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Good afternoon. So, today's class is all about drama in the beginning and we are basically
going to focus on theater in ancient Greece and ancient Rome. So, you might recall that
we have already done a play by Sophocles - Oedipus - and this is an extension of that class,
particularly the play the Greek tragedies and also the Romans tragedies.
So, drama in Greece as we have already seen in Oedipus, you remember that the very opening
seen in Oedipus, it begins with group of people. Remember, they are sitting with a read. So,
drama in Greece begun with the observation of religious ceremonies, so that was a theoretical
convection that plays would begin by invoking gods ok.
So, there would be group of people and the technical term for that group on the stage
was chorus. Chorus not in the way we know today but they were like we will see what
chorus was all about. So, a chorus would act as worshipers at the altar of the Greek gods
and they would begin the play by chanting religious songs and devotional songs, a.
So, the play, a traditional play, a traditionally structured play would begin in so the chorus
would come on the stage and they would start singing the song, the devotional songs and
then gradually one character, one person from that group would separate and he start addressing
the remaining group, the remaining people, the rest of the group ok.
So, and then he would introduce the play in this way. So, one can they would come together
and then one there would be a breakup. One person would come forward and he starts conversing
with the rest of the group. So, once the single actor establishes the context, the dramatic
situation, then it would be followed by the appearance of the other leading actors, not
the chorus now, other actors who were actually the principle dramatis personae. You know
what are dramatis personae? The principle actors characters of the play. Then these
actors would begin a formal dialogue and the attention of the spectators would be fixed
on them and not on the chorus but plays would that a drama, a traditional drama would always
begin with the introduction or with the appearance of a chorus and most of these dramas as we
have been talking about, when we were discussing Oedipus another Greek place, they were of
tragic nature. There were very few comedies and tragedies were associated were regarded
as you have already seen Aristotle’s definition. Do you remember, what is Aristotle’s definition
of tragedy? You get you anyway. So, tragedy was supposed to be the highest
form of poetry, highest form of any performance. So, comedy anyway was not taken into account
at all. Although, the comedies which were written over there but they were extremely
few and far between and tragedy immerged out of religious observance. Basically, it was
considered like you know a kind of a devotional play as you have seen Oedipus. What is Oedipus
all about? I will keep coming back to Oedipus because
that is the only Greek play we have done but if I said that the tragedy was an observance
of you know religious practices of those times. Then how would you consider Oedipus as a religious
play? What is it about? Does not it invoke gods through the pray? Do not you have that?
Yeah you have the delphic oracle, you have, you have the temple of apollo and you also
have the underline theme of the man versus destiny. What is the outcome? That human being
can never overcome what he destined for right. So, that was the religious element of conventional
Greek tragedy. So, most of the time in these tragic plays,
they were restricted to the legendary themes. So, it was not as if Oedipus was completely
an original play. The legend of Oedipus was already there and most dramatists would base
their plays on an already existing legend and they would build up on it.
Another feature of this play was that they would be held usually during the religious
festivities in ancient Greece. So, that was also a chance for the common people of the
Greek city state to come and attend the theater. So, it was also a kind of a ceremony, it was
also a kind of communal gathering for people but as I was saying the basis of all these
plays and drama and theater, they were deeply religious. Now, coming to chorus.
So, chorus what was chorus? Chorus as we were talking about was the group of people and
they would invariably wear masks, all Greek actors, all Greek actors who were present
on stage. They would invariably wear a mask. So, the chorus would wear a mask as well.
They would begin the play by singing or chanting verses while performing dance like movements
on the stage and these dance performances were extremely unrehearsed, quite spontaneous.
It was not like a very rehearsed or extremely professional kind of dance that would take
place. It would, they would dance very spontaneously because the focus was not on the dance. The
group would make its entrance by coming through the sideways.
So, a typical Greek theater, I will give you the diagram also for typical Greek theater.
So, they would come in the chorus, the group of actors they would come marching on the
stage and they would gather or assemble on a place called the Orchestron on the stage.
When all the members of the chorus had entered the orchestra, they arranged themselves in
rectangular formulation on stage and begin their choral song and their song and dance
would always be to the accompaniment of a flute.
So, in the plays of Aeschylus and Sophocles, the major activity or the major role of a
chorus would be to comment on the proceedings of the play. So, if you remember, if you go
back to that Oedipus you would remember that they were there was a leader of a choral,
they were a chorus and by enlarge their function was to comment on the happening, on the proceedings
of the play. So, they did not have a role to enact. They
did not have a major role to play. They were not the chorus did not act as a vehicle of
the plot. The major performer, major actors in Oedipus, for example are Jocasta, you have
Oedipus, you have Creon, you have Tiresias but chorus would comment on the proceedings
of the play. That was the function of a chorus and another function was they also expressed
that then contemporary traditions, values and attitudes.
