Greek Drama
The art of drama developed in the ancient Greek city-state of Athens in the late sixth century B.C. In the spring in the City of Dionysia there was a week-long festival in honor of Dionysus, a God associated with fertility. These festivals were important for the City and they became a celebration of Athens’ civic identity. In 534 BC dramatic performances were first included as part of the festival program. Alongside performances there were readings of religious rites, speeches commemorating those who had died in war and entrusting their orphans to the care of the state, handing over of monies contributed by the allied states as well as many other significant civic events.
There was also another festival celebrating Dionysus where performances were an integral part. It was called Lenaea and was held in mid winter. The two festivals had a similar schedule of performances. At the City of Dionysus three tragic playwrights were commissioned to each write three tragedies and a satyr play and five comic playwrights each submitted a comedy. At Lenaea there were four tragedies produced by two playwrights and five comedies. There was a complex system of judging and prizes were awarded for the best production.
Most commonly there were three main actors who all had speaking roles. These actors were professionals. At that time acting was seen as an art form and was thought to be an honorable calling. In Comedy there were usually around 24 men or boys who made up the chorus. The choruses in Greek Tragedy were much larger and sometimes had as many as 50 participants. The chorus in comedy was split into two equal groups each with a leader. The role as leader of the chorus had great responsibility. They led chanting of the Parados, sang choral lyrics, led the dances, delivered recitative and participated in the dialogue. After Aristophanes’ time the use of a chorus died out however the importance of the actor grew. In the 4th century BC an Actors Guild was established in Athens. Members of this guild were exempt from Military and Naval Service. This demonstrates how important actors were to the City.
OVERVIEW OF TRAGEDY
From the religious chants honoring Dionysus arose the first tragedies, which centered on the gods and Greece’s mythical past. In the fifth century, Greek audiences enjoyed the works of four master playwrights; of these, three—Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides—were tragedians. The early works focused on the good and evil that existed simultaneously in the world as well as the other contradictory forces of human nature and the outside world. All three tragic playwrights drew their material from Greek myths and legends and they each brought new developments to the art form.
Aeschylus, whose Oresteia trilogy examines the common tragic themes of vengeance and justice, brought tragedy to the level of serious literature. The triology also introduces other major themes in Greek tragedy, namely justice (divine, personal, and communal) and vengeance.
The critic C. M. Bowra pointed out in his seminal work Classical Greece that “Greek tragedy provides no explicit answers for the sufferings of humanity, but it . . . shows how they happen and how they may be borne.” Indeed, Sophocles, whose play, Oedipus the King is one of the greatest tragic work of all time,. expresses a truly sorrowful course of events and how one man, though his life is devastated, forges a new identity and learns to live with himself
The last great tragedian, Euripides, questioned traditional values and the ultimate power of the gods. In plays such as Medea, Euripides explores the choices that humans make under difficult situations. This power to choose and choose incorrectly becomes one of the central tenets of modern drama today. Greek drama created an entirely new art form, and over the centuries, the works of these ancient Greek writers have influenced and inspired countless writers, philosophers, musicians, and other artists and thinkers. Greek drama, with its universal themes and situations, continues to hold relevance for modern audiences.
EARLY DRAMATISTS
Sophron (fl. c. 430 B.C.)
Sophron of Syracuse lived and wrote in the early to mid 400s B.C. He wrote rhythmical prose mimes that depicted scenes from daily life.
Thespis (fl. c. 534 B.C.)
Thespis came from the district of Icaria in Attica. He is the first recorded winner of the prize at the City Dionysia, which he won in about 534 B.C. Thespis is credited with the invention of the speaking actor (who “delivered prologues and conversed with the chorus-leader” and impersonated the heroes that his drama was about), thus becoming the world’s first actor. He is considered to be the “inventor of tragedy.” . Thespian, after his name remains, An English designation for actor.
THE TRAGEDIANS
Aeschylus (c. 525–456 B.C.)
Aeschylus was born about 525 B.C., probably in Eleusis. He was the first of the best-known ancient Greek tragic dramatists. He lifted the dramatic presentations from a choral performance to a work of art. He also is significant because he added a second actor on stage, allowing for dialogue, and reduced the number of the chorus from about fifty to about fifteen. With Aeschylus, tragic drama was presented through action, not through recitation. Aeschylus took part in the City Dionysia (a festival for the god Dionysus, involving a procession, a sacrifice of bulls with an accompanying feast, and dramatic competitions), probably for the first time in 499 B.C., and he won it for the first time fifteen years later. His masterpiece is the Oresteia trilogy, which was produced in 458 B.C. His plays are of lasting literary value because of their lyrical language, intricate plots, and universal themes. His language is marked by force, majesty, and emotional intensity as well as by metaphors and figurative speech. He wrote about ninety plays, of which seven have survived. Aeschylus died about 456 B.C. in Gela, Sicily.
