Ancient Greek Theatre, Book Review Example

Ancient Greek Theater: Experience of a thousand years

The evolution of ancient Greek theater followed an arc from ritualistic worship and myth-history reenactment to a sophisticated art form that contemplatedmotives that animate human action.  A touchstone of Athenian democracy, Greek theaterbelonged profoundly and above all to the people. In that light, it is entirely appropriate that James Richard Green should cite archaeological evidence – the detritus of ordinary people -in tracing one of Greek civilization’s most enduring and influential contributions to civilization.

Masks, vases, jewelry, silverware and mosaics are among the items Green uses to examine the development of Greek theater amid the social settings that gave it spirit and substance. Green’s Theatre in Ancient Greek Society covers a period of approximately one thousand years, from the time before the Peloponnesian War through the era of Roman conquest.

Much of the imagery Green considers is cult-based and worshipful. Once supplicants and worshippers, actors became intermediaries between the audience and the divine. Vases from as early as the fifth centuryB.C. show actors in company withDionysos celebrating performances and making offerings, often of their masks, which served as ritualisticobjects as well as objects of dramatic and comedic expression.

“This is one way the audience has of reaching the god and the pleasures he brings,” Green says of the playwright’s craft (Green 86).Gradually, thenotion of communing with the divine through the intercession of the actor gave way to a more temporal, less ethereal direction.

Over time story plots grew more complex.Euripides “began to question traditional aristocratic views of the gods and heroes in the spirit of the democratic fifth century”(Green, 13).The trend toward more commonplace subject matter must have been a welcome change to war-weary Athenians.

The Hellenistic age altered the geographic orientation of the Greek world; old rites and customers were obliterated. By the time the Romans had relegated the Greeks to a submissive political role, the theater had become a place where people went to escape the realities of an increasingly complex world.  Actors and the masks they wore reflected real human experience – the experience of a thousand years.

Worshipful beginnings

The recitative essence of Homeric poetry had a strong element of performance, a tradition that meshed naturally with the dithyrambic ceremonies in which Dionysos was worshipped. The rhythm of the seasons gave Athenians leisure time between December and March, a period of minimal agricultural activity marked by religious festivals: the Lenaia, in January, and the Dionysia, which took place in March.  The Dionysia was the more important occasion, a festival honoring the god Dionysos.

About 600 B.C., this religious expression acquired theatrical forms.  The choric nature of the spectacle, tradition holds, was altered by Thespis, who added a performer separate from the chorus. The interposition of an actor may have been the catalyst for a gradual separation of audience and spectacle that further widened the distance between religion and ritual (Green 16).

If this is true, we may consider it the first step in the development of a brilliant form of human expression.  Or it may be a reflection of man’s long, slow migration away from the divine in his own natureand toward an earthier realism,one emphasizing man’s relationship with himself.

Transitionto sophistication

By the fifth century B.C., Democracy was replacing the old patriarchal, aristocratic form of government. This important transitional period saw a more prosperous and urbanized Athenian society give rise to two indispensable developments in the development of theater: a surplus of wealth and leisure time that went hand-in-hand with a more sophisticated audience, and; a sizeable population that provided a ready pool of actors and an audience steeped in the ancient Greek tradition of poetry and story-telling.

The archaeological recordillustrates the audience’s relationship to the god through depictions of the theater and its practitioners. The Pronomos vase, which dates to about 400 B.C., portrays the celebration of a satyr play in the sanctuary of Dionysos.  The masks in this scene are imbued with mystic significance.

Terracotta figurines, which come into the picture in the late fifth century, represented characters from popular plays.  Fourteen terracotta figurines discovered near Athens, known as the “New York Group,” appear to indicate that masks were becoming increasingly standardized, along with character types.  Audiences could identify their favorite characters, which were becoming more numerous.

Playwrights employed new staging techniques and added second and third actors, fundamental changes that profoundly affected the styleand structure of performances.

Aeschylus’ addition of a second actor injected the element of conflict in the person of an antagonist. Plays became less static affairs.

More actors doubtless meant greater prominence for performers. Paidagogos, or messenger, illustrations on Tarentine vases from later in this period showcase a distinctive type of character and would seem to indicate that actors had indeed progressed in the theatrical hierarchy.

