chorus at the end of the play, Oedipus Rex comments:

People of Thebes, my countrymen, look on Oedipus.   He solved the famous riddle with his brilliance; he rose to power a man beyond all power.  Who could behold his greatness without envy?

Now what a black sea of terror has overwhelmed him.  Now as we keep our watch and wait the final day, count no man happy till he dies, free of pain at last.

Comedy

The  Greek  Comedy  developed much  later than tragedy.   It was not officially  recognized  as  part  of City  Dionysia  and  as  such  was  not granted chorus until 487 B.C. Although from that time onward, comedy became  fully part  of City Dionysia,  it was to  find its true  abode  in Leneia – another form of Dionysiac festival devoted to merry making.

The comedy was a sort of commentary on Greek society, its leadership, literature and above all, the Peloponnesian war.  Aristophanes was the greatest  of all  the  classical  Greek  comedians.    A  property  -owning gentleman, he hated the damaging and protracted war between Athens and Sparta.  According to Luis Vargas, “His ideal of Athenian manhood he found in the men who fought a hero’s fight at Marathon to repel the Persian invader and save their country and whose courage and devotion had laid the foundations of Athenian greatness, and had made her the first city state of Greek world”.  Comedy in the 5th  century B.C. was a mixture of political satire, buffoonery, wit, humour and unbridled fun. Every aspect of social, political, as well as philosophical aspect of life that was deemed bad elicited attention.  Nothing was considered sacred, even gods whose activities were questionable were satirized in a bawdy fashion.  In a nutshell, the classical Greek comedy exercised great deal of license of tongue.  This enabled it to satirize persons, institution and even works of art that were considered sub-standard.

Satyr

Information on  satyr is very  scanty.   This is because apart from the Cyclops written by Euripides, no other play of satyr tradition is extant. From available sources, the satyr genre was named after the mythical, goatish  and  half-human  companions  of Dionysus.    The  satyr  came between heavy tragic episodes in order to help reduce tension.  It was a highly wild play filled with exaggerated dance.

 EXERCISE 2

Why was tragedy so dear to the Greeks?

3.3     Acting in Classical Times

Acting in classical theatre was highly stylized.  Speeches were rendered in a declamatory manner.  This was essentially because theatre was an open door affair,  and the  audience was  quite large in number.   The nature of the performance environment placed considerable task on the voice.  According to Oscar G. Brockett, the Greeks “judged actors above all  by  the  beauty  of vocal  tone  and  ability  to  adapt  to  manner  of speaking to mood and character”.   Since voice projection was in high demand,  adequate voice training  and  exercises were taken  seriously. Acting departed from realism, and tended towards exaggeration because of the  problem  of visibility.    There  were  too  many  people  in  the audience.   Hence many realistic movements gestures  and mannerism might  not  reach  them.    Even  the  body  and  height  of actors  were enhanced by padding and wearing of high-heeled shoes and artificial hairdo.

SELF ASSESSMENT EXERCISE 3

Discuss the nature of acting in classical Greek Theatre.

3.4     Masks and Costumes

Masks  and  costumes  played  fundamental  roles  in  classical  Greek theatre.    The  masks  were  not  designed  for  purposes  of  achieving realism, rather they were employed to achieve symbolic effect.  Though masks might carry nuances of emotion, they were conventionalized in use.  Tragic masks were horrifying while comic masks exaggerated the attributes  of  the  characters  they  represent.    Masks  for  the  chorus represented animals and birds.

Apart  from  the  conventionalized  use  of  masks,  they  were  equally designed to help enhance the height of actors in order to make them visible to the audience, as well as to enable actors change roles and also to play female roles, since actresses were not permitted on Greek stage.

Costumes  worn  by   actors  were  modified  contemporary  Athenian dresses.   Tragic actors wore beautiful garments which represented the aristocratic tendency of tragedy.   However, in bitter situations, tragic characters wore torn dresses.  We observed this from the statements of actors in some of the plays of Sophocles and Euripides.  According to Oscar Brockett:

In addition to the tunic (chiton) both actors and chorus might  wear  a  short  cloak  (chlamys  or  a  long  one (himation).    The  identity  of both  actors  and  chorus might-be  established in part by  symbolic properties: the king by his scepter, the warrior by his spear, the suppliant by his branch, the herald by his wreath, and so on (1999:29).

