Greeks, Comedy and Tragedy

Theatre History:

The Greeks:
Origins:

Drama in ancient Greece came from religious ceremonies. Every Year people danced and sang to Honour DIONYSIS, the God of wine and fertility. In Athens, the annual festival included a competition for the best song. The Songs were chanted (sang) by groups of men (The chorus). In 534bc Thespis, a priest of DIONTYSIS, won the prize with a brilliant novelty. He introduced a performer who exchanged comments with the leader of the chorus, producing the first actor and dialogue in the history of theatre.  On each day of the festival of DIONYSIS, people flocked to a circular area called the orchestra to watch the chorus. There was an altar to DIONYSIS in the centre and actors entered from buildings called the skene, this was usually painted with backgrounds and this is where we get the word ‘scenery’. All Actors were men who wore masks, each mask established a characters sex, age and feelings. There were two types of Greek Plays:

-Comedy
–Tragedy

Ancient Greek Comedy:
The Origins of comedy in ancient Greece come out of people, their religious rituals, their everyday life, the circle of life and humanity. Aristophones was considered to be the greatest comic dramatist in classic Athens. In Comedy Plays man is fighting against chance, coincidence and fate. The Plays were quite symbolic with stock characters. The following characters ‘celebrated’ life, the lover, the courtesan, the slave. The following characters ‘spoiled life’ a stern father, a money grabbing pimp, a cruel master, a miser.

Comedy, was one the most important dramatic forms of Ancient Greece. It contained an extensive variety of theatrical plays written and performed in Ancient Greece. What was known then as Athenian comedy is traditionally divided into three separate periods: Old Comedy, Middle Comedy, and New Comedy.
Old Comedy began around 510 B.C.E, It arose from the obscene jests of Dionysian revellers and included strong abuse and personal vilification. The satire and abuse were used directly against objects that many Greeks disliked. The theatrical comedy consisted of vocal dances, actors in masks, scenery, and most also the Attic language.

Aristophanes was one of the most important dramatists of Old Comedy. He is known for his works that included political satire and also a lot of sexual and insulting remarks. Aristophanes harsh approach reached the most important personalities and institutions of the day. He is most notably known for his portrayal of Socrates in The Clouds and in his anti-military work Lysistrata. He also made fun of Athenian democracy in his work The Birds.

In one piece he wrote “Lysistrata”, the main character, Lysistrata, and the other female characters barricade themselves in the public funds building and withhold sex from their husbands to ultimately secure peace and end the Peloponnesian War. During her sexual abstinence, Lysistrata gets the support of women from Sparta, Boeotia, and Corinth. At first, all of the women don't want to give up sex, but they eventually agree by drinking wine from a phallic shaped flask, which is a symbol of actions opposed to the aims of the women.

After the Old Comedy period passed, Middle Comedy took over, took out the chorus, and switched from mockery of a specific person to humanity's bad habits in general. This transition from Old Comedy to Middle Comedy was a big step toward the artistic nature of comedic drama. The plays during this period contained literary and social themes. They included topics about the distinguished systems of philosophy. Middle Comedy freely showed the most popular tragedies of Aeschylus and Sophocles, some of Homer's passages, and many lyrics written by Pindar and Simonides. During this period, comedy dealt with classes rather than individuals. The most commonly mocked classes were courtesans, parasites, revelers, and cooks.
During the fourth century B.C.E., the New Comedy period started. During this period, Menander was considered one the best writers of his generation. Menander's plays concentrated on pretend characters from everyday life. Some examples of these characters included: strict fathers, young lovers, and interesting slaves. His plays were so influential that many future poets derived their poetry from them.

One of the only New Comedy works which has survived in its entirety is Menander's famous play, Dyskolos. Many other works by Menander still exist as long fragments. Also, for the first time, love was one of the main topics in drama during this period. New Comedy contained characters such as an "angry old man" and cocky soldiers coming back from war. New Comedy represented many features of the Athenian society and the social morality of the period. It also influenced much of Western European literature, such as the comic drama that was used by Shakespeare.


Aristophanes:
Aristophanes's plays ranged from 427 to 387 BCE. Aristophanes lived in the time of Socrates and Thucydides and was a generation behind Sophocles and Euripides. Aristophanes put on at least forty plays, eleven of which have survived into 0modern times. Evidence of other plays by Aristophanes has been found in papyrus fragments and references to unknown works by writers of his time There is record of Aristophanes winning several contests, with his plays. Ten comedies were typically produced a year, but during the Peloponnesian War this number was reduced to six. The magistrate or commissioner of the town would decide which plays were put on at the festivals and all plays were performed during the day. Actors wore masks that completely obscured their faces and then there emotions were only shown by words or gestures. There were no female actors during this time and men played both sexes.

His Plays:
The Acharnians     Written 425 B.C.E
The Birds     Written 414 B.C.E 
The Clouds     Written 419 B.C.E 
The Ecclesiazusae     Written 390 B.C.E 
The Frogs     Written 405 B.C.E 
The Knights     Written 424 B.C.E 
Peace     Written 421 B.C.E 
Plutus     Written 380 B.C.E 
The Thesmophoriazusae     Written 411 B.C.E 
The Wasps     Written 422 B.C.E 

Ancient Greek Tragedy:

The three most well-known playwrights of tragedy were:
 -Aeschylus
–Sophocles
–Euripides

Greek tragedies in 5^th century BC were violent, explosive, dangerous, disturbing, shocking and challenging taboo’s and complacency. Four themes that were often explored were lust for power both politically and personally, sexual jealousy, tyrannical parents and rebellion.

