A Brief History ofWestern Theatre

Before there was theatre

• The dithyramb was sung and danced in honour of Dionysus

• “The birth of Dionysus” (Plato)

• Dithyramb was the origin of Athenian tragedy (Aristotle)

• A wildly enthusiastic speech or piece of writing is occasionally described as dithyrambic

Bacchus by Michelangelo

Dithyramb

• 7th Century BCE Athens

• Sung by up to 50 men or boys

• Accompanied by aulos

• Relate an event in the life of Dionysus

• Existed alongside tragedy for a time

Early Tragedy

• Evolved from dithyramb• Thespis, c. 530 BC

– Exarchon, or leader of dithyramb– Added speaking character - god– “Father of Tragedy”– thespian (n) an actor or actress

The Unities• Unity of Action

– Plays should contain one main action to follow

– It should contain few or no subplots

• Unity of Place– Plays should cover a single

physical space– Stage should not represent

more than one place• Unity of Time

– The action of a play should not take place in more than 24 hours

Aristotle (384-322 BC)

Greek Theatre

• C. 550 to 220 BC• Athens• State festival honoring

Dionysus• Forms

– Tragedy– Comedy– Satyr plays

Dionysius TheatreAthens, Greece

The Festival of Dionysus

• God of wine and theatre - Bacchus (Roman)

• Annual Dionysia– Theatre of Dionysus– Once in winter; once in spring– Competition between three

playwrights– Three tragedies plus one satyr

play– One comedy added in 486 BC– Civic duty to attend

“Bacchus”by Caravaggio

The Playwrights• Tragedians

– Aeschylus• 7 plays (of 70)• Adds 2nd actor

– Sophocles• 7 plays (of 123)• Adds 3rd actor

– Euripides• 18 plays (of 95)• Most “modern” of the three

great tragedians

• Comic– Aristophanes

• 11 plays (of 40)• The Frogs won a 2nd

performance Sophocles (497-406 BC)

The Theatre

• Up to 50 in the chorus• Sang from morning to

evening with music• Orchestra, flat spot at foot of

hill – “place for dancing”• Theatron, “watching place”

becomes theatre• Skené, behind the orchestra• obscene• Seat 14,000 to 17,000 people• Open air

Blueprint of Greek Theatre

The Actors

• All men; no women• Masks

– Emotion– Gender– Acoustics

• Cothurnus, elevated boots

• Gloves

Mask of Dionysus

Roman Theatre

• Heavily influenced by Greece; but less influenced by religion

• Romans preferred war and comedy

• Tragedies were too boring

• Audience was rude• Actors wore color

coded robes and wigsRoman theatre at Orange, France

Roman plays: comedy

• Seneca, Plautus and Terrance copied Greek plays

• Did not take theatre or drama seriously, perhaps mocking the Greeks

• Mime begins• Actors not respected

Titus Maccius Plautus (c. 254–184 BC)

Roman plays: Mime plays

• Crude comedy• Pure entertainment;

lots of laughs• Made fun of middle

class and myths• Drunkenness,

obscenity, dances, greed acrobatics, jokes

• Evolves into pantomime

Modern pantomime

Roman plays: Blood thirsty

• Obscene language and actions

• Bloody violence was acceptable; criminals were killed on stage

• Sexual acts performed by prostitutes

• gladiators fought to bloody death

• Like watching sport for the Roman audiences

• Attacked by new Christian church

Roman actors

Medieval European theatre

• Roman Catholic Church banned theatre, mostly to curb the excesses of Roman theatre

• Very little is known about secular drama during the early medieval time; illiteracy

• Some performance, but not fully fledged theatre

• It is also known that mimes, minstrels, bards, storytellers, and jugglers traveled in search of audiences

Medieval church

Medieval theatre staging• Performed in inn yards,

pageant wagons, in the streets of great cities, in the halls of knights, on top of hills or mountains

• Stage production was temporary and expected to be removed upon the completion of the performances.