Euripides (c. 485–406 B.C.)
Euripides was born about 485 B.C. in Attica (the region of central Greece that has Athens as its capital). One of the great three tragedians, he won his first victory at the City Dionysia, in which he competed twenty-two times, in 441. Nineteen (including one play of disputed authorship) of his ninety-two plays survive. His most famous plays include Medea, produced in 431 B.C.; Hippolytus (428 B.C.); Electra (417 B.C.); Trojan Women (415 B.C.); Ion (circa 411 B.C.); Iphigenia at Aulis (405 B.C., posthumously); and Bacchae (405 B.C., posthumously).
Euripides differed from Aeschylus and Sophocles in his characterization: Euripides’ characters’ tragic fates stem almost entirely from their own flawed natures and uncontrolled passions. The gods look upon their suffering with apparent indifference. His plays also differed structurally from those of the other two playwrights: Euripides’ plays are usually introduced by prologues and often end with the providential appearance of a god, an action known as deus ex machina. The prologue usually is a monologue that explains the situation and the characters with which the action begins; the deus ex machina includes a god’s epilogue that reveals the future fortunes of the characters. Euripides died in 406 B.C. in Macedonia.
Sophocles (c. 496–406 B.C.)
Sophocles was born about 496 B.C. in Colonus, near Athens. He is one of classical Athens’ three great tragic playwrights. He first won the City Dionysia in 468 B.C., defeating Aeschylus. He went on to write a total of 123 tragedies for this annual festival, winning perhaps as many as twenty-four times and never receiving less than second prize. Of the seven of his plays that have survived, his most well-known drama is Oedipus the King, which was performed sometime between 430 B.C. and 426 B.C. Sophocles also made important dramatic innovations. He reduced the number of members of the chorus and added a third actor onstage. He is noted for his language, artistry, and vivid characterizations.
Sophocles also was a prominent citizen of Athens in that he served as a treasurer in the Delian League (the confederation of Greek states with Athens as the leader that formed in 478 B.C., soon after the defeat of the Persian invasion under Xerxes in order to ensure continued freedom), was elected as one of ten military and naval commanders, and served as one of ten members of the advisory committee that organized Athens’ financial and domestic recovery after its defeat during the Peloponnesian War at Syracuse in 413 B.C. Sophocles died in 406 B.C. in Athens.
OVERVIEW OF GREEK COMEDY
Comedy from Aristophanes’ time period is often referred to as Old Comedy. It was a satirical reflection on the society at the time. It poked fun at a wide range of subjects such as Literature, Education, Statesmen; anything that they felt would amuse the public. The themes within Old Comedy were local in colour and theme which helped the audience relate to the subject matter. Often the subjects were disfigured by grossness and licentiousness but this is what made the audience enjoy it so much! The exact origins of Comedy are not very clear and it was not until around 486 BC that comedy gained official recognition at Athens and came under supervision of the State.
THE COMEDIC PLAYWRIGHTS
Aristophanes (c. 450–385 B.C.)
Aristophanes was born about 450 B.C., possibly on the island Aegina in Greece. His plays are the only examples of Old Comedy (comedy that focuses largely on political satire rather than human relations, the focus of New Comedy) that have survived in their complete form. Aristophanes’ themes and work generally reflected the social, literary, and philosophical life of Athens, and many of his plays were inspired by events of the Peloponnesian War. Eleven of his approximately forty plays survive. Among the most well-known are Birds and Frogs. His appeal lay in his witty dialogue, his satire, and the inventiveness of his comic scenes. Many of his plays are still produced on the modern stage. Aristophanes died about 385 B.C. in Athens, Greece.
Crates (fl. c. 470–450 B.C.)
Flourishing about 470 B.C. in Athens, Crates is considered to be the founder of Greek comedy. According to Aristotle, he abandoned traditional comedy—which centered on invective—and introduced more general stories that relied on well developed plots.
Cratinus (?–c. 420 B.C.)
Cratinus was regarded in antiquity as one of the three great writers of the Old Comedy period. Only fragments of his twenty-seven known plays survive, but they are enough to show that his comedies, like those of Aristophanes, seem to have been a mixture of parodied mythology and reference to contemporary events. For example, Athenian leader Pericles was a frequent subject of Cratinus’s ridicule. He died about 420 B.C.
Epicharmus (c. 530–440 B.C.)
