Transcript Theatre`s Beginnings

Theatre of Dionysus, Athens
The Play’s the Thing: Theatre’s Beginnings
Theatre began in ancient Greece as a
celebration of Dionysus, a god of wine, ecstasy,
and visionary experience.
Then, if you went to a play, it was a
tragedy…there was no need to clarify the genre.
Tragedy’s origins lie in the 6th century B.C.E., but
reached its “Golden Age” in the 5th century.
Choral performances of poetry were
widespread in archaic Greece, and tragedy
probably developed out of them. ***this is why
the chorus remains such an important aspect of
Greek drama.
The Play’s the Thing: Theatre’s Beginnings
By the time of Aristotle’s landmark study of Greek
theatre, The Poetics, the art had divided into “the tragic”
and “the comic.”
Greek culture had increasingly become Apollonian (Apollo
was the Greek god of light, rationality, music) who was the
elder brother and complete opposite of Dionysus.
In politics, democracy developed during this period.
Scientific and philosophical thinking both reached a level
of sophistication unlike anything seen before in the Greek
world.
Many of Greece’s most famous buildings (including the
Parthenon) were constructed.
What is Tragedy?
• As a theatrical term, drama is defined as “verse or prose of a
serious and dignified character that typically experiences a
conflict with a superior force (destiny, circumstance, society).
• In everyday speech, tragedy is often used to mean something
sad—a disastrous, often fatal, event.
• But in ancient Athens, tragedy referred to a specific dramatic
performance….characterized by their form and their time and
place of performance, not by the sadness of their plots.
• Tragedy celebrates courage and dignity in the face of defeat—
attempts to portray the grandeur of the human spirit.
• An imitation of a single unified action that is both serious and
complete (Aristotle).
• The word “tragedy” ( tragoidia) seems to mean, literally, “goat
song.”
– FYI: a goat was awarded to the winning playwright.
• The subject matter did not have to be tragic in the modern
sense
– Aristotle, writing in the 330’s B.C.E., said the plot of tragedy had to be
serious
– However, serious does not mean “sad.”
– But most of them do feature sad or disastrous events which clearly
explain the modern usage of the term.
– Presented as action, not narrative. Plot is the most important
principle.
The Play’s the Thing: Theatre’s Beginnings
In the aftermath of the “Golden Age,” statuary at
sites like Delphi, which had celebrated Gaia (the
Earth), was replaced by statues of Apollo, sometimes
seen pinning Python (a serpent being the power of
which was felt in earthquakes and volcanos) to the
Earth with a lance.
This takeover was a phase in a world-wide palace
coup Merlin Stone chronicles in When God Was a
Woman in which female power was deposed and
rationality was born.
One of the most striking characteristics of Greek
tragedies is the presence of strong, powerful women
in many of the surviving plays. (**Only one extant
play does not include a female character.)
Friedrich Nietzsche, The Birth
of Tragedy
Although Nietzsche was a misogynist, he
too lamented the triumph of the
Apollonian over the Dionysian.
So why is theatre “play”?
According to the Dutch historian
Johann Huizinga, “play” is the
essence of the human: we are not
homo sapiens (man the wise), but
“homo ludens” (man the player).
Plays, theatre, are one very
important form of the human
mind at play.
In ancient, democratic Athens,
all residents of the city, even
women, who were not believed
capable of being true citizens
(since they were governed by
biology and not reason), were
required to attend the theatre as
essential to their education.
Aristotle [384-322 BC], The Poetics
1. Essentially an observational
report on the nature of Greek
tragedy and comedy.
2. Became theatre’s “bible” for
2,000 years.
3. Introduced/established such
terms as in medias res, hamartia,
hubris, deus ex machina, the
unities (time, place, action),
catharsis.
4. Countered Plato’s notion that
art, drama, was detrimental to the
state because it was removed
from reality.
Poetics
Early attempt at literary
criticism
• Oedipus as the perfect
example of what tragedy is
and should do.
– Poets are imitators of things
(two removes from Platonic
reality)
– Works are directed by our
emotions
– Poetry arouses emotions of
pity and fear
Response to Plato’s The
Republic
• Aristotle addresses
– Plato’s objection to the
arousal of pity and fear
– Purpose of tragedy is to
cause a catharsis
• A cleansing, purification,
purgation
• A catharsis is a “safe”
purging of the emotions
of pity and fear
Aristotle’s Unities
• Time: within a single day
• Place: no scene change
• Action: no subplots, one basic story
Elements of Stagecraft in Greek Tragedy
Orchestra **Adds to the pageantry of the stage
Chorus ***the early form of theatre
The Personae (masks) **hugely important because of
the limited number of actors.
