1. CONTENTS: thousands of fine plays and films, but their form
and often their content are based on the
PROLOGUE: The Origins of Drama, The Cult of innovations of the ancient Athenians.
Dionysus, Dithyramb.
The Cult of Dionysus
THE GOLDEN AGE OF GREEK DRAMA: Thespis,
Athenian Drama. The theatre of Ancient Greece evolved from
religious rites which date back to at least 1200
Competitions, Amphitheatres, How Plays Were BC. At that time, Greece was peopled by tribes
Performed in Ancient Greece. that we in our arrogance might label 'primitive'.
TRAGEDY: Aeschylus: The First Playwright, In northern Greece, in an area called Thrace, a
Sophocles, Aristotle's Poetics, Euripides. cult arose that worshipped Dionysus, the god of
fertility and procreation. This Cult of Dionysus,
COMEDY: Aristophanes and Old Comedy, New which probably originated in Asia Minor,
Comedy and Menander. practised ritual celebrations which may have
included alcoholic intoxication, orgies, human
EPILOGUE.
and animal sacrifices, and perhaps even
THE PHYSICAL SPACE: Stages, Properties and hysterical rampages by women called maenads.
Costume.
The cult's most controversial practice involved,
it is believed, uninhibited dancing and
emotional displays that created an altered
PROLOGUE: mental state. This altered state was known as
'ecstasis', from which the word ecstasy is
The Origins of Drama
derived. Dionysiac, hysteria and 'catharsis' also
Twenty-five hundred years ago, two thousand derive from Greek words for emotional release
years before Shakespeare, Western theatre was or purification. Ecstasy was an important
born in Athens, Greece. Between 600 and 200 religious concept to the Greeks, who would
BC, the ancient Athenians created a theatre come to see theatre as a way of releasing
culture whose form, technique and terminology powerful emotions through its ritual power.
have lasted two millennia, and they created Though it met with resistance, the cult spread
plays that are still considered among the south through the tribes of Greece over the
greatest works of world drama. Their ensuing six centuries. During this time, the rites
achievement is truly remarkable when one of Dionysus became mainstream and more
considers that there have been only two other formalised and symbolic. The death of a tragic
periods in the history of theatre that could be hero was offered up to god and man rather
said to approach the greatness of ancient than the sacrifice of say, a goat. By 600 BC these
Athens - Elizabethan England and, perhaps the ceremonies were practised in spring throughout
Twentieth Century. The greatest playwright of much of Greece.
Elizabethan England was Shakespeare, but
Athens produced at least five equally great
playwrights. The Twentieth Century produced The Dithyramb

2. was located in a region called Attica. Greek and
Athenian theatre are sometimes referred to as
An essential part of the rites of Dionysus was Attic Theatre.
the dithyramb. The word means 'choric hymn'.
This chant or hymn was probably introduced Thespis
into Greece early accompanied by mimic
gestures and, probably, music. It began as a In about 600 BC, Arion of Mehtymna (Corinth)
part of a purely religious ceremony, like a hymn wrote down formal lyrics for the dithyramb.
in the middle of a mass describing the Some time during the next 75 years, Thespis of
adventures of Dionysus. In its earliest form it Attica added an actor who interacted with the
was lead off by the leader of a band of revelers, chorus. This actor was called the protagonist,
a group of dancers, probably dressed as satyrs from which the modern word protagonist is
derived, meaning the main character of a
dancing around an altar. It was probably
performed by a chorus of about fifty men drama. Introduce a second speaker and one
dressed as satyrs -- mythological half-human, moves from one art, that of choric chant, to
half- goat servants of Dionysus. They may have another, theatre. Tradition ascribes this
played drums, lyres and flutes, and chanted as innovation to one Thespis, and even gives him a
they danced around an effigy of Dionysus. Some date; he is said to have performed Athens about
accounts say they also wore phallus-like 534 BC. Whether this is true of not, his name
has achieved immortality in theatrical jargon -
headgear. It was given a regular form and raised
to the rank of artistic poetry in about 600 BC. 'actors' and 'Thespians' are synonymous.
