GREEK THEATRE

The first tragic dramas

• Originally the theatre was a holy place, the setting for the cult of Dionysus- the Greek god of wine, fertility and revelry.

Religious rituals evolve into Greek theatre

• Major celebrations, in honour of the Greek god Dionysus.

• One of the elements of these celebrations was the dithyramb, a choral ode song to the gods by a chorus of fifty men.

• Aristotle tell us that Greek tragedy grew out of the dithyramb.

• Held at festivals in Athens

Theatres

Theatres

Theatres

• 500 BC

• Outside- hillsides.

• Acoustics

• Sunlight

Epidaurus

Plots

• The earliest Greek dramas, especially those by Aeschylus (525-456 BC), drew their plots and characters from Greek myths.

• Greek mythology is the legends and stories behind the Greek gods.

THESPSIS of Icaria 

• First Actor

• First Playwright

• Chorus + 1 actor.

• Thespsis won the first Greek tragedy contest in 534 BC.

Aeschylus (525-456 BC).

• Won 13Tragic Contests.

• Wrote 80 plays - 7 survived…including the only complete trilogy: Oresteia (458 BC). He added the second actor, creating the possibility of dramatic dialogue.

Aeschylus

Aeschylus

Conventions

• Men only

• Masked

• Stilts

• Actor Audience

• Chorus

• Actors

Chorus

Chorus

• acted as a ‘character’ in the play, usually the townspeople.

• sympathetic to the protagonist. • presented the writer's point of view. • the ideal spectator, their reaction to a scene

would cue the audience on how they should react.

• broke the drama into five dramatic scenes, each scene was separated from the next by a choral interlude.

Sophocles(496-406 BC)

Sophocles

• Sophocles won eighteen Tragic Contests.

• Wrote 120 plays- only 7 have survived.

• Tragedies

• Added 3rd Actor

Sophocles

Euripedes

• Tragedies

Euripedes

Euripedes

Comedy/Tragedy

Aristophanes

• Comedies

Aristophanes

Aristophanes

Aristotle (384 -322 BC. )

• Philosopher & critic.

• He wrote about 100 years after Sophocles major tragedies were produced.

Aristotle’sPoetics

• Dramatic Theory• Content

– One Plot– One Story– One Time– Language, rhythm and melody– Tragedy : characters who are serious, important, and

virtuous – Climatic structure.– Comedy: characters who are less virtuous,

unimportant, undignified, laughable. Episodic structure.

Greek Theatre

• Is regularly performed today, and not only in Greece.

• Still relevant to contemporary society.