Introduction to Theatre Online Course Dr. Eric W. Trumbull, Professor, Theatre/Speech

Resource: Wilson and Goldfarb, Chapter 10

Objectives for this lesson:

Students will examine:

Roman History

Roman Theatre

Roman Festivals

Forms of Roman Theatre:

Roman Comedy

Roman Tragedy

Roman Dramatic Theory

Roman Theatre Design

Roman Actors

Theatre at the End of the Empire

Rome – in 753 B.C. was a town dominated by Etruria, North of Rome.In 509 B.C., the Etruscan (from Etruria) ruler was expelled, and Rome became a republic (just as Athens became a democracy).

In the 4^th Century B.C., Rome expanded, and by 265 B.C. controlled the Italian peninsula, then Sicily, then several Greek territories.

By 240 B.C., Greek Theatre was familiar to Romans, translated into Latin, and brought to Rome.

The beginnings of Roman theatre recorded: the first record of drama at the Ludi Romani (Roman Festival or Roman Games).

Rome became an empire after Julius Caesar, 27 B.C.

Republic – from 509-27 B.C.Empire – from 27 B.C.-476 A.D.

By 345 A.D., there were 175 festivals a year, 101 devoted to theatre.In 55 B.C., the first stone theatre was built in Rome (by Julius Caesar)

Roman Theatre

Borrowed Greek ideas and improved (?) on them

Less philosophical

Encompassed more than drama : acrobatics, gladiators, jugglers, athletics, chariots races, naumachia (sea battles), boxing, venationes (animal fights)

Entertainment tended to be grandiose, sentimental, diversionary

Actors / performers were called "histriones"

1. Greek Drama
2. Etruscan influences – emphasized circus-like elements
3. Fabula Atellana – Atellan farces (Atella was near Naples).

Held in honor of the gods, but much less religious than in Greece.

Ludi Romani – 6^th century B.C.

Became theatrical in 364 B.C.

Held in September (the autumn)and honored Jupiter.

By 240 B.C., both comedy and tragedy were performed.

Five others: Ludi Florales (April), Plebeii (November), Apollinares (July), Megalenses (April), Cereales (no particular season).

Under the empire, these festivals afforded "bread and circuses" to the masses – many performances.

Performances at festivals probably paid for by the state a wealthy citizen, had free admission, were lengthy—including a series of plays or events, and probably had prizes awarded to those who put extra money in.

Acting troupes (perhaps several a day) put on theatre events.

Forms of Roman Theatre

Roman Drama – there are only about 200 years that are important:

Livius Andronicus – 240 – 204 B.C. – wrote, translated, or adapted comedies and tragedies, the first important works in Latin. Little is known, but he seems to have been best at tragedy.

Gnaeus Naevius – 270-201 B.C. excelled at comedy, but wrote both

Both helped to "Romanize" the drama by introducing Roman allusions into the Greek originals and using Roman stories.

Comedy and Tragedy followed different paths.

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Other forms of Roman Theatre:

Pantomime: solo dance, with music (lutes, pipes, cymbals) and a chorus.

Used masks, story-telling, mythology or historical stories, usually serious but sometimes comic

Mime: overtook after 2^nd century A.D. Fabula raciniata.

Spoken
Usually short
Sometimes elaborate casts and spectacle
Serious or comic (satiric)
No masks
Had women
Violence and sex depicted literally (Heliogabalus, ruled 218-222 A.D., ordered realistic sex)
Scoffed at Christianity

Roman Comedy

Comedy was most popular: Only two playwrights' material survives

Titus Maccius Plautus (c. 254-184 B.C.) 21 extant plays, 130 + total.

Very popular.
Pot of Gold, The Menaechmi, Braggart Warrior -- probably between 205-184 B.C.
All based on Greek New Comedies, probably, none of which has survived
Added Roman allusions, Latin dialog, varied poetic meters, witty jokes
Some techniques: stychomythia – dialog with short lines, like a tennis match
Slapstick
Songs

Publius Terenius Afer [Terence] (195 or 185-159 B.C.)

Born in Carthage, came to Rome as a boy slave, educated and freed
Six plays, all of which survive
The Brothers, Mother-in-Law, etc.
More complex plots – combined stories from Greek originals.
Character and double-plots were his forte – contrasts in human behavior
Less boisterous than Plautus, less episodic, more elegant language.
Used Greek characters.
Less popular than Plautus.

 

Characteristics of Roman Comedy:
Chorus was abandoned
No act or scene divisions
Songs (Plautus – average of three songs, 2/3 of the lines with music; Terence – no songs, but music with half of the dialog)
Everyday domestic affairs
Action placed in the street

Roman Tragedy:

None survive from the early period, and only one playwright from the later period:

Lucius Annaeus Seneca (5 or 4 B.C. – 65 A.D.)