Aeschylus:

Aeschylus was born in the city of Eleusis, near Athens, in 525 BC and died in 456 BC. He was a Greek dramatist, the earliest of the city's great tragic poets. As the predecessor of Sophocles and Euripides, he is the founder of Greek tragedy.

He made at least two trips, perhaps three, to Sicily, where on his final visit he died at Gela. A monument was later erected there in his memory.

It was a major step for drama when Aeschylus introduced the second actor to playwrights. He also attempted to involve the chorus directly in the action of the play. Aeschylus is said to have written about 90 plays. His tragedies, first performed about 500 BC, were trilogies, usually bound together by a common theme, and each trilogy was followed by a satyr drama (low comedy involving a mythological hero, with a chorus of satyrs). The titles of 79 of his plays are known, but only 7 have survived.

Some of his Plays:

Agamemnon     Written 458 B.C.E     Translated by E. D. A. Morshead  The Choephori     Written 450 B.C.E     Translated by E. D. A. Morshead  Eumenides     Written 458 B.C.E     Translated by E. D. A. Morshead  The Persians     Written 472 B.C.E     Translated by Robert Potter  Prometheus Bound     Written ca. 430 B.C.E  The Seven Against Thebes     Written 467 B.C.E     Translated by E. D. A. Morshead  The Suppliants     Written ca. 463 B.C.E     Translated by E. D. A. Morshead

Sophocles:
Born in 495 B.C. near Athens, Sophocles was one of the great playwrights of the golden age. The son of a wealthy merchant, he would enjoy all the comforts of the Greek empire. He studied all of the arts. In his first competition, Sophocles took first prize after defeating none other than Aeschylus himself. More than 120 plays were to follow from him and he would go on to win eighteen first prizes, and he would never fail to take at least second.

He was one of the great innovators of the theatre, and was the first to add a third actor to playwrights. He also abolished the trilogic form, Sophocles chose to make each tragedy a complete entity in itself and because of this, he had to pack all of his action into a shorter space, and this clearly offered greater dramatic possibilities. Many authorities also credit him with the invention of scene-painting and painted prisms. Of Sophocles' more than 120 plays, only seven have survived in their entirety.

His Plays:
Ajax     Written 440 B.C.E     Translated by R. C. Trevelyan 
Antigone     Written 442 B.C.E     Translated by R. C. Jebb 
Electra     Written 410 B.C.E     Translated by R. C. Jebb 
Oedipus at Colonus     Translated by F. Storr 
Oedipus the King     Translated by F. Storr 
Philoctetes     Written 409 B.C.E     Translated by Thomas Francklin 
The Trachiniae     Written 430 B.C.E     Translated by R. C. Jebb 
The Theban plays: 
Oedipus the King 
Oedipus at Colonus 
Antigone


Euripides:

Euripides was born in 480 BC and died in 406 BC. Euripides was the youngest of the three principal fifth-century tragic poets. His work, which was quite popular in his own time, exerted great influence on Roman drama. In more recent times he has influenced English and German drama, and most conspicuously such French dramatists as Pierre Corneille and Jean-Baptiste Racine.
He was one of the three Greatest Tragedians of classical Athens, Scholars and Historians have said that he wrote 92-95 plays in total but there are only 18-19 plays that have survived in their entirety. There have been fragments and short sections of his other plays that have been found over the years.

Euripides is said to have huge influence on theatrical innovations that have then influenced drama of the modern age, especially in the representation of traditional, mythical heroes as ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances.  He was unique among the writers of ancient Athens for the sympathy he demonstrated towards the victims of society, including women. He had a conservative male audience who were frequently shocked by what he put into the mouths of his characters such as the words of Medea:

·         Sooner Would I stand, three times to face their battles, shield in hand, than bear one Child!

Euripides is credited for adding to the dramatic form the prologue which is ‘set the stage’ at the beginning of the play, and the Deus ex Machine, which wraps up any loose ends at the close.

His Plays:Alcestis, 438 BC
Medea, 431 BC
Heracleidae, c 430 BC
Hippolytus, 428 BC
Andromache, c. 425 BC
Hecuba, c. 424 BC
The suppliants, c. 423 BC
Electra, c. 420 BC
Heracles, c. 416 BC
The Trojan Women, c. 415 BC
Iphigenia in Tauris, c. 414 BC
Ion, c. 414 BC
Helen, c. 412 BC
Phoenician Women, c. 410 BC
Orestes, 408 BC
Bacchae, 405 BC
Iphigenia at Aulis, 405 BC

Gods:

The Greeks believed in a range of deities, Zeus was king of the God, there were many others DIONYSUS was Zeus’s son, and he was the god of wine, theatre and masquerade.  He was said to bring madness, sexuality, sensuality and possession. A person possessed by DIONYSIS would feel a loss of their conscious self. A lot of the plays dealt with man’s battle against the gods, fate and the unknown.

The Playwrights:
Aeschylus introduced the idea of a second actor, he wrote the Oresteia. Sophocles introduced the idea of a third actor. He wrote Oedipus vex. The Message of the Sophocles’ plays was that man cannot escape his fate.

Actors and the chorus:
The Chorus were usually around 15 in number, they represented the populous. In Comedies they were sometimes dressed as animals, with masks and costume. Actors would play many parts. They wore long highly coloured costumes and masks and changed masks to change characters. The Greeks were looking to explain the mysteries of life, to exchange ideas, to listen and communicate.