Apart from the masks and the costumes, tragic actors also wore high- heeled thick booths called kothornoi and an exaggerated hair known as onkus.  The purpose of these was to enhance the actors height for easy visibility.

Comic actors wore the dresses of the lowborn and these costumes were made funny by having them ill-fitted, too short and very tight.   The essence was to emphasize comic nudity, as Brockett would say.  Sexual attributes were  equally  emphasized through  costumes.   For example, male characters, excluding the chorus wore phalluses to emphasize the fertility aim of the dionysiac festival.

SELF ASSESSMENT EXERCISE 4

Discuss the nature of the comic costumes.

3.5     The Chorus

The chorus played significant roles in the classical Greek theatre.  It was made of Athenian men who stood on the stage commenting on incidents and  characters,  as well  as  dancing  and  singing in between  episodes. Originally,  the  chorus  was  said to be  fifty  in  number,  but with  the introduction of several characters, the number appeared to have been reduced to twelve.  In fact, as time went by, the position of the chorus appeared to be crippled.  They in fact, were non-existent in some plays of Euripides.

In  spite  of the  fate  of the  chorus  in the 4th   Century  B.C.,  it played dominant roles in the Greek theatre of the 5th  Century B.C. The chorus performed the following functions:

.    In some plays, it supplied ethical and social background.   It played this role in Oedipus The King by Sophocles, and in The Oresteian Triology by Aeschylus.

.    Sometimes the chorus played the role of characters in plays, giving advice, expressing opinion etc.

.    The chorus helped to create mood

.   It equally helped to create rhythm and pause to enable the audience to reflect on what has been presented.

.   The chorus equally served as idea spectators, reacting to the play in the manner the audience would have reacted

.   The chorus equally coloured performances with songs and dances. This helped to heighten dramatic effect.

The  Greeks had  great  interest  in  dance,  and would not  tolerate  any shoddy performance of it.   Consequently,  choruses were  assigned to playwrights 11 months before the actual performance.  Training of the chorus was quite protracted and arduous.

 EXERCISE 5

Identify and discuss any two functions of the chorus.

3.6     Conventions of the Classical Greek Theatre

Many conventions marked the practice of theatre in the classical Greek period.  These conventions are as follows:

.   Because  of the  sacred nature  of the  festival  of Dionysus, women were never allowed to mount the Greek stage.

.   As a result of the foregoing, roles written for women were played by young  men,  who  disguised  themselves  by  wearing  masks  and feminine dresses.

.   Violent actions, such as killing, stabbing, and death, all took place backstage.   Victims of such violence were revealed on stage to the spectators by means of a device called ekkyklema.

.    Subject matters of plays were drawn from history and popular myths. As a result of this, plays had late point of attack.   This means that plots  of  plays  began  not  from  the  beginning  of  the  story  that informed plays, but always from the crisis point.

.    Only three actors were permitted on stage to perform at once.

.   All actors, including the chorus wore masks.

 EXERCISE 6

List and discuss three conventions of the Greek theatre.

3.7     The Classical Greek Audience and Theatre Organisation

Theatre going during the classical Greek period was a matter of civic obligation.    Since  City  Dionysia  was  the  greatest  Athenian  festival, public holidays were declared for the six days the festival lasted.  As a result of this, every healthy Athenian citizen, man, woman, girl, boy or slave was expected to attend the theatre.  According to Luis Vargas:

A  theatregoer  in  those  days  would  be  prepared  to spend the whole day in the theatre.  If he were wise, he would bring some food and wine with him, and join the hurrying crowd of fellow Athenians and visitors at dawn,   anxious   to   secure   the   best   seat   possible (1960:26).