Nine extant tragedies, five adapted from Euripides.
His popularity declined, suicide in 65 A.D.
Though considered to be inferior, Seneca had a strong effect on later dramatists.
The Trojan Women, Media, Oedipus, Agamemnon, etc., all based on Greek originals
Probably closet dramas—never presented, or even expected to be.

five episodes / acts divided by choral odes
elaborate speeches – forensic influence
interest in morality – expressed in sententiae (short pithy generalizations about the human condition)
violence and horror onstage, unlike Greek (Jocasta rips open her womb, for example)
Characters dominated by a single passion – obsessive (such as revenge) – drives them to doom
Technical devices:
Soliloquies,asides, confidants
interest in supernatural and human connections – was an interest in the Renaissance

Roman Dramatic Theory:

Horace – (65-8 B.C.) – a theoretician – Ars Poetica (The Art of Poetry)

Little influence in his time (interest at the time was in theatre not drama), but much influence in the Renaissance
Interpreted Aristotle’s Poetics, but less theoretical and more practice-oriented
Mentions unities (of time, place, and action), genre separation, language use in tragedy and comedy

Roman Theatre Design – Buildings

First permanent Roman theatre built 54 A.D. (100 years after the last surviving comedy)
So permanent structures, like Greece, came from periods after significant writing
More that 100 permanent theatre structures by 550 A.D.

General characteristics:
Built on level ground with stadium-style seating (audience raised)
Skene becomes scaena – joined with audience to form one architectural unit
Paradoi become vomitorium into orchestra and audience
Orchestra becomes half-circle
Stage raised to five feet
Stages were large – 20-40 feet deep, 100-300 feet long, could seat 10-15,000 people
3-5 doors in rear wall and at least one in the wings
scaena frons – façade of the stage house – had columns, niches, porticoes, statues – painted
stage was covered with a roof
dressing rooms in side wings
trap doors were common
awning over the audience to protect them from the sun,
during the empire around 78 B.C, .cooling system – air blowing over streams of water
area in from of the scaena called the proskene (proscenium)

125 permanent theatres built during the empire.

Click here to learn more about Roman theatres.

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Other Structures:

Circus Maximus:

for chariot races – 600 B.C.2000 feet long, 650 feet wide, 60,000 spectators
Track to race 12 chariots at a time
also housed circus games, horse racing, prize fighting, wrestling, etc.

For gladiatorial contests, wild animal fights, and occasionally naumachia (sea battles)
First permanent one in 46 B.C.
The Colosseum – 80 A.D. – three storeys, then 4; 157 feet tall; 620 feet long; 513 feet wide; 50,000 people.
Had space with elevators below to bring up animals, etc.
Used periaktoi (click here to see a movie -- you must have QuickTime installed!!-- and this takes some time to load).
Perhaps curtains – back and foreground
Spectacular effects:
many performers (Cicero tell us: 600 mules, 3000 bowls)
Mechanical lifts for animals
Traps
Some realistic, three-dimensional scenery

Go here for photos of Roman ampitheatres

Roman Actors

Referred to as histriones and mimes – later primarily histriones
Mostly male – women were in mimes
Rocius – famous, raised to nobility
Mimes, however, were considered inferior; perhaps they were slaves.
We know little about the size of troupes
In the 1^st century B.C., a "star" performer seems to have been emphasized
6^th century A.D. – Theodora – a star actress – married Emperor Justinian of the Eastern Empire – but had to renounce her profession

Mostly Greek traditions – masks, doubling of roles
Tragedy – slow, stately, declamatory delivery
Comedy—more rapid and conversational
Movements likely enlarged
Actors probably specialized in one type of drama, but did others
Encores if favorite speeches given (no attempt at "realism")
Mimes – no masks
Greek or roman costumes
Much music

Fall of the Roman Empire

6^th Century A.D. – Christianity rising

Emperor Constantine (324-337 A.D.) – made Christianity legal.

Emperor Theodosius – made any other worship illegal

By 400 A.D., many festivals abated, diminished – no gladiators by 404 A.D., and no ventiones (animal fights) by 523, but others continued

Church opposition to Theatre:

1. association with pagan gods
2. licentiousness
3. ridicule of church by mimes (sacrament and baptism)

533 A.D. is the last record we have of a performance in the Roman Empire – mentioned in a letter.

The Didaskalia project at Berkeley has a valuable section on ancient Roman Theatre -- I highly recommend that you visit that site.

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Page last updated : November 16, 2007