Deus Ex Machina: “god out of the machine”
A plot device in which a person of thing appears
“out of the blue” to help the character solve an
otherwise unresolvable issue (watch for this
device in Medea).
Irony
Dictionary.com offers the following possible definitions
for the complex word “irony”:
a)The use of words to express something different from
and often opposite to their literal meaning
b) An expression or utterance marked by a deliberate
contrast between apparent and intended meaning.
c)A literary style employing such contrasts for
humorous or rhetorical effect.
d)Incongruity between what might be expected and
what actually occurs: “Hyde noted the irony of Ireland's
copying the nation she most hated” (Richard Kain).
e)An occurrence, result, or circumstance notable for
such incongruity.
dramatic or tragic irony: a literary technique, originally
used in Greek tragedy, by which the full significance of a
character's words or actions are clear to the audience or
reader although unknown to the character.
*Oedipus in particular is filled with dramatic irony.
Oxford American Dictionary
• The Greek Mind and
Tragedy……fate and free
will…..
“The tragic note which we hear in the Iliad and in most of Greek
literature was produced by the tension between these two forces,
passionate delight in life, and clear apprehension of its unalterable
framework:
As is the life of the leaves, so is that of men. The wind scatters
the leaves to the ground: the vigorous forest puts forth others,
and they grow in the spring-season. Soon one generation of men
comes and another ceases.
--H. D. F. Kitto, The Greeks
“Neither the thought nor the image is peculiar to Homer: the
peculiar poignancy is, and it comes from the context. We do not find
it in the magnificent Hebrew parallel:
As for man, his days are as grass. As a flower of the field, so he
flourisheth. For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone, and the
place shall know it no more. Psalms 103:15
--H. D. F. Kitto, The Greeks
“The note here is one of humility and resignation: Man is no more
than grass, in comparison with God. But the Homeric image takes a
very different color from its context of heroic striving and
achievement. Man is unique; yet for all his high quality and his
brilliant variety he must obey the same laws as the innumerable and
indistinguishable leaves. There can be no romantic protest—for how
can we protest against the first law of our being—nor resigned
acceptance such as we find, for example, among the Chinese, to
whom the individual is only an ancestor in the making, one crop of
leaves on one tree in the forest. There is instead this passionate
tension which is the spirit of tragedy.”
--H. D. F. Kitto, The Greeks
--H. D. F. Kitto, The Greeks
“Myth” by Muriel Rukeyser
Long afterward, Oedipus, old and blinded, walked
the roads. He smelled a familiar smell. It was the
Sphinx. Oedipus said, “I want to ask one question.
Why didn’t I recognize my mother?” “You gave the
wrong answer,” said the Sphinx. “But that was what
made everything possible,” said Oedipus. “No,” she
said. “When I asked, What walks on four legs in the
morning, two at noon, and three in the evening,
you answered, Man. You didn’t say anything about
woman.” “When you say Man,” said Oedipus, “you
include women too. Everyone knows that.” She
said, “That’s what you think.”
Tragic Protagonist
• Man or woman (preferably male), who is preeminent
or better than average in some way
• Must undergo a reversal of fortune or fall from
his/her position
• For the proper emotions to be aroused, the
protagonist must not be excessively good OR evil.
• The reversal of fortune must come about not
through wickedness but through hamartia
• Hamartia: mistake or error in judgment
Other terms to know. . . .
• The reversal of fortune will be brought about by a peripeteia or an
unexpected turn of events and should include an anagnorisis or
recognition.
• Anagnorisis: the discovery or recognition that leads to the reversal
• Peripeteia: reversal; protagonist’s fortune turn in an unexpected way. In
tragedy, it is the “fall.”
• Aristotle felt the peripeteia and the anagnorisis should occur
together
• Hubris: overweening pride or ambition
• Pathos: “suffering”
• Dramatic irony: the meaning of a character’s words is understood by the
audience but not by the character
The Three Great Tragedians
• Aeschylus (7/90)
• Sophocles (7/123)
• Euripides (18/90)
***there were many great tragedians but few
works have survived.
Only 32 are extant (existing) out of the
thousands written in 5th century B.C.E
Chorus
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Serves as the origins of tragedy
Probably consisted of 12-15 members
Sets the mood; accompanied by a flute, poetic songs
Adds beauty
Provides background information; represents common people, the elders,
townspeople
Sometimes sides with one character or another (**may give advice)
Presents central themes, folk truths, common sense
Reflects on events and actions
Does NOT reflect the ideas of the playwright
As explained by Aristotle, the chorus is a dramatic element, an actor
among other actors. The Chorus shows the communal background of the
action. Greek tragedy assumes that no life is private