Introduced into Athens shortly before 500 BC,
dithyramb was soon recognised as one of the
competitive subjects at the various Athenian Athenian Drama Competitions
festivals. For more than a generation after its
In 534 BC, the ruler of Athens, Pisistratus,
introduction the dithyramb attracted the most
changed the Dionysian Festivals and instituted
famous poets of the day. By this time, however,
drama competitions. Thespis is said to have
it had ceased to concern itself exclusively with
won the first competition in 534 BC. In the
the adventures of Dionysus and begun to
ensuing 50 years, the competitions became
choose its subjects from all periods of Greek
popular annual events. A government authority
mythology. In this way, over time the dithyramb
called the archon would choose the
would evolve into stories in 'play' form: drama.
competitors and the choregos, wealthy patrons
who financed the productions. Even in ancient
Greece, the funding of the arts was a way of tax
THE GOLDEN AGE OF GREEK THEATRE avoidance. In return for funding a production,
By 600 BC Greece was divided into city-states, the choregos would pay no taxes that year.
separate nations centred in major cities and
regions. The most prominent city-state was
Athens, where at least 150,000 people lived. It
was here that the Rites of Dionysus evolved into
what we know today as theatre. Since Athens

3. Amphitheatres religious lessons. Much like Biblical parables,
tragedies were designed to show the right and
During this time, major theatres were wrong paths in life. Tragedies were not simply
constructed, notably the theatre at Delphi, the plays with bad endings, nor were they simply
Attic Theatre and the Theatre of Dionysus in
spectacles devised to ‘make 'em laugh and
Athens. The Theatre of Dionysus, built at the make 'em cry.’ Tragedy was viewed as a form of
foot of the Acropolis in Athens, could seat ritual purification, Aristotle's catharsis, which
17,000 people. During their heyday, the gives rise to pathos, another Greek word,
competitions drew as many as 30,000 meaning 'instructive suffering'. They depicted
spectators. The words theatre and the life voyages of people who steered
amphitheatre derive from the Greek word themselves or who were steered by fate on
theatron, which referred to the wooden
collision courses with society, life's rules,
spectator stands erected on those hillsides. orsimply fate. The tragic protagonist is one who
Similarly, the word orchestra is derived from refuses out of either weakness or strength to
the Greek word for a platform between the acquiesce to fate: what for us nowmight better
raised stage and the audience on which the be described as the objective realities of life.
chorus was situated. Most often, the protagonist's main fault is
hubris, a Greek, and English word meaning false
or overweening arrogance. It could be the
How Plays Were Performed arrogance of not accepting ones destiny (i.e. as
in Oedipus Rex), the arrogance of assuming the
Plays were performed in the daytime. The
right to kill (Agamemnon), or the arrogance of
annual drama competitions in Athens were
assuming the right to seek vengeance (Orestes).
spread over several, entire days. Actors
Whatever the root cause, the protagonist's
probably wore little or no makeup. Instead,
ultimate collision with fate, reality, or society is
they carried masks with exaggerated facial
inevitable and irrevocable.
expressions. They also wore cothornos, or
buskins, which were leather boots laced up to
the knees. There was little or no scenery.
Initially, most of the action took place in the The Culture That Created Tragedy
orchestra. Later, as the importance shifted from Tragedy did not develop in a vacuum. It was an
the chorus to the characters, the action moved outgrowth of what was happening at the time
to the stage. in Athens. One hand, Greek religion (see
Bullfinch's Mythology. It is in library) had
dictated how people should behave and think
TRAGEDY for centuries. On the other, there was a birth of
free thought and intellectual inquiry. Athens in
Between 600 and 500 BC, the dithyramb had
the fourth and fifth centuries BC was bustling
evolved into new forms, most notably the
with radical ideas like democracy, philosophy,
tragedy and the ‘satyr’ play. Tragedy, derived
mathematics, science and art. It boasted
from the Greek words tragos (goat) and ode
philosophers like Plato, Socrates, Aristotle,
(song), told a story that was intended to teach
Epicurus, and Democritus. There were the first

4. known historians Thucydides and Herodotus. instructive suffering) which has come to mean
The scientists and mathematicians like Thales, the quality in something that arouses sympathy.