The  above  statement  implies  that  the  Athenian  theatregoer  regarded theatre going with much enthusiasm, as there were no cinema halls, nor magazines  or  videos  to  compete  for  attention.  They  expressed  their feeling about performances and actors overtly and spontaneously.  They catcalled  and  booed  bad  actors,  as  well  as  applauded  wonderful performers.   Due to the fact that they held their gods in high esteem, they attacked playwrights such as Euripides who attempted to present their gods in bad light.

The dramatists were looked upon as ministers of religion during the classical Greek times.   They played  significant role in moulding the “national mind and character”.  Because of this sacred role played by the theatre,  the  city-state  catered  for  the  financial  requirements  of play productions.  Playwrights who wanted their plays to be produced were required  to  apply  to  the  state  magistrate  known  as  the  archon  for approval and for the assignment of the chorus and the chorogus who would bear the financial responsibility of training and maintaining the chorus.     The  chorogoi  were  wealthy  men  who  acted  as  financial benefactors  to  productions.     According  to  Vargas,  “they  are,  the classical equivalent of ‘Angels’ who back plays today on Broadway or Shaftesbury”  (27).    Generous  chorogoi  lavished  their  money  on  the chorus.  This enabled them to earn more respect among the people.  The state paid the actors and the winning playwrights out of the public funds. Dramatic  contests  were  very  keen  and  highly  competitive.    Judges elected by the state awarded prizes.  In the competition, each playwright was required to submit four plays, three tragic play and one satyr.

 EXERCISE 7

Who sponsored the classical Greek productions?

The Decline of the Classical Greek Theatre

The classical Greek theatre extended from about 534-300 B.C.   Many factors were responsible for the fall of this great theatre.  These factors were internal, as well as external.

Internal Factors

The major internal cause was the terrible effect of the Peloponnesian war.   This war that lasted between 431-401B.C. was fought between Athens and  Sparta.   It caused Athens to loose enormous human and material resources.  After the Peloponnesian war, economic and political crisis developed.   The result of the war, widened the gap between the haves  and  the  have-nots  greatly.    This  degenerated  into  bitter  class struggle.   Athenian democracy suffered terrible setbacks following the death of Pericles in 429 B.C.  Uncontrollable suspicion among Athenian leaders  encouraged extreme individualism.   Individuals began to pay attention to private needs.    State  and the  chorogoi jettisoned theatre sponsorship,   and   the   theatre  became   extremely   aristocratic;   only individuals with sound financial standing could afford the pleasure of attending  the  theatre.     Hence  the  people’s  theatre  made  way  for Aristocratic pastimes.

Another  important  internal  factor  was  the  growing  secularization  of thinking  which  crept  into  the  theatre  scenes  through  the  plays  of Euripides.     Euripides  became  too  advanced  in  his  thinking.     He questioned  things,  which  hitherto  had  been  taken  for  granted.    For example he subjected the Greek gods to great scrutiny in order to reveal their vulnerability.   As a  sophist, he  sought to engage the people in argument based on rational thinking.   The manner in which Euripides handled  the  gods  especially  compelled  many  Athenians  to  shun  the theatre.  In fact, it was on record that he was once stoned out of the stage by angry Athenians for subjecting their gods to human passions.

External Factor

In about 358 B.C., Philip of Macedon and his popular son, Alexander the Great, after series of attacks, conquered all the Greek City-States, including   Athens.      Material   and   human   resources   were   greatly dissipated, and this left Athens sore wounded.  However, as Athens wars nursing the wound of defeat, the all-powerful Roman Empire extended its reign to it.     This was the final blow that devastated the classical Greek civilization and theatre.

 EXERCISE 7

What factors brought about the fall of the classical Greek theatre?

The Classical Roman Theatre

Before their contact with the Greek culture, the Romans had had their own unwritten indigenous theatre forms known as the fescenine verse, and the more popular Fabulla Atellana. The latter was noted for its stock characters and slapstick actions.  When they overran and conquered the Greek City-States, “the Roman were content to take over much of the Greek  drama  as  a  model  but  they  had  themselves  a  great  gift  for adopting what they had acquired for their own purposes” (Vargas, 71).    They  experimented  with  tragedy  and  comedy  but  the  mime  and pantomime later overwhelmed the stage.