Epicharmus was born about 530 B.C. He is seen as the originator of Sicilian, or Doric, comedy. He is credited with more than fifty plays, but few lines survive. Many of his plays were mythological burlesques: he even satirized the gods. His lively style made his work more akin to New Comedy than the Old Comedy of his time. He died about 440 B.C.
Eupolis (fl. c. 445–411 B.C.)
Along with Cratinus and Aristophanes, Eupolis was regarded in antiquity as one of the three great writers of the Old Comedy period. His first play was produced in 429 B.C., but only fragments of his plays survive. He focused his satire on Athenian demagogues, wealthy citizens, but also concerned himself with serious subjects, such as how Athens could turn the tables on Sparta in the ongoing Peloponnesian War. Eupolis died about 411 B.C. while he was still a young man.
Menander (c. 342–292 B.C.)
Menander was born about 342 B.C. Today, he is considered to be the supreme writer of New Comedy (comedy that focuses on human relations), but, during his lifetime, he was less successful. Of the more than one hundred plays that he wrote, only eight won prizes at Athens’ dramatic festivals. He produced his first play in 321 B.C. The only one of his plays to survive intact is Dyscolus, which won a festival prize in 317. The Roman writers Plautus and Terence adapted many of Menander’s works; thus he influenced the development of European comedy from the Renaissance on. Menander died about 292 B.C.
Phrynichus (fl. c. 420 B.C.)
Phrynichus was an Athenian poet of the Old Comedy period and a contemporary of Aristophanes and Eupolis. He began producing plays in 430 B.C. and won two victories in the City Dionysia.
Costume & Masks
Masks
Masks and ritual
The Greek term for mask is persona and was a significant element in the worship of Dionysus at Athens, likely used in ceremonial rites and celebrations. Most of the evidence comes from only a few vase paintings of the 5th century BC, such as one showing a mask of the god suspended from a tree with decorated robe hanging below it and dancing and the Pronomos vas, which depicts actors preparing for a Satyr play. No physical evidence remains available to us, as the masks were made of organic materials and not considered permanent objects, ultimately being dedicated to the altar of Dionysus after performances. Nevertheless, the mask is known to have been used since the time of Aeschylus and considered to be one of the iconic conventions of classical Greek theatre.
Mask details
Illustrations of theatrical masks from 5th century display helmet-like mask, covering the entire face and head, with holes for the eyes and a small aperture for the mouth, as well as an integrated wig. It is interesting to note that these paintings never show actual masks on the actors in performance; they are most often shown being handled by the actors before or after a performance, that liminal space between the audience and the stage, between myth and reality. ] This demonstrates the way in which the mask was to ‘melt’ into the face and allow the actor to vanish into the role. Effectively, the mask transformed the actor as much as memorization of the text. Therefore, performance in ancient Greece did not distinguish the masked actor from the theatrical character.
The mask-makers were called skeuopoios or “maker of the properties,” thus suggesting that their role encompassed multiple duties and tasks. The masks were most likely made out of light weight, organic materials like stiffened linen, leather, wood, or cork, with the wig consisting of human or animal hair. Due to the visual restrictions imposed by these masks, it was imperative that the actors hear in order to orientate and balance themselves. Thus, it is believed that the ears were covered by substantial amounts of hair and not the helmet-mask itself. The mouth opening was relatively small, preventing the mouth to be seen during performances. Vervain and Wiles posit that this small size discourages the idea that the mask functioned as a megaphone, as originally presented in the 1960s. Greek mask-maker, Thanos Vovolis, suggests that the mask serves as a resonator for the head, thus enhancing vocal acoustics and altering its quality. This leads to increased energy and presence, allowing for the more complete metamorphosis of the actor into his character.
Mask functions
In a large open-air theatre, like the Theatre of Dionysus in Athens, the classical masks were able to bring the characters’ face closer to the audience, especially since they had intensely over-exaggerated facial features and expressions.
They enabled an actor to appear and reappear in several different roles, thus preventing the audience from identifying the actor to one specific character. Their variations help the audience to distinguish sex, age, and social status, in addition to revealing a change in a particular character’s appearance, ie. Oedipus after blinding himself. Unique masks were also created for specific characters and events in a play, such as The Furies in Aeschylus’ Eumenides and Pentheus and Cadmus in Euripides’ The Bacchae. Worn by the chorus, the masks created a sense of unity and uniformity, while representing a multi-voiced persona or single organism and simultaneously encouraged interdependency and a heightened sensitivity between each individual of the group.
COSTUME DETAILS.
Actors who played tragic roles wore boots called cothurneses that elevated them above other actors.