Hippocrates, Archimedes, and later Euclid Often used today to describe something sad but
(euclidean geometry), Pythagoras (the not necessarily tragic. Satyrs, trilogies of
Pythagorean theorem), Eratosthenes, Hero (the tragedies were interrupted by satyr plays
steam engine!), Hipparchus and Ptolemy. In (which made fun of characters in the tragedies
these respects -- a blossoming of free thought around them). Hence the word tragedy.
after years of religious dicta -- ancient Athens Comedy from Komodos which means
resembled Renaissance England, which not 'merrymaking,' and 'singer.'
coincidentally spawned the next great era in
theatre. In essence, the ancient Athenians had
begun to question how nature worked, how Aeschylus, the First Playwright
society should work, and what man's role was in
the scheme of things. Tragedy was the poets' Until 484 BC the Athenian drama competitions
answer to some of these questions -- How consisted of a trilogy of dithyrambs and a satyr
should one behave? How can one accept the play. Their style of presentation was choral
injustices of life? What is the price of hubris? rather than dramatic. However, around 484 BC
Read a soliloquy from a Greek tragedy, or from there appeared on the Athenian theatre scene a
Hamlet or Macbeth, and what you will hear is playwright named Aeschylus. Aeschylus turned
these questions being asked. the dithyramb into drama. He added a second
actor (the antagonist) to interact with the first.
He introduced props and scenery and reduced
The Form of Tragedy the chorus from 50 to 12. Aeschylus' Persians,
written in 472 BC, is the earliest play in
The traditional tragedy in Aeschylus' time (circa existence. Aeschylus' crowning work was The
475 BC) consisted of the following parts: Oresteia, a trilogy of tragedies first performed
in 458 BC. They tell the legend of Agamemnon,
the Greek war hero who was murdered by his
1. Prologue, which described the wife Clytemnestra, and the pursuit of justice by
situation and set the scene his children, Orestes and Electra. Thematically,
the trilogy is about the tragedy of excessive
2. Parados, an ode sung by the chorus human pride, arrogance or hubris. This hubris is
as it made its entrance required to murder a person for personal gain,
as Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthus do, as
3. Five dramatic scenes, each followed
well as the hubris to in turn hunt down and kill
by a Komos, an exchange of laments by the
them, as Orestes and Electra do. In the end, the
chorus and the protagonist
Furies, vengeful emissaries of the gods,
4. Exodus, the climax and conclusion themselves bring Orestes and Electra to trial.
Aeschylus makes a point that has been echoed
Aristotle - arousing of fear and emotion, by historians and dramatists, psychologists and
purging (catharsis) - the unities: unity of time crime writers for centuries since: that the root
place and character - Pathos (Greek for of evil and suffering is usually human arrogance.

5. On a dramatic level, the plays convey the with him. Sophocles' plays are about the folly of
suffering of a family torn apart by patricide and arrogance and the wisdom of accepting fate.
matricide. Sophocles believed in the Greek gods, but his
plays are suffused with existential insights that
have been voiced many times since. For
The Periclean Age instance, compare this observation by
Antigone: What joy is there in day repeating
Aeschylus' death in 456 BC coincided with the day, some short, some long, with death the only
beginning of the Periclean Age, a period during end? I think them fools who warm their hearts
which Athens' population grew to 150,000, its with the glow of empty hopes.
government embraced democracy (although
two-thirds of its population were slaves), and
the arts flourished. In a span of 60 years, With that of Macbeth's famous speech:
Thucydides and Herodotus wrote their histories,
the sophists, Socrates and Plato expounded
their philosophies, and Sophocles, Euripides and
Aristophanes wrote some of the world's best Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,
plays. Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
Sophocles And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
In 468 BC, Aeschylus was defeated in the The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
tragedy competition by Sophocles. Sophocles'
contribution to drama was the addition of a Life's but a walking shadow; a poor player,
third actor and an emphasis on drama between
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
humans rather than between humans and gods.
Sophocles was a fine craftsman. Aristotle used And then is heard no more: It is a tale
Sophocles' play, Oedipus Rex for his classic
analysis of drama, The Poetics. Sophocles' plays Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
are suffused with irony. In The Oedipus Trilogy,
Signifying nothing.
Oedipus seeks the truth about his father's
murder. The truth that awaits him, however, is
that he is the murderer. Click here for a
summary of the 'Oedipus Trilogy'. In Electra, the Euripides
hunted murderer Aegisthus finds the identity of
In all, Sophocles won 20 competitions, making
a body under a blanket is Orestes, the man who
him the Carol Lewis of Greek dramatic
has relentlessly hunted him and his lover,
competition. Although far behind Sophocles in
Clytemnestra. He is relieved that he has
the medal count with a mere five, Euripides has
escaped justice. However, when he lifts the
since eclipsed both Sophocles and Aeschylus in
blanket he discovers the body is that of his lover
popularity. The modern attraction to him stems
Clytemnestra. Orestes has indeed caught up

6. largely from his point of view, which finds a New Comedy, whose main exponent was
strong echo in modern attitudes. His plays were Menander. Aristophanes theatrical works were
not about Gods or royalty but real people. He presented at the Athenian festivals.