• Sometimes several small platforms were built called “Mansions” or “Houses”

• They were different locations• Actors travelled between the

Houses in order to enact scene changes

Pageant wagon

5 "M's" of Medieval Theatre: Mummings

• One of the earliest styles• Very strong pagan roots, with

appearances of St. Nicholas alongside the Green Man

• Performed in yearly rituals, such as the summer and winter solstices and spring and summer equinoxes

• The Yule Mummings was most important

• Performances were public communal processions in common social areas, excepting chapels

• Mummings were also unapologetically politically incorrect.

Mummers

5 "M's" of Medieval Theatre:Mysteries

• “Cycle” plays were performed each summer

• A joint community effort in which different guilds were assigned a portion of the Bible to act out on a makeshift stage—wagons—in a community square

• For example, the blacksmith guild, makers of nails, would perform the Crucifixion of Christ

• Actors were all men• Didactic and deeply scriptural,

focused on sharing the gospel story Yorkshire mystery play

5 "M's" of Medieval Theatre:Miracle Plays

• Widened religious horizons, focusing on spirituality outside of the Bible

• Dramatized the lives of canonized Saints

• Heavy emphasis on absolute Truth instead of fact

• Events in the plays may not have been realistic

St. Nicholas

5 "M's" of Medieval Theatre:Morality Plays

• Heavily allegorical and straight didacticism, instructing man in what he should do

• These can be extremely entertaining• The great focus of the morality play is

death• In a post-plague Europe, death was

considered a great equalizer because everyone goes with death eventually

• Everyman, originally a Dutch play

Everyman

• The Somonyng of Everyman, late 15th-century

• Examines the question of Christian salvation by use of allegorical characters

• The premise: good and evil deeds of one's life will be tallied by God after death

• An allegorical accounting of the life of Everyman, who represents all mankind

Death and Everyman

Everyman

• Everyman tries to convince other characters to accompany him in the hope of improving his account

• All the characters are also allegorical, each personifying an abstract idea such as Fellowship, (material) Goods, and Knowledge

• The conflict between good and evil is dramatized by the interactions between characters

First page of early printversion of play

5 "M's" of Medieval Theatre:Manners Plays

• Very late Medieval period, bridging this age with the Renaissance

• Focused on the social and secular instead of the religious

• Taking the idea of the morality play and putting it in a social world instead of a spiritual

• Often, the plays depict people acting socially inappropriately

Commedia dell’Arte

• Troupes performed lively improvisational playlets across Europe

• Originated in Italy in the 1560’s• Differed from conventional theatre in that it was

neither professional nor open to the public• Required only actors, no scene and very few

props were considered absolutely essential• Plays did not originate from scripts but scenarios• Actors improvised most dialogue and comedic

interludes• The plays were based around a few stock

characters, which could be divided into three groups: the lovers, masters, and servants.

Renaissance theatre

• Derived from several medieval theatre traditions, such as the mystery plays

• Other sources include the morality plays and the "University drama" that attempted to recreate Greek tragedy

• The Italian tradition of Commedia dell'arte • Elaborate masques frequently presented

at court also contributed to the shaping of public theatre

Renaissance theatre

• Companies attached to households of leading noblemen

• Foundation for the professional players of the Elizabethan stage

• The tours of these players gradually replaced the performances of the mystery and morality plays by local players

• A 1572 law eliminated the remaining companies lacking formal patronage by labeling them vagabonds

Elizabeth I

London theatre• City of London

authorities were generally hostile

• But Elizabeth liked plays• Theatres sprang up in

suburbs, especially in Southwark

• Pretended that public performances were rehearsals for the Queen

• The latter granted prestige, the former was the real source the players income

London theatre

• The character of drama changed toward the end of the period

• Under Elizabeth I, the drama was a unified expression as far as social class was concerned: the Court watched the same plays the commoners saw in the public playhouses

• With the development of the private theatres, drama became more oriented toward the tastes and values of an upper-class audience

• By the later part of the reign of Charles I, few new plays were being written for the public theatres, which sustained themselves on the accumulated works of the previous decades