When playing female roles, the male actors donned a ‘ prosterneda’ which is a wooden structure infront of the chest to imitate breasts.
There are little information on theatrical costumes. This is due to the perishable materials they have been made of. Still we have some information drawn from depictions on ancient pottery (see some pictures below).
Costumes have been a very important factor of the production, because they could determine the characters by gender or social status. In the early productions actors have been using body painting. Little by little they started using animal skins, ears, even feathers (see Aristophanes’ Birds).
When the poets introduced real costumes, they imitated the contemporary dressing : the “chiton” and the “hemateon”. The chiton was made of linen or silk and it was worn long. The hemateon was an exterior cloth, worn over the shoulders. It was usually made of wool. Both chiton and hemateon were decorated depending on the occasion. For theatrical use the clothes have been more decorated than usually.
In order to play female roles, since the actors were always men, they were wearing a “prosterneda” (in front of the chest, to imitate female breasts) and “progastreda” in front of the belly.
The actors used to put on ordinary shoes, such us loose fitting boots and laced boots. Is some scholars’ opinion, the actors used shoes with high heels (“kothornoi”). We cannot be sure about that, because we do not have a clear evidence from the pottery. In the later years (2nd century BC), it is sure that these shoes with high heels (“kothornoi”) have been introduced.
Use of costume in Athenian tragedy.
Some authors have argued that use of costume in Athenian tragedy was standardized for the genre.[1] This is said to have consisted of a full-length or short tunic, a cloak and soft leather boots, and may have been derived from the robes of Dionysian priests or invented by Aeschylus. Brockett, however, disputes this, arguing that the evidence we have is based on archaeological remains, some few references in the texts, and the writings of later authors. As far as the vase paintings are concerned, most of these are dated later than the 5th Century BCE and their relationship with theatrical practice is unclear. One of the earliest examples is a red-figure vase painting c. 500-490 BCE that shows a tragic chorus invoking a ghost, on a crater (bowl) in the Antikenmuseum in Basle.[2]
The tragic actors were certainly heavily disguised. This had a religious purpose, for the actor was supposed to give up his identity in order to let another speak and act through him. Indeed, the dramas were performed in honour of Dionysus, the God of Ecstasy, which means “standing outside oneself”[2]. Actors therefore had to renounce their individuality. The actors thought that the mask itself contained the character and are said to have prayed before putting on their masks. The costume was probably an elaborately-decorated version of everyday clothing worn in the 5th Century BCE. The garments included:
· chiton (robe or tunic)
· chlaina (overgarment)
· chlamys (short cloak)
· kothurnus (short lace-up boots)
· himation (overgarment)
· peplos (cloak)[3].
The chiton worn by the actors differed from that worn in everyday life because it incorporated sleeves, which were coloured and patterned. The sleeves may in fact have been part of an undergarment. Long white sleeves were worn by the (male) actors for female roles, and indeed, in vase paintings females are usually painted with lighter skin.
The costumes worn for the performances of Alcestis, for example, were iconographic, and symbolised the opposition of light and dark.[4] In the play, life is evoked as the act of seeing the sun. Death – the son of Night in Greek mythology – wears a black peplos and terrifying black wings. Apollo wears white, representing the sun. Admetus contrasts the black of the funeral procession with the white of the funeral procession. The corpse of Alcestis is dressed as a bride, in accordance with Greek tradition and Herakles wears a bearskin and carries a club.
The costumes worn gave the audience an immediate sense of character-type, gender, age, social status and class.[5]
Around the time of Aeschylus, the boots or buskins worn by the actors were flat. The actors had the same “status” as the chorus. In the 3rd Century BCE, the actors were raised to the status of heroes and “platform” soles began to be used, together with a head-dress called an onkos. The raised soles may have induced a stylised way of walking, suited to the rhythm of tragic verse, and the onkos made the actors taller, enhancing visibility. Their bodies were padded so that they did not look too slim.[6] However, some authors believe that this happened later than the 3rd Century BCE. It is also thought that the “teetering gait” is a misapprehension.[7]
The masks were the most striking feature of the costume worn by the Athenian actors. Facial expression was lost anyway due to the huge size of the Greek theatres, but the masks were also a means of blotting out expression, so visual meaning was expressed by the entire body. The actors were seen as silhouettes, or integral bodies, rather than faces. The masks themselves were made of stiffened linen, thin clay, cork or wood, and covered the whole head and had hair.