placed peasants alongside princes and gave Aristophanes and Cratinus used three actors, a
their feelings equal weight. He showed the chorus that sung, danced, and sometimes
reality of war, criticised religion, and portrayed participated in the dialogue. The Chorus's
the forgotten of society: women, slaves, and address to the audience reveals the author's
the old. Euripides is credited with adding to the opinion. In these speeches, he ridicules the
dramatic form the prologue, which "set the Gods, Athenian institutions, popular and
stage" at the beginning of the play, and the powerful individuals, including Aeschylus,
deus ex machina, which wrapped up loose ends Sophocles and Euripides. Given the cultivated
at the close. Aside from those devices, there is and scholarly culture of its ruling elite, Athens
less contrivance, fate or philosophy in Euripides invited satire. Aristophanes assumed the task
than in either Aeschylus or Sophocles. There is with zeal, aiming his lampoonery at those who
instead a poignant realism, such as in this scene stuck their heads above the crowd:
from the anti-war Trojan Women, in which a
grandmother grieves over the daughter and
grandson she has outlived. During his life, Take, for example, the Warriors, in 'Lysistrata':
Euripides was viewed as a heretic and was often
lampooned in Aristophanes' comedies. First Speaker: For through man's
Extremely cynical of human nature, he became heart there runs in flood
a bookish recluse and died in 406 BC, two years
A natural and
before Sophocles.
noble taste for blood---
Second Speaker: To form a ring and
COMEDY fight--
Tragedy was not the only product of Athens' Third Speaker: To cut off heads at
flourishing theatre culture; comedy also thrived. sight--
Not only did the Greeks produce many lasting
All in Unison: It is our right!
comedies; they also cast the moulds for many
Roman, Elizabethan and modern comedies. The Youth... Come, listen
historical development of comedy was not as now to the good old days when children,
well recorded as that of tragedy. Aristotle notes
in The Poetics that before his own time comedy strange to tell,
was considered trivial and common -- though were seen not heard, led a simple life,
when it was finally recognised as an art form,
in short were
the orphan suddenly had many fathers:
brought up well.
Aristophanes and Old Comedy
See, too, the treatment of intellectuals, in 'The
Greek comedy had two periods: Old Comedy,
Clouds':
represented by Cratinus and Aristophanes; and

7. Comedy, and its two main practitioners were
Menander and Phlyates. Menander is the more
Father: (enrolling his son in a "school for significant of the two. Most of his plays are now
thinking") O Socrates! O--dear--sweet-- lost, but parts found their way into plays by the
Socrates! Roman playwrights Plautus and Terence (whom
Socrates: (meditating in a basket overhead) Julius Caesar called "a half-Menander"). From
Mortal! Why call you on me? these works they were incorporated into
Shakespeare's Comedy of Errors, Stephen
Father: Tell me, please, what are you doing up Sondheim's A Funny Thing Happened on the
there in that basket? Way to the Forum, even the writings of St. Paul:
"Bad messages belie good manners". In 1905 a
Socrates: I walk on air while I contemplate the
manuscript was discovered in Cairo that
sun. One cannot ponder cosmic matters
contained pieces of five Menander plays, and in
unless one mingles with theatmosphere, one's 1957 a complete play, Diskolos (The Grouch,
ethereal spirit above ground. The ground 317 BC), was unearthed in Egypt. Menander's
main contribution was to create a comedy
is not a place for lofty thoughts. Gravity would model that greatly influenced later comedy.
draw their essence down, as it does with Unlike Aristophanes, his characters were not
celebrities but ordinary people. The chorus in
watercress. Father: Well, well. Thought draws
Menander's plays resembled a modern chorus -
the essence into watercress.
- singers and dancers who provided filler
The Athenian audiences were well versed in between acts; Menander sometimes portrayed
their highbrow culture and must have enjoyed them as drunken audience members. His
these in-jokes immensely. Aristophanes' other characters were classic comedy archetypes,
targets included Aeschylus and Euripides, whom such as the curmudgeonly old man in The
Aristophanes portrayed variously as a windbag Grouch, who would become staples of comedy.
and corrupter of youth with his heretical ideas. Most of all, the style of comedy that Menander
created, with its emphasis on mistaken identity,
romance and situational humour, became the
model for subsequent comedy, from the
New Comedy
Romans to Shakespeare to Broadway.