Comedy

The  Romans  preferred  comedy  to  tragedy  because  they  essentially perceived theatre as means of mere entertainment, and not an avenue to explain moral principles.  They imitated the Greeks’ new comedy which centred on domestic affairs such as mistaken identity, marital infidelity, drunkenness etc. Though the Romans emulated the Greeks, they did not just imitate them, but added some changes.  The changes are as follows:

.   There was no attempt to divide plays into scenes and acts

.    The chorus was abandoned completely

.    Occasionally, music accompanied dialogue

.    Roman comedy dealt with the affairs of well-to-do middle class.

.   Roman comedy made extensive use of stock characters.

Plautus and Terence were the most famous comic writers of the classical Roman period.

Seneca and the Tragic Genre

Seneca was the greatest of all the Roman tragedians, and the one who influenced the world theatre tremendously.  He was a great moralist who tested the philosophy of stoicism dramatically.  He overloaded his plays with  moral  sentiments  about  human  behaviour.    He  made  use  of rhetorical language and extensive use of violence in order to reveal the animalistic  tendency  of man.    He  made  great  use  of melodramatic techniques.  For example, his characters were either completely good or depraved.   He ensured that the villain never escaped punishment.   He divided  his  plays  into  five-acts,  and  this  was  later  to  influenced Shakespeare and other Renaissance playwrights greatly.

Mime and Pantomime

By  the  First  Century  A.D.,  mime  and pantomime  had  developed  to become the most popular forms of dramatic performances.   While the Plebeians favoured the mime, the pantomime was championed by the Patricians, that is the upper class.  Their themes were drawn from social issues  ranging  from  adultery  to  more   serious  but  comical  ones. Sometimes they mocked and ridiculed Christianity and its values.  They used vile tongue and abusive language against the church.  The church fought back and got the government whose officials were sometimes attacked to ban public presentation of drama of whatever type.

 EXERCISE 9

What factor led to the collapse of the Roman theatre?

4.0     CONCLUSION

In the classical Greek era, theatre was an act of worship. Playwrights and actors were very highly esteemed.  Dramatists were acknowledged as ministers of religion who played the sacred role of helping to mould the mind and the characters of the citizens.

However, in classical Roman society, the theatre was simply seen as a means   of  entertainment   where   slaves   indulged   in   slapstick   and buffoonery actions to please their masters.

5.0     SUMMARY

In this unit, we took a look at the history of the theatre of the classical period.  Specifically, we examined the role of the theatre, the nature of acting, the function of the chorus, the type of audience, dramatic genres, how the theatre was organized, as well as the factors that brought about the decline of the classical theatre of Greece and Rome.

6.0      ASSIGNMENT

Discuss the role of tragedy to the classical Greeks.

7.0     REFERENCES/FURTHER READINGS

Brockett, Oscar G. (1999). History of the Theatre.   Boston: Allyn and Bacon.

Vargas, Luis (1960). The Teach Yourself Guidebook to Drama. London: The English Universities Press.

Aristotle (1973). “The Poetics”. In European  Theories of the Drama With a Suplement on American Drama.  (ed) Barrett H. Clark. New York: Crown Publishers.

Knox,  Bernard  (1984).  “Introduction  to  “Oedipus  the  King”  in  The Three Theban Plays.  Trans. Robert Tagle. New York: Penguin.

Hatlen,  Theodore  (1981).  Orientation  to  the  Theatre.  New  Jersey: Prentice Hall.

Hamilton,  Edith  (1973).  The  Greek  Way.  Sixth  Printing. New York: Avon Books.

Bowra,  C.M.  (1957).  The  Greek Experience. New York:  The World Publishing Company.

(1966).     Landmarks  in  Greek  Literature.  New  York:  The  World Publishing Company.

Reinhold, Meyer (1959).   Classical Drama: Greek and Roman.   New York: Parrens Educational Series.