Attempts have been made in modern times to investigate the use of masks in Athenian tragedy through practice research.[8] These explorations conclude that masks may lead to a more demonstrative style of acting, with declamatory delivery of the lines substituted for intimacy. They also found that the mask could impede the projection of sound. The Greeks are said to have overcome this in various ways. Initially, the mouth apertures were small, but later this became a “wide-open” mouth. Some authors believe that the mouth was shaped like a “mouth-trumpet” and had an amplifying effect.[9] Certainly, the use of a mask covering the whole produces an enhanced resonating effect, which serves dramatic delivery.
Performances therefore had to be more physical. Peter Arnott states that the Greeks thought good acting and a good voice were synonymous. This was achieved through athletic training, voice exercises and diet.
Experiments have shown that unaccustomed actors suffer disorientation and restriction when masked. The Greeks countered this through a vocabulary of gesture known as cheironomia (gesticulation). Aristotle says that in his day excessive gestures were used – leading to overacting – compared with the older tradition.
Masks can also be used as a dramatic tool, e.g. lowering the masks shows reflection, raising the mask shows a challenge or superiority. The Greeks called these physical stances schemata (forms).
Silent masks were used to great effect, particularly on child actors, expressing powerlessness, bewilderment, vulnerability, etc.
The used of masks enabled the three speaking actors to portray up to eight or nine characters, through multiple role-playing. The same character could therefore be played by different actors, and transitions within a character would be portrayed by the use of different masks.
The wide variety of masks used is attested by Pollux, a rhetorician writing in 2nd Century CE, in hisOnomastikon.[10] He lists 30 different male masks (old age with white or grey hair, the tyrant with thick black hair, a fair, pale masks indicating sorrow or sickness, a boastful soldier, a rustic, servants, a cook, etc.) and 17 female masks (fat and thin old women, two matrons, one virgin, a bawd, a mistress, three courtesans, a lady’s maid, etc.).
Greek Theatres
Characteristics of Ancient Greek Theatre.
Performance space was a simple semi- circle space, The orchestra, where the chorus danced and singed.
The orchestra was situated on a flattened terrace at the foot of a hill, the slope of which produced a natural theatron [Meaning ‘watching space’]
Later, the term ‘Theatre’ applied to the whole area of theatron, orchestra and skene.
Theatres were originally built on a very large scale with great acoustics.
The first seats in Greek theatre were wooden but around 499BC stone blocks were used to create stable permanent seating. They were called ‘Prohedria’ which were reserved for priests and few most respected citizens.
In 465BC, playwrights began using backdrops or scenic wall which hung behind the Orchestra. It also served for actors to change their costume behind. Known as the Skene.
In 425B. A stone screen wall, called a paraskenia, became a common supplement. It was a long wall with projecting sides, which may have had doorways for exits and entrances.
Proskenia is the part behind the Paraskenia. It was columned and was similar to a modern day proscenium. Today’s proscenium is what separates the audience from the stage. A frame around the stage which makes it look as if it is set in a picture frame.
Parodoi were tall arches that opened onto the Orchestra which were used as entrances for actors and chorus members. In between the parodoi and the orchestra lay the eisodoi, through which actors entered and exited.
Scenic elements;
Machina – A crane giving the impression of a flying actor.
Ekkyklema – A wheeled wagon used to bring dead actors into view of the audience.
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Greek Theatres
Characteristics of Ancient Greek Theatre.
Performance space was a simple semi- circle space, The orchestra, where the chorus danced and singed.
The orchestra was situated on a flattened terrace at the foot of a hill, the slope of which produced a natural theatron [Meaning ‘watching space’]
Later, the term ‘Theatre’ applied to the whole area of theatron, orchestra and skene.
Theatres were originally built on a very large scale with great acoustics.
The first seats in Greek theatre were wooden but around 499BC stone blocks were used to create stable permanent seating. They were called ‘Prohedria’ which were reserved for priests and few most respected citizens.
In 465BC, playwrights began using backdrops or scenic wall which hung behind the Orchestra. It also served for actors to change their costume behind. Known as the Skene.
In 425B. A stone screen wall, called a paraskenia, became a common supplement. It was a long wall with projecting sides, which may have had doorways for exits and entrances.
Proskenia is the part behind the Paraskenia. It was columned and was similar to a modern day proscenium. Today’s proscenium is what separates the audience from the stage. A frame around the stage which makes it look as if it is set in a picture frame.
Parodoi were tall arches that opened onto the Orchestra which were used as entrances for actors and chorus members. In between the parodoi and the orchestra lay the eisodoi, through which actors entered and exited.
Scenic elements;
Machina – A crane giving the impression of a flying actor.
Ekkyklema – A wheeled wagon used to bring dead actors into view of the audience.
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