Comedy developed along similar lines as
tragedy did, becoming more aimed at the
common people and less concerned with its
religious origins. By 317 BC, a new form had EPILOGUE
evolved that resembled modern farces. The use
of overt satire, topicality and the pointed By the time of Sophocles' death in 406 BC, 128
lampooning of celebrated characters to be years after Thespis' victory in the first Athenian
found in Aristophanes' style were replaced by drama competition, the golden era of Greek
mistaken identities, ironic situations, ordinary drama was waning. Athens, whose freethinking
characters and wit. This period is called New culture had spawned the birth of theatre, would
be overrun in 404 BC by the Spartans. It would

8. later be torn apart by constant warring with the palace or house in front of which most plays
other city states, eventually falling under the are set. At first, it must have been a temporary
dominion of Alexander the Great and his building re-erected each year (skene means
Macedonian armies. Theatre continued, but it merely ‘tent’ or ‘hut’). The number of doors in
would not return to the same creative heights its facade is disputed; most tragedies require
until Elizabethan England two millennia later. only one, but it most likely that there were in
fact three. Actors and chorus could enter by
paths, called parodoi or eisodoi, to the right and
THE PHYSICAL SPACE: left of the skene. Chiefly they made these
entrances on horse-drawn chariots. The roof of
the building could be used as an acting area, for
watchmen, gods and others. There is some
Stages and Styles of Presentation:
oblique suggestion in two texts of the period
According to tradition, the first tragedian, that permanent screens with architectural
Thespis, performed his plays on wagons with images were used, not ‘sets’ for specific plays,
which he travelled, and seats were set up for but permanent fixtures. It is conceivable, too,
performances in the agora or market place of that there was some rather underground
Athens. By the end of the sixth century BC, passage, allowing ghosts to appear from below.
however, a permanent theatron of ‘watching
There have been many disputes as to the
place’, was set up in the precinct of Dionysuson
existence of a stage (logeion) in front of the
the south slope of the Athenian Acropolis. Since
skene, raising the actors above the orchestra
at first any construction above ground was
where the Chorus performed. The evidence is
made of wood, and since the theatre was later
sparse, but is probable that this stage existed,
rebuilt many times, the surviving remains of this
although it will not have been so high as to
earliest Theatre of Dionysus are extremely
prevent easy interaction between actors and
scanty. It has therefore to be reconstructed on
Chorus. Other features of the orchestra were a
the analogy of other Greek theatres and on the
central altar several images of gods, which
evidence of the plays performed there. The only
could be noticed in the plays, when required.
features which necessarily existed in the early
fifth century are wooden seats for spectators on
the hillside, and a level earth-floored orchestra,
or ‘dancing area’ in the centre. The orchestra is The Theatre in Epidaurus
usually believed to have been circular, like a
III. The Theatre in Stone.
threshing floor. The orchestra at Epidaurus, for
example, has a diameter of just over 20 metres. Various items of stage machinery are
If the spot chosen necessitated another shape, mentioned by late authors, but the only devices
it could be rectangular like that at Thoricus. for which there is 5th century evidence are the
ekkylema and the mechane. The former was a
Most of the surviving plays also make use of a
low platform on wheels, which could be pushed
building, the skene or scene building. This was into view to reveal, in the form of a tableau, the
used as a changing-room for actors and as a consequences of events (normally killings)
sounding board, but also served to represent

9. within the palace. It is a quite artificial device, stonework crumbling, and fire blazing from a
but it seems to be an accepted convention as nearby tomb.
early as the Oresteia. This play contains striking
tableaux of Clytemnestra with the bodies of Dionysus (inside the palace) Spirit of
Agamemnon and Cassandra and of Orestes with Earthquake, rock, rock the floor of the Earth!
the bodies of Clytemnestra and Aegisthus. Chorus I: Soon the palace
Thereafter it is used in many tragedies and in of Pentheus
comic parodies of tragedies.
Will be shaken
The mechane was a kind of crane that could to its fall.
transport an actor through the air to give an
effect of flying. It seems to be little used in Dionysus is
surviving tragedy, though there are a few over the house:
examples. Fifth century tragedians probably did
Bow down
not use it for epiphanies of gods, though the
before him!
‘god from the machine,’ the deus ex machina
became proverbial at an early date. Though Chorus II. We bow before
some simple effects like those mentioned here him.
were occasionally used, it is very important to
remember that all the real power of the drama See the stone
lay in the author’s verse lines. The poetic effects lintels
were left to work upon the imagination.
