Greek Theatre

05/09/2024

Greek Theatre is most renowned as being the first noted form of theatre in history, having evolved out of religious ceremonies to become what we know as the great Greek comedies and tragedies.

This type of theatre was performed usually in large open spaces, with seating often carved into the side of hills. The stage closely resembled that of a proscenium arch stage, with a stage framed by a roof and pillars, although with no curtain like its modern counterpart. In front of the main stage, you would have what is known as the 'orchestra pit'; which while we may now assume was for the orchestra to sit and play like in modern theatres, was actually where the 'chorus' would perform.

The chorus was an early form of ensemble, typically twelve men, which prioritised moving and being perfectly in sync and together. The purpose of the chorus was to provide information to the audience about events that could not take place on the stage, such as deaths or large battles. However, they could also be used to emphasise key themes, deliver moral messages, and showcase a character's inner thoughts. As well as this, masks were also utilized by actors to enable them to play multiple roles as well as easily convey emotions to the audience. Seeing as, at the time, there were only three actors who would perform the speaking roles, so this would be imperative.

After learning about Greek Theatre, we then looked to see how we as a class could work together to form a chorus.

EXERCISE 1:

At first, we looked at how we could become in sync with one another, very similar to a Greek chorus. To achieve this, we undertook some simple coordination activities. This contained walking around the space and attempting to jump and/or clap at the same time without any visual or audio cue from one another. Whilst at first this may have proved difficult, we eventually started to synchronise and later fully achieved it.

This exercise was helpful in getting us in the mindset and focus that a traditional Greek chorus would require, as well as giving a sense of the activities some Greek choruses may have utilized in their routines to entertain the audience.

EXERCISE 2:

After completing the first exercise, we then looked at actually depicting some Greek myths. In this case, we looked at depicting the tale of Dionysus and more specifically his birth. Dionysus was considered the God of Theatre, Wine, and Procreation; and the first instances of Greek Theatre were notably performed in the Theatre of Dionysus, one of the first theatres built in Greece. Dionysus was also a demigod, as he was the result of an affair between Zeus and a human, despite being married to Hera. When the woman asked to see Zeus' true form, she was killed by his splendour. However, the baby Dionysus was protected by a wall of ivy from the force of the sun from Zeus' true form, and so survived albeit now defenceless. In Zeus' pity, he puts the baby in his thigh to grow resulting in Dionysus being referred to as 'twice-born'.

To reconstruct this, we got into two groups and delegated someone as the narrator whilst the rest of us acted as the chorus. To recreate it, we utilized many techniques typical of a Greek chorus, such as multi-rolling, as well as exaggerated movements and actions.

As mentioned previously, Greek Theatre evolved into two main types of theatre, being that of Greek Comedies and Greek Tragedies. The tragedies focused on central characters who would rise to power then fall due to a fatal flaw, or hamartia, which would enstow a moral lesson to the audience. On the other hand, the comedies were more intended as ridicule and pure fun to entertain the audience. However as well as these two main forms you also had Satire (derived from the word satyr, which describes a mythological half-man, half-goat creature). Satire was another form of Greek Comedy, however unlike typical comedies of the time satires would often contain rude humour and mock ideas and people, as well as delve into political points. They were also performed after the two types of plays.

These types of Greek Theatre were most prevalent in and around the 5th Century BC and based predominantly in Athens. This is likely due to 5 main playwrights: Aeschylus, Euripides and Sophocles who were all tragedian playwrights; and Aristophanes and Menander who were comedian playwrights. We know these 5 as we have most of their plays in full, and they seem very much responsible for shaping Greek Theatre at the time. They were also responsible for many well known Greek plays such as:

OEDIPUS REX

SOPHOCLES - 429 BC

Oedipus Rex is unique in the sense that unlike most Greek Theatre at the time, this play looked to explore and discuss human behaviour rather than acting as an explanation for natural phenomenon. Of course this play is also infamous for being the source of the Oedipus Complex, which in terms of psychoanalytic theory describes a child's desire for sexual involvement with the parent of the opposite sex, whilst also having a sense of rivalry with the parent of the same sex. Prior to the start of the tragedy, Oedipus has become the king of Thebes whilst unwittingly fulfilling a prophecy that he would kill his father, King Laius of Thebes, and marry his mother, Jocasta (whom Oedipus took as his queen). The play then centres around Oedipus' search for the murderer of Laius in order to end a plague ravaging Thebes, unaware that the killer he is looking for is none other than himself. At the end of the play when the truth is revealed, Jocasta hangs herself whilst Oedipus, horrified at his patricide and incest, proceeds to gouge out his own eyes in despair.

