Greek Theatre Essay

Greek Theatre

Firstly, for the first term we have been studying Greek Theatre to observe the different between drama performance back then and how different it is in the modern world. Moreover, we were set in groups to perform either ‘Oedipus’, ‘Trojan women’ or ‘Antigone’. Secondly, in the second term we have been looking at a different genre of theatre, we’re exploring ‘Our Country’s Good’ with a practitioner; in this case it’s Stanislavski.

The Ancient Greece Theatre was built in the 7^th Century (700BC) and is situated in the City of Athens. It is a significant theatrical culture, political and military powered during this period of time and is part of a festival called Dionysia. During these festivals, men and boys would honour their gods by performing songs and acting to welcome their god, Dionysia. Tragedy, comedy and satyr plays were the three theatrical forms. People viewed them as separate genres for example, satyr plays dealt with the mythological subject in comedy and Aristotle’s Poetics shows the perfect structure for tragedy. In addition, tragedies were often about the past and actors wore dark colours, whereas comedies were more likely to be about current and everyday life and actors wore bright colours.

Ancient Greek theatres were very large; they were built in a semi-circular shape with rows of stone seating around it and open-air structures on the slopes of hills. The shape of the theatres had excellent viewing for the audience and they could hear the actors very clearly. Theatre buildings were called theatron.  They consisted of three main elements: the orchestra, the skene, and the audience. The orchestra is a large circular or rectangular area at the centre of the theatre, where the play, dance, religious rites and acting would take place. Another part would be the skene which is a large building used as backstage behind the orchestra, this was a place for actors to change their costumes and masks. The final part is the audience where up to 15,000 people are able to fit and the smallest of sound can be transmitted to any seat.

Actors wore large masks that exaggerated facial features and emotions for the audience to see. Masks worn by Greek actors had large holes to help amplify their voices, making their words easier for the audience to hear. The masks showed the audience what kind of character and actor was playing such as sad angry or happy. Tragic masks carried sorrowful and pained expressions, whereas comic masks were smiling. The Greek term for a mask is persona which was a significant element in honour of Dionysus at Athens, most likely used in ceremonies and celebration. Actors also wore costumes such as thick-soled shoes in tragic plays that rose them above other actors however if they were in a comedic play, they’d wear thin soled shoes. Some actors wore padded costumes to make them look fatter or stronger depending on what their character looked like. They also wore wigs to portray their character. The arts, such as music, singing and poetry, played a huge part in Greek festivals.

My group’s play was Oedipus and we took our time going through the script and just trying to make out what is going on, what is being revealed throughout the scene by my character, Jokasta. The main theme of our scene was love relationship between Jokasta and Oedipus and a feud relationship between Creon and Oedipus. Creon wishes to claim Odeipus’ thrown after being told that he must die however, Oedipus believes that Jokasta’s brother, Creon had snitched on him which causes an argument between the two men where Oedipus calls Creon a traitor. Throughout my monologue the theme is about death and tragedy as I am revealing something that no one has realised before, this is shown when we find out that Laios was killed at a cross roads where three roads meet. During my monologue I tell the story of what a prophet once said to Laios causing him to die which is an example of the theme of death.