Crowning the
The character’s words alone established the pillars
time of day, just as they did the settings.
Reeling and
Therefore, it was with natural phenomena. In
shaking
two of Euripides’ plays, the Bacchanntes and
Madness of Heracles, the plot demands an Bromios’ war
earthquake which destroys the house, and the cry rings from within.
Prometheus Unbound ends with Prometheus
and the chorus swept down to Hades in a Dionysus: Kindle the
storm. To present such a spectacle realistically flaming torch of the light;
would have been a technical miracle, though
Burn, burn
not beyond Greek ingenuity. Yet, more
down the palace of Pentheus.
important, it would have been alien to every
tradition of Greek theatre. As it was based so This is enough. Once the earthquake has
firmly upon the power of the word upon the achieved its dramatic purpose, it can be
imagination and emotion. In the ‘earthquake’ ignored. Characters entering subsequently do
plays, the effect is conveyed by the speeches of not comment on the fact that the house lies in
characters and choral songs. The chorus of the ruins. This lack of observation would be
Bacchantes describe vividly what is happening incongruous if the effects of the earthquake had
to the palace -- the noise of the earthquake, the been shown realistically. Compare also the

10. language in which Aeschylus paints the great ‘Farewell brother!’ ‘We split, we split, we split!’
storm at the end of Prometheus Bound.
"See, word is replaced by deed;
The Elizabethan stage-manager could produce
Earth shudders from the shock; the convincing thunder and lightening, but in the
peals scene the picture of a shipwreck is conveyed in
words alone. I all these examples, the language
Of thunder roll from the depths, and used is not that of realistic (illusionist) drama.
lightening When the doomed Prometheus or the Master
Flicker afire; the whirlwind tosses and Boatswain embark on their respective
speeches, the audience knows that mighty
Dust heavenwards, with the four winds tempests have erupted; they need no other
dancing indication.
A giddy reel, challenging each other Lighting, Properties and Costume.
To fight; sea and sky are as one." The sun provided lighting. Torches were used,
more as properties in order to heighten the
We should remember, too, the way which
power of the appearance of certain passages or
Shakespeare, without the doubtful benefit of
characters, the furies, for example. The actor
elaborate effects, gives the impression of storm
was dwarfed by his surroundings. Tiny
at the beginning of The Tempest.
movements and the nuance of facial expression
used by modern actors would have been
invisible to the audience. Gestures had to be
Master: Boatswain! large and sweeping and costumes had to be
large and flowing in order to allow free, athletic
Boatswain: Here, master! What
movement, and to make a strong visual
cheer!
impression upon the audience. As facial
Master. Good, speak to the expression would have been lost beyond the
mariners; fall t’it, yarely, or we run ourselves first few rows, masks were used. They were
aground: bestir, bestir. broadly and simply designed to be visible a long
way off. The principal traits of the characters
Boatswain: Heigh, my hearts! portrayed could be expressed in the mask, and
Cheerly, my hearts! Yare, yare! Take in the a simple convention arose whereby types of
topsail. Tend to the master’s whistle. character had their own types of mask. This
convention of human types, a view of human
Blow, till thou
psychology in a way, continued to shape
burst thy wind, if room enough!
theatrical presentation well into the
And at the end of the scene: seventeenth century in Europe. In the tragedies,
these types were few and simple. There was the
A confused noise within, ‘Mercy on us!’ ‘We protagonist, the noble man/woman; the
split, we split!’ ’Farewell, my wife and children!’ messenger; the sightless seer, and the serious

11. or careworn man, the figure of respect and concerns, the celebration of local industry was
not neglected.
responsibility. More will be said of these masks
elsewhere.