OEDIPUS AT COLONUS

SOPHOCLES - 406 BC

Oedipus At Colonus is the second play chronologically in The Three Theban Plays, but was the last of the trilogy of plays to be written by Sophocles. The play itself focuses around the end of Oedipus' life as he seeks redemption and forgiveness. Over the course of the play, he goes from an abject beggar banished from his city for his sins of patricide and incest, to a figure of immense power capable of extending (or withholding) divine blessings. This is seen with Oedipus blessing Theseus with the gift of his burial site, which will ensure victory for Athens in a future conflict with Thebes; as wells as with him condemning his son Polynices (Die! Die by your own blood brother's hand—die!—killing the very man who drove you out! So I curse your life out!).

ANTIGONE

SOPHOCLES - 441 BC

One of Sophocles more well-known tragedies, Antigone focuses on the themes of civil disobedience as well as acting as an allegory to warn the audience against pride. The tragedy looks at Antigone, daughter of the self-exiled King Oedipus, as she witnesses the civil war that then breaks out between her two brothers, Eteocles and Polynices, for the Theban throne. This conflict results in both of their deaths, and Oedipus' brother-in-law Creon ascends to the Theban throne and ordered Eteocles to be publicly honoured and Polynices publicly shamed. This includes leaving his body upon the battlefield unburied, left to rot. The story then follows Antigone as she attempts to bury her brother and go against the decision of her uncle and placing her relationship with her brothers above human laws.

MEDEA

EURIPIDES - 431 BC

Medea can be considered an almost timeless play with the many different interpretations it has garnered over the centuries, such as political, psychoanalytical and feminist to name a few. It is also worth mentioning that this play was a part of a trilogy, however the other plays have unfortunately not survived. The play focuses on Medea, former princess of the kingdom Colchis and the wife of Jason (Leader of the Argonauts); as she finds her position in the world threatened as Jason leaves her to marry a princess of Corinth for political power. Enacting vengeance on him, Medea murders his new wife as well as her own two sons to hurt Jason, before fleeing to Athens to start a new life.

LYSISTRATA

ARISTOPHANES - 411 BC

Lysistrata is an interesting and innovative play for the time it was written, as it looked to explore and question the sexual relations in a male-dominated society, as well as other gender-based issues. It is also notable for representing a shift from the conventions of 'Old Comedy', which is fascinating as it was mainly utilised by Aristophanes himself. The play itself is a comic account of Lysistrata's mission to end the Peloponnesian War between Greek city states by denying all the men of the land any sex, which is the only thing they truly and deeply desired. She persuades the women to withhold 'sexual privileges' as a means of forcing the men to negotiate peace. However this strategy does come with flaws, and the movement ends up inflaming the battle between the sexes.

A occuring theme of Greek Theatre was that many of the plays were influenced by, or even directly based on, Greek Mythology which was in turn based on natural phenomenon in an effort to explain them. This resulted in many a Greek Myth to explain how the world worked to the people of Ancient Greece, and it was our task to look into some of these tales.

EXERCISE 3:

Our homework task was to go off and study a select Greek Myth and discover what natural phenomenon it was trying to explain, as well as any other facts. My chosen with was the Story of Pandora, which looked to explain why suffering and pain exists in a world controlled by gods. Here are the notes I made for the homework task:

The Full Myth:

The tale begins with Prometheus, who was a fire god and divine trickster, stealing fire from heaven and bestowing it to humanity, or 'mortals'. The king of the gods, Zeus, wanted to counteract this 'blessing', and to do so he commissioned Hephaestus (another god of fire and patron of craftsmen) to create the first woman out of earth, upon which the gods would bestow their choicest gifts. The woman's name was Pandora. One of the gifts, was a jar full of misery and evils (or a box as is now commonly known) and was instructed not to ever open it.

Zeus then sent Pandora to Epimetheus, Prometheus' brother. Prometheus warned Epimetheus, which he forgot and made Pandora his wife. Afterwards, through curiosity Pandora opened the jar left in her care and in doing so released all manner of evils into the world, such as sickness, death, famine etc. By the time she was able to close the lid of the jar, only one thing remained, which was hope.

The Moral / Explanation:

The Story of Pandora tries to explain the natural phenomena on how and why suffering exists in the world despite the fact there are gods that could easily end them. However, the moral of the story is about how unchecked curiosity may have terrible consequences, however can lead to positive outcomes and gives off hope, as is shown with how it was left in the box when all the evils had escaped. It can also count as a metaphor for opening a topic which leads to a lot of discomfort and pain, like the phrase "opening a can of worms".

Origins:

The origins of the story come from the the 8th-century-BCE Greek writer Hesiod. Pandora's creation initially featured in Theogony, and it wasn't until Works and Days, a late epic poem of his, where the jar of evils was introduced and the myth was created. Pandora's jar then became a box in the 16th century, where the Renaissance humanist Erasmus either mistranslated the Greek or confused the jar with the box in the story of Cupid and Psyche. It has been known as "Pandora's Box" ever since.