Transcript Greek Comedy - Chiles Theatre!

Greek Comedy
From 5th century BCE
Birdland
Definition
• Aristotle describes the genre of comedy in The
Poetics.
• Comedy represents men as worse than they
are in real life, whereas tragedy shows them
better.
• Tragedy uses real people whereas comedy
uses stereotypes.
Origin
• Comedy comes from “commos” and “oidos”
which means drunken revelry
• Started with bands of singers dressing as and
making fun of others (satire)
• Developed into the satyr play which was a
humorous story that followed a trilogy of
tragedies in the Festivals such as Lenaea and
Dionysia
• Slapstick and crude humor was featured; often
bawdy and political; play offers suggestions to
solve the current problems
Old Comedy
• Old Comedy refers to plays written in the 5th c. BCE.
• The earliest surviving complete play is Aristophanes’
Acharnians, first performed in 425 BCE.
• The plot of comedies usually stretches reality in
terms of time and place, jumping incredible
geographic distances and rapidly changing scenes.
• Fantastical elements such as giant creatures and
improbable disguises are mixed with references to
the audience which delivers a roller-coaster ride of
satire, parody, puns, exaggeration, colorful language,
and crude jokes.
Purpose
• Plays were popular entertainment, they reveal
some of the popular language used by the
Greeks, language not usually found in more
serious written material.
• Any public figure was fair game for satire, and
even mythology and religion could be made fun
of.
• Comedies usually concluded in a happy ending
and the characters find a resolution to the
original conflict
Play Structure
• Comedies gradually took on a five-part structure:
• Introduction, in which the basic fantasy is explained
and developed by actors
• Parados, entry of the chorus (24 men), song and dance
• Contest, or Agon, a ritualized debate between
opposing actors wearing masks, usually stock
characters (cooks, soldiers, pimps, cunning slave)
• Parabasis, the chorus (often dressed as animals)
addresses the audience on the topics of the day and
hurls criticism at prominent citizens
• Exodus - A final banquet or wedding, song and dance
Aristophanes c. 460 BCE - c. 380 BCE
• Athenian writer of Old Greek
Comedy
• Used stock characters, bawdy
events, obscene language
• Most famous play:
Lysistrata 411 BCE
• Other notable plays:
The Frogs 405 BCE, The Birds 414 BCE,
The Clouds 423 BCE
Comedy Playwrights
Aristophanes (cont.) –
• Poked fun at politicians, philosophers,
and fellow artists – Kleon, Socrates, Euripides
• Eleven of his plays survive complete and these
are the only surviving examples of the Old
Comedy genre
Other notable playwrights:
Philemon - c. 368 BCE - 263 BCE
Menander - c. 342 BCE - c. 291 BCE
Sample Text
Oh would some god, with sudden
stroke,
Convert me to a cloud of smoke!
Like politicians’ words I’d rise
In gaseous vapour to the skies.
(line 50, Act One, Scene One, The Wasps
by Aristophanes)
Performers
• Professional male actors played recurring stock
characters by wearing exaggerated masks and
elaborate costumes
• Voice and gesture were extremely important
• The main actors - one protagonist and two other
actors, performed all of the speaking parts
• Restrictions ensured equality in competition and kept
down the costs to the state which funded the
professional actors
• The professional male chorus, costumes, musicians,
and rehearsal time were funded by an appointed
private citizen, a khorēgos.
The Birds
“Ornithes”
• Written by Aristophanes
• Was first performed in 414 BCE at the City
Dionysia Festival where it won second prize.
•The Birds is a fairly conventional example of Old
Comedy.
•Some modern critics call the play a fantasy
because of its mimicry of birds and gaiety of its
songs.
The Story
• The story follows Pisthetaerus (Trusty Friend), and
Euelpides (Good Hope) Athenians who are
disillusioned with life in Athens and its law courts,
politics, false oracles and military antics.
• They hope to make a new start in life somewhere
else and seek the King of the Birds to persuade the
world’s birds to create a new city in the sky, thereby
taking control over all communications between men
and gods.
• During the play the chorus of birds steps forward to
state various laws forbidding crimes against their kind
(such as catching, caging, stuffing or eating them) and
advise the festival judges to award the play first place
or risk getting crapped on!
SurfinBird, Bird is the Word 1963, The Trashmen - Surfin'Bird