Restoration And 18th-Century Drama
History of Drama The theaters established in the wake of Charles
II's return from exile in France and the
Restoration of the monarchy in England (1660)
Ancient Drama were intended primarily to serve the needs of a
socially, politically, and aesthetically
The origins of Western drama can be traced to homogeneous class. At first they relied on the
the celebratory music of 6th-century BC Attica, pre-Civil War repertoire; before long, however,
the Greek region centered on Athens. Although they felt called upon to bring these plays into line
accounts of this period are inadequate, it with their more "refined," French-influenced
appears that the poet Thespis developed a new sensibilities. The themes, language, and
musical form in which he impersonated a single dramaturgy of Shakespeare's plays were now
character and engaged a chorus of singer- considered out of date, so that during the next
dancers in dialogue. As the first composer and two centuries the works of England's greatest
soloist in this new form, which came to be dramatist were never produced intact. Owing
known as tragedy, Thespis can be considered much to Moliere, the English comedy of
both the first dramatist and the first actor. Of the manners was typically a witty, brittle satire of
hundreds of works produced by Greek tragic current mores, especially of relations between
playwrights, only 32 plays by the three major the sexes. Among its leading examples were
innovators in this new art form survive. She Would if She Could (1668) and The Man of
Aeschylus created the possibility of developing Mode (1676) by Sir George Etherege; The
conflict between characters by introducing a Country Wife (1675) by William Wycherley; The
second actor into the format. His seven surviving Way of the World (1700) by William Congreve;
plays, three of which constitute the only extant and The Recruiting Officer (1706) and The
trilogy are richly ambiguous inquiries into the Beaux' Stratagem (1707) by George Farquhar.
paradoxical relationship between humans and
the cosmos, in which people are made The resurgence of Puritanism, especially after
answerable for their acts, yet recognize that the Glorious Revolution of 1688, had a profound
these acts are determined by the gods. effect on 18th-century drama. Playwrights,
retreating from the free-spirited licentiousness of
Medieval Drama the Restoration, turned towards ofter,
sentimental comedy and moralizing domestic
tragedy. The London Merchant (1731) by
Medieval drama, when it emerged hundreds of
George Lillo consolidated this trend.A prose
years later, was a new creation rather than a
tragedy of the lower middle class, and thus an
rebirth, the drama of earlier times having had
important step on the road to realism, it
almost no influence on it. The reason for this
illustrated the moral that a woman of easy virtue
creation came from a quarter that had
can lead an industrious young man to the gates
traditionally opposed any form of theater: the
of hell.
Christian church. In the Easter service, and later
in the Christmas service, bits of chanted
dialogue, called tropes, were interpolated into Satire enjoyed a brief revival with Henry Fielding
the liturgy. Priests, impersonating biblical and with John Gay, whose The Beggar's Opera
figures, acted out minuscule scenes from the (1728) met with phenomenal success. Their wit,
holiday stories. Eventually, these playlets grew however, was too sharp for the government,
more elaborate and abandoned the inside of the which retaliated by imposing strict censorship
church for the church steps and the adjacent laws in 1737. For the next 150 years, few
marketplace. Secular elements crept in as the substantial English authors bothered with the
artisan guilds took responsibility for these drama.
performances; although the glorification of God
and the redemption of humanity remained prime

12. 19th Century Drama and The generally lumped together as the avant-garde,
Romantic Rebellion attempted to suggest alternatives to the realistic
drama and production. The various theoreticians
felt that Naturalism presented only superficial
In its purest form, Romanticism concentrated on and thus limited or surface reality-that a greater
the spiritual, which would allow humankind to truth or reality could be found in the spiritual or
transcend the limitations of the physical world the unconscious. Others felt that theatre had lost
and body and find an ideal truth. Subject matter touch with its origins and had no meaning for
was drawn from nature and "natural man" (such modern society other than as a form of
as the supposedly untouched Native American). entertainment. Paralleling modern art
Perhaps one of the best examples of Romantic movements, they turned to symbol, abstraction,
drama is Faust (Part I, 1808; Part II, 1832) by and ritual in an attempt to revitalize the theatre.
the German playwright Johann Wolfgang von Although realism continues to be dominant in
Goethe. Based on the classic legend of the man contemporary theatre, television and film now
who sells his soul to the devil, this play of epic better serve its earlier functions.
proportions depicts humankind's attempt to
master all knowledge and power in its constant
struggle with the universe. The Romantics The originator of many antirealist ideas was the
focused on emotion rather than rationality, drew German opera composer Richard Wagner. He
their examples from a study of the real world believed that the job of the playwright/composer
rather than the ideal, and glorified the idea of the was to create myths. In so doing, Wagner felt,
artist as a mad genius unfettered by rules. the creator of drama was portraying an ideal
Romanticism thus gave rise to a vast array of world in which the audience shared a communal
dramatic literature and production that was often experience, perhaps as the ancients had done.
undisciplined and that often substituted He sought to depict the "soul state", or inner
emotional manipulation for substantial ideas. being, of characters rather than their superficial,
realistic aspects. Furthermore, Wagner was
unhappy with the lack of unity among the
Romanticism first appeared in Germany, a individual arts that constituted the drama. He
country with little native theatre other than rustic proposed the Gesamtkunstwerk, the "total art
farces before the 18th century. By the 1820s work", in which all dramatic elements are unified,
Romanticism dominated the theatre of most of preferably under the control of a single artistic
Europe. Many of the ideas and practices of creator.
