Ancient Theatre

In Ancient Greece, beginning around the year 500 BC, theatre, as we know it , began. Of course, less organized efforts surely took place earlier than this date, mainly focused around the acting-out of a battle or a hunt. In ancient Egypt, depictions of what seem to be plays, can be seen. However, as far as organized, written theatre, Greece is regarded as its place of birth. Each year, the Festival of Dionysus included drama. There was a competition and the best play of that year was awarded a prize. Later, in addition to the tragedy winner, a winner for best comedy was awarde.In the third Century B.C., the philosopher, Aristotle would write in detail about many subjects in his various tomes. In his Poetics (the study of literary expression) he discussed drama at length. Many of his theories and beliefs concerning theatre continue to affect us today. He used the Greeks and their theatre of the century preceding his, as a model for his writings.

 

Aristotle wrote that: "One of the primary purposes of theatre was to provide pleasure and that the greatest forms of pleasure came from learning the truth." Aristotle was a scientist and therefore, approached his studies with a focus on theatre’s effects on society rather than on what theatre should or should not accomplish. The Poetics includes Aristotle’s methodology for analyzing a play’s formal structure. He stated that a play would give an audience the greatest amount of pleasure if the form was constructed with Three Organizing Unities: the three are the unity of action, the unity of time and the unity of place.

 

THE THREE UNITIES: Action: Aristotle believed that a play should contain only one plotline. Secondary stories within the play would detract from the main plot. The plot should have a beginning, middle and end. He argued that plays that followed this rule gave the most pleasure. This, of course, has been long abandoned in most cases, although some plays continue to adhere to it. Time: For Aristotle the audience should gain the most pleasure from plays when the action occurs in the passage of real, or consecutive, time. Most of the plays that fell within Aristotle’s idea of time unity took place in the space of one day or less. Even more strict was the idea of some Aristotle devotees that it had to occur in a 12 hour, rather than a 24 hour period of time. For Aristotle, the ideal three hour play should cover exactly three hours of a day during the story of the play. In our day, plays may take decades or even centuries to unfold. There are examples, however, of plays or movies that do take place in real time. Place: Aristotle wrote that maximum pleasure can only take place when a play’s action took place in one setting only. Greek plays usually took place in either a town square or a palace hall or the area surrounding a palace. Today, of course, we are extremely flexible and enjoy movies and plays where locations vary widely within the same story. Some great modern pieces do take place in one setting, however.

 

THE SIX ELEMENTS OF DRAMA: In a continuation of his analysis of drama, Aristotle concluded that in addition to the three unities, six elements were necessary to gain the most pleasure for the audience. Listed in order of importance he specified the following: Plot: as described by Aristotle, the plot was the most important element and is the life and soul of drama. For him drama could not exist without a plot. The plot is a series of ordered events that link the dramatic action. Briefly, it is the story of the play. Character: Aristotle defines character as the agent of the action. The story unfolds before the audience as the character enacts the events of the plot. The characters cannot exist separate from the plot, just as the plot cannot exist without the character performing the actions. Thought: by thought, Aristotle is referring to the theme or message of the play. This "thought" is usually considered to be a universal message or idea that the audience extracts from the story. Diction: diction is described as the character’s vocabulary as well as the order in which the playwright organizes the words. The character’s vocabulary makes him/her unique. One character may have a large vocabulary and speak formally, while another may have a smaller vocabulary and speak simply. Writers may have their own unique diction. Shakespeare’s language in Hamlet differs significantly from Gene Roddenberry’s in Star Trek. Diction can also establish the level of seriousness in a story. Where "CSI" may employ a certain level of diction, "Modern Family" might demonstrate its level of seriousness through a completely different type of language. Music: for Aristotle, the term, "music" would probably be described today using the word "sound". It encompasses everything that the audience hears: songs, musical accompaniment, sound effects and any vocalization from the actors. He also believed that the more the actors embellished the words of the playwright, the more the audience would connect with the character’s emotions. Characters might not speak at all but can still perform the action of the play. Spectacle: Aristotle defines spectacle as that which the audience sees. He considered this element the least important of the elements. Sight is not necessary to experience theatre. Of course, it is important to realize that Aristotle’s society was very aural/oral in nature. People from his era were much better listeners than we are today, able to ingest words and thoughts at a faster rate than our multi-sense information acquisition style of today.