So, they would comment, for example in between two acts or two scenes, the chorus would come
forward and they would start talking about that, then contemporary, then prevalent moral
attitudes, religious, traditions and social beliefs of the Greek people. So, that was
another function of the chorus. Greek, they are famous for having the chorus,
for having or enacting two kinds of movements, perhaps we should know. Then one is a strophe
and one is anti-strophe. Are you familiar with these terms?
Yeah. What happened? They are very much in Oedipus. What happens? It is a movement, good.
So, Strophe movement was right to left and in this was vice versa, left to right. So,
while commenting on the proceedings of the play, while discussing the moral, attitudes
and traditions of the day, the chorus would make a movement is Strophe and antistrophe.
So, this is the Greek move chorus. Now, what happens in the Elizabethan play?
I know I am just taking quite a bit of leap but if you remember Elizabethan chorus, what
happens to the chorus in the Elizabethan time? Did we have the same kind of chorus, even
in tragedies? So, we would have instead of having a group of actors acting as chorus,
we would have one single choric actor whose job again was to comment on the proceedings
of the play and this tradition has remained so.
So, in modern contemporary drama, we do not find too many chorus take you know being present.
What we find is a single choric character even in the modern contemporary drama. For
example, in American drama, you have Eugene O’Neill. You
are familiar with the name and he has written a play card Moaning becomes Electra and the
character of Seth in Moaning becomes Electra is a choric character.
The character of Alfieri in Arthur Miller’s which play. We have done that. Alfieri is
a lawyer who comments on the happenings of the play. He is also a major important character
in the play. Which play was that? A view from the bridge, a view from the bridge, Alfieri
the lawyer, he is a choric character who is the character, who is an actor as well if
performs the function of a chorus. This is the traditional Greek chorus. You can say
group of people and all wearing masks. So, the Greek theater let us get back to the
Greek theater and the physical structure. So, in the beginning the theater consisted
of a sloping hill side where the audience, the members of the audience would be accommodated
and it had a level tracked mark by a circle where the actors would perform the play. So,
it was all on a sloping hill side. Then a later improvement included a semi circle of
stone seats which became an auditorium and also a space for the audience to sit.
So, this is what it look like. See this area which was meant for the audience to sit, it
was called the theatron.
This theatron, where the audience would sit in semi-circular building and this area is
called Parodos. Here, as you are talking about the actors and the chorus would march, is
stately through the passage and come and take the places on stage. In between there was
this place called Orchestron. Orchestron was the space for the actors and
the chorus to sit to enact the play. So, this was the acting space Orchestron and this was called Skene. From this word,
we have our modern term called scene. The skene was nothing but a backdrop to the stage.
This was this was, so imagine that you are the audiences sitting here and this is what
you would see at the background whatever was happening on stage, so four important parts
Theatron, Parodos, Orchestron and Skene. So, orchestron was the dancing place. Parodos
as I was talking about it one of the gangways on which chorus and actors meet their entrances
from either side of the Orchestron and skene, the word from which we get our modern word
scene was originally a flat roof stage building and it was used as a scenic background.
Now, coming to the actors in a typical Greek theater, so actors would use exaggerated gestures.
You know the term, the theatrical acting that is over the top kind of acting. This it originated
from the Greek theater where the people, where the actors would speak extremely loudly and
acting style was all very exaggerated and they also wore large stylized facial masks.
These masks were may generally made of linen. Another feature of these masks was that they
had a variety of masks resembling emotions of characters. So, they would have a happy
mask, they would have a sad mask, a tragic mask. In case all these because you just imagine
that a Greek theater would accommodate how many people? How many people were there? It
was not like a small class of twenty, twenty five. How many people? Just take a rough estimate.
One thousand, you would not need a facial mask even for thousand. The theater of diagnosis
that was it that is the word it was known as it could accommodate fifteen thousand people
and generally, the total number of audience would be between ten and fifteen thousand.
Just imagine because there was no other source of entertainment. So, on day, on a typical
day of religious observance when it was the day of everybody from the Greek cities state
would turn up to the theater. It was not for entertainment. You must also
remember that they did not look to theater for entertainment, the way theater is regarded
as today. Why did they go to theater at all? It was theater was nothing but a kind of a
reinforcement of the religious believes, so they attended theater in extreme awe and devotion.
It was not a means or source of entertainment. Along with the mask, they would also wear
the costumes that would represent their character type. So, you know the term stereotype, this
is the origin of that word. They also change that, so during the course of the play they
would change the masks several times because see these exaggerated and stylized and very
big masks. They should be seen to the last person sitting in the last row right.
Therefore, the necessity of having a large mask representing the emotion of the character
and this is another important thing. The actors wore high boots called and the term is Cothurnus
to give them added height. This is a typical cothurnus and it would have high heel. So,
usually the actor who would play Oedipus would wore cothurnus because the king, you know
if you remember your definition of an ideal tragic hero, a man of noble birth of course,
and high stature you cannot have a short person of that was the belief.
So, it has a hero has to have height. So, that was the cothurnus to give an extra height
to the characters and this is the very typical example of facial mask. Now, you may it may
look quite funny to you now but this is what they wore during those days. So, you can see
a funny, a happy mask, a happy face and a sad face. From Greece, we will move on to
Rome and the Romans theater. So, the Romans theaters never approached the heights of the
Greek theater. The Romans always had predicament for spectacle
and for exaggeration much more than the Greeks and they had little interest in serious dramatic
endeavors. They were drawn towards sensationalism and a spectacle and the earliest Roman plays
were nothing but mere translations of the Greek plays. So, they we have a Greek Oedipus
for example and we have a Romans Oedipus as well but much more over the thought I mean,
I remember when you are doing Oedipus. Most of you felt that it is quite melodramatic.
So, you can really imagine what Romans Oedipus would have been
Seneca, if you remember Seneca. This is the most famous, most representative Roman play
right. Seneca and his works are known as Senecan tragedies. So, Seneca is the most well known
Roman play right and in all he wrote nine tragedies. Most of which are extremely gloomy,
extremely lurid and extremely gory and violent. They are also noted for their inflated rhetoric
and you have done a little bit of Elizabethan stage also. So, can you comment on the impact
of Seneca on the renaissance tragedies or the Elizabethan tragedies?
Many of the elizebethan tragedies were based on the original plays by Seneca. So, therefore,
that the excessive element of violence and bled shed in them, they were most of them
could trace their origins to plays by Seneca. This is Seneca as this is the sculpture of
Seneca and then we will come to the decline of drama in ancient Greece and ancient Rome.
So, as we were talking about the Romans had a preference for a spectacle and bled shed
and with the decline of the Romans Empire the interest in theater also when and this
was replaced. Theater was replaced by Pantomimes and Pantomimes remained extremely popular
till the first century A.D. and then the mind tradition prevailed and for a very long period
of time, the mind provided the theatrical continuity between the ancient world of theater
and the medieval and there is the group of scholars who believed that the contemporary
it owes its origins to pantomime and mime traditions of Rome but this proposition has
not been sufficiently proved. Any questions ok?
So, because we are we have ended talk about the ancient Greek and Roman Theater, would
you like to comment? We have done a play by Sophocles if you remember right, that is Oedipus.
Do you remember the other two place of the Trilogy? Antigone and Oedipus and Colonus
yeah? So, I am there just I will read you a passage from Antigone which is a choral
passage ok. So, it is strophe and antistrophe, just a
little bit. So, chorus sings here, blest are they whose days have not tasted of evil. For
when a house hath once been shaken from heaven, there the curse fails nevermore, passing from
life to life of the race; even as, when the surge is driven over the darkness of the deep
by the fierce breadth of Thracian sea-winds, it rolls up the black sand from the depths,
and there is sullen roar from wind-vexed headlands and that front the blows of the storm.
Then there is the antistrophe. I see that from olden times the sorrows in the house
of the Labdacidae are heaped upon the sorrows of the dead; and generation is not freed by
generation, but some god strikes them down, and the race hath no deliverance. Can you
comment on this? This is from antigone and this is what is antigone? This is last in
the Oedipus trilogy. So, whatever you heard could you interpret this roughly.
What is being talked about? The chorus is commenting on something. On what house of
Labdacidae, yeah what is that tragedy? They are doomed by their own people. Here, they
are finally doomed, so that is antigone. Antigone sort of you know concludes the enormous, the
magnitude of tragedy, the enormous tragedy that has befallen this particular dynasty.
So, the chorus is commenting that they tragic fate is not yet over. It continues because
the dynasty itself is doomed and also remember the invocation, the repeated reference to
the gods and all those things are. Any questions or comments you would like to make so far?
Then we will move on to see, we have finished the ancient period. We will move on to the
English drama in during the medieval times, tenth century and so.
So, any idea what was the fate of drama? What was the fate of theater during the medieval
period? We are talking about you know this is kind of interim period between the ancient
Greek theater and also the modern Elizabethan periods. In between we had the medieval theater.
What was happening good. Did you hear what she said?
Yeah what yeah. The church had the major say in the theater, in the drama of the medieval
times. So, it was more or less because church was not just a house of god. It was many more
things. So, people would look towards the church for shelter, for also treatment, for
also education and gradually the church also got interested in theater. So, the earlier
plays were basically religious in