Romanticism were evident in the late 18th-
century Sturm und Drang movement of
Germany led by Goethe and the dramatist Wagner was also responsible for reforming
Friedrich Schiller. These plays had no single theatre architecture and dramatic presentation
style but were generally strongly emotional, and, with his Festival Theatre at Bayreuth, Germany,
in their experimentation with form, laid the completed in 1876. The stage of this theatre was
groundwork for the rejection of Neo-Classicism. similar to other 19th-century stages even if
The plays of the French playwright René better equipped, but in the auditorium Wagner
Charles Guilbert de Pixérécourt paved the way removed the boxes and balconies and put in a
for French Romanticism, which had previously fan-shaped seating area on a sloped floor,
been known only in the acting of François giving an equal view of the stage to all
Joseph Talma in the first decades of the 19th spectators. Just before a performance the
century. Victor Hugo's Hernani (1830) is auditorium lights dimmed to total darkness-then
considered the first French Romantic drama. a radical innovation.
The Modern Drama Contemporary Drama
From the time of the Renaissance on, theatre Although pure Naturalism was never very
seemed to be striving for total realism, or at least popular after World War I, drama in a realist
for the illusion of reality. As it reached that goal style continued to dominate the commercial
in the late 19th century, a multifaceted, theatre, especially in the United States. Even
antirealistic reaction erupted. Avant-garde there, however, psychological realism seemed
Precursors of Modern Theatre Many movements to be the goal, and nonrealistic scenic and
dramatic devices were employed to achieve this

13. end. The plays of Arthur Miller and Tennessee characters and events, and language is
Williams, for instance, use memory scenes, fragmentary-much like everyday conversation.
dream sequences, purely symbolic characters, The settings are indistinguishable from reality.
projections, and the like. Even O'Neill's later The intense focus on seemingly meaningless
works-ostensibly realistic plays such as Long fragments of reality creates an absurdist,
Day's Journey into Night (produced 1956)- nightmarish quality: similar traits can be found in
incorporate poetic dialogue and a carefully writers such as Stephen Poliakoff. A gritty social
orchestrated background of sounds to soften the realism combined with very dark humour has
hard-edged realism. Scenery was almost always also been popular; it can be seen in the very
suggestive rather than realistic. European drama different work of Alan Ayckbourn, Mike Leigh,
was not much influenced by psychological Michael Frayn, Alan Bleasdale, and Dennis
realism but was more concerned with plays of Potter.
ideas, as evidenced in the works of the Italian
dramatist Luigi Pirandello, the French In all lands where the drama flourishes, the only
playwrights Jean Anouilh and Jean Giraudoux, constant factor today is what has always been
and the Belgian playwright Michel de constant: change. The most significant writers
Ghelderode. In England in the 1950s John are still those who seek to redefine the basic
Osborne's Look Back in Anger (1956) became a premises of the art of drama.
rallying point for the postwar "angry young men";
a Vietnam trilogy of the early 1970s, by the
American playwright David Rabe, expressed the
anger and frustration of many towards the war in
Vietnam. Under he influence of Brecht, many
postwar German playwrights wrote documentary
dramas that, based on historical incidents,
explored the moral obligations of individuals to
themselves and to society. An example is The
Deputy (1963), by Rolf Hochhuth, which deals
with Pope Pius XII's silence during World War II.
Many playwrights of the 1960s and 1970s-Sam
Shepard in the United States, Peter Handke in
Austria, Tom Stoppard in England-built plays
around language: language as a game,
language as sound, language as a barrier,
language as a reflection of society. In their
plays, dialogue frequently cannot be read simply
as a rational exchange of information. Many
playwrights also mirrored society's frustration
with a seemingly uncontrollable, self-destructive
world.
In Europe in the 1970s, new playwriting was
largely overshadowed by theatricalist
productions, which generally took classical plays
and reinterpreted them, often in bold new
scenographic spectacles, expressing ideas more
through action and the use of space than
through language.
In the late 1970s a return to Naturalism in drama
paralleled the art movement known as
Photorealism. Typified by such plays as
American Buffalo (1976) by David Mamet, little
action occurs, the focus is on mundane