Ancient Greece Theatres Dramas Plays

In the Ancient Greek way of life, culture played a dominant role in the social lives of the people. Along with the Olympics and other athletic activities, going to the theatre and watching various dramas and plays formed a major aspect of the Ancient Greek way of life. As with most other social engagements, religion was a major influencer in the cultural life of the Ancient Greeks as well. The Ancient Greek Theatre evolved from certain religious rites and rituals which date back to at least 1200 BCE. Greek Theatre history began with festivals honoring their gods and goddesses and had close and inseparable links with Ancient Greek mythology. Dionysus was honored with a festival called “City Dionysia”. The content of most of the plays continued to be religious, in nature.

The theatre, drama, plays, and masques were some of the main items of the Ancient Greek cultural and social lives. They were more than just mere entertainment ideas.

Ancient Greek Theatre

Origin

By 600 BCE, Ancient Greece got divided into various city-states. These city-states were mainly separate nations centered in major cities and regions. The most prominent city-state among them was Athens, where most of the population (at least 150,000 people) lived. Athens was the main center for these Ancient Greek theatrical traditions. Athenians spread these festivals to its numerous allies in order to promote a common identity. It was here that the “Rites of Dionysus” evolved into what we know today as the theatre. Since Athens was located in a region called Attica, Ancient Greek and Athenian Theatre are sometimes referred to as Attic Theatre.

Ancient Greece Theatres

Theatre of Dionysus

As plays were an important part of the cultural festivals of the Ancient Greeks, almost every Ancient Greek city had a theatre. The Ancient Greeks enjoyed singing and dancing. The theatres were built on hillsides in the open air and had the good capacity and could often hold more than 18,000 spectators.

The theatres were built in a semi-circular shape with rows of tiered stone seating around them. In the center of the theatre was a circular dancing floor where the orchestra was performed, with an altar for sacrifices dedicated to Dionysus. The stage was a raised area within this circle.

Ancient Greece Theatres

At the early Ancient Greek festivals, the actors, directors, and dramatists were all the same person. After some time, only three actors were allowed to perform in each play. All the actors were men. Even women characters were depicted by the men. Later few non-speaking roles were allowed to perform on stage.

Due to the limited number of actors allowed on stage, the chorus evolved into a very active part of Ancient Greek theatre. Music was often played during the chorus’ delivery of its lines. Such was the passion of the Ancient Greeks towards their singing and dancing.

Ancient Greece Theatres

Theatrical Form of the Plays

The Ancient Greek plays were primarily of three kinds- Comedy, Tragedy, and Satire. These were the main themes on which the content of the plays was based.
The initial and first comedies were satirical and were used to mock people for their foolishness, pride, and vanity. A very popular comedy playwright was Aristophanes. It was only in the later periods that Menander wrote comedies about the lives of ordinary people and his works emerged to be of a universal approach.
The greater themes of love, pride, loss, fraught relationships between men and gods and goddesses, and the abuse of power were highlighted and shown in the tragedies. The protagonist of s tragedy usually committed a crime without realizing his own foolishness and arrogance. With his slow realization of the crime, the world would fall around him. Aristotle felt that tragedy would help us in cleaning our hearts and help us get rid of our petty concerns and worries and would make us aware of the fact that there was nobility in suffering. For him, this kind of experience was “catharsis.”
Satire was composed of short stories and plays which were performed in between the tragic plays and made fun of the tragic characters. Large phalluses were worn by the actors of these performances to make them appear comic. Satirical characters were half-goat, half-human, and other mythical characters. Very few such works remain to this date and they have been classified as either comedy dramas or tragicomic.
Tragedy and comedy were viewed as completely separate genres. Plays related to satire dealt with the Greek tree of a mythological subject in a comic manner. Aristotle’s Poetics sets out a thesis about the perfect structure for tragedy. Three well-known Greek tragedy playwrights of the fifth century are Sophocles, Euripides, and Aeschylus. Aristophanes wrote most of the comedy plays.

In the Ancient Greek period, buildings were called a theatre. The theatres were large, open-air structures constructed on the slopes of hills. They consisted of three main elements: the orchestra, the scene, and the audience. During this time the actors had to use loud hand gestures and be very loud in their speech so as to make themselves audible to their audience as there were no microphones or any such devices.

Ancient Greece Theatres

Theatre Masks

The actors used exaggerated masks and colorful and decorative costumes to make themselves visible to the audience. This was a necessary feature because the audience sat far away from the stage and could not view it properly. These masks were usually made of linen or cork. The shape of the mask amplified the actor’s voice, making his words audible to the audience. The plays were either sung or spoken in rhyme. The prose was not much in fashion in this period. Thus most of the content was composed in verse.

The drama was taken very seriously by the people of Ancient Greece and for them, a part of the entertainment was a process of investigating the world they lived in and identifying the true meaning of being human.

Some Famous Ancient Greek Playwrights

Aeschylus

Aeschylus (525 BCE to 455 BCE) is considered to be the father of Greek tragedy. He wrote around seventy plays in total, of which only seven survive in the present times. Aristotle credited him for introducing the second character to collaborate with the chorus in the Ancient Greek plays.

Aristophanes

Aristophanes (446 BCE to 386 BCE) is regarded as the father of Greek comedy. He wrote somewhat forty plays of which only eleven survive in the present times. He wrote during the period which was known as Old Comedy.

Euripedes

Euripedes (480 BCE to 406 BCE) was one of the three great tragedy playwrights of the Classical Greece period. He wrote close to ninety plays of which less than twenty survive to this date.

Sophocles

Sophocles (496 BCE to 405 BCE) has been credited by Euripedes for introducing the third character in the acting fraternity. He wrote around a hundred and twenty plays of which only seven survive in modern times. His “Oedipus The King”  is regarded by many as the greatest of all tragedies ever penned down.