Not just ritual

The actors’ relationship to the god changed throughout the fifth and fourth centuries. Performerswere seen ina more direct relationship with the divine. A Tarentine vaseshows actors picking grapes and making wine, a role formerly ascribed to Dionysos’ satyrs.These scenes reflect the development of a form that was filling a role at once ritualisticand entertaining.

This period also witnessed an important shift in subject matter.  Aristophanes’ later plays veered away from the realities of Athens’ political situation (deplorable given the fallout of the

Peloponnesian War), pursuing more escapist themes.  Middle Comedy had begun to overtake tragedy as the more popular form of theater late in the fifth century, representing a transition to situational humor, which drew on subjects audiences could identify with and knew well.

Given the horrific events of the late fifth century, it’s not surprising that interest in plays that contemplated man’s place in the universe and his relationship to the gods was waning. War, disease and famine had blunted that appetite and escapism was becoming the order of the day.

As Greek civilization moved toward the geographic and cultural diffusion of the Hellenistic epoch, Menander, who came to typify the New Comedy, wrote of the star-crossed lives of young lovers, cooks, merchants and farmers. Comic characters were concerned not with the myths of the distant past but in everyday affairs.

To laugh, to share experience

Menander wrote for an Athenian audience still living with unpleasant memories.  Defeat by Sparta in the Peloponnesian War was followed by a loss of political independence and the depredations of the notorious “Thirty Tyrants.”  By the time the Macedonian dynasty had seized power, a much grittier reality was in evidence.  The era’s most popular plays reflected a desire to laugh, to share experience and see depictions of other common people struggling with new vicissitudes of existence.

The Hellenistic period altered Greek society in powerfully fundamental ways. With the polis systemessentially destroyed, ancient communal practices lost relevance as the Greek world began its shift toward the Middle East and south into Egypt.  “Bonding forces of religion and cult” were “of small value for those inhabiting new areas” (Green, 105).

Actors maintained their role as intermediaries with the divine but in a different role.

Comic actors appear on vases in costume as slaves of Dionysos involved in various activities.  A Paestan vase of the fourth century showsDionysos and an actor at a woman’s window after a party at which all celebrated a successful performance (Green, 119).

The fourth century saw the interjection of analysis and philosophy, whichasserted that the role of the supernatural should be marginalized.  Aristotle’s fourth-century Poetics formalized a school of thought that believed the divinewas a product of the irrational and, as such, was no longer integral to plot. Aristotle insisted that divine intervention should come from outside the story.

Masks of the Hellenistic age display more detailed, human features. Wavy hair represented youth and vigor, snub noses characterized old men and slaves, and so forth. Hellenistic comic masks were designed to mirror reality as the plays of Menander and other adherents of New Comedy depicted real life. Paintings of comic scenes from this period, found at Pompeii,portray the activities of ordinary people.

Decline of an aesthetic

The decline of Greek society coincided with the rise of Republican and Imperial Rome.Greece’s great dramatic legacy was passing to the Romans, worthy successors to the Hellenistic tradition but a civilization that would develop its own dramatic forms and techniques.

The geographic scene had shifted from the traditional centers of “Old Greece” to the more populous regions of the burgeoning Roman world. As well, the theatrical universe had spun off into central Italy, Campania and Egypt and many of the great ancient Greek theaters were going out of use during this time.It was a period of general decline for Greek society.

The Roman period witnessed the continuance of a gradual divestiture from the spiritual in the evolution of the theater.  The Dionysian element, long the soul of the Greek dramatic tradition, was nowessentially a novelty, a nod to the past.  Roman playwrights such as Plautus and Terence drew on the Roman regard for Greek culture.  Traditional tragedy and comedy became identified with the social elite whilethe growing mass appeal of low comedy, a comparatively vulgar form, drew the ire of early Christians, who decried the moral lapses in theatrical themes.

The Greek satirist Lucian noted that performers of the second century A.D. had come to dominate the production (Green, 156). Mask designs were now less important as a definer of character,a role actorsbegan to fill with more emotive and demonstrative styles.  Some masks from this period featured large openings for the eyes and mouth, actually allowing some of the actor’s face to be seen (Green, 157-158).

Masks and figurines predominate among the surviving archaeological record from this period.  Stone sculpture, lamps and bronze objects were also widespread.

Coda

Disillusionment and satire colored the socialbackdrop against which the great playwrights worked.  Theirs was a cynical but wiser ethic, one that ultimately described the slow arc of Greek history passing its apex and enriched a great dramatic tradition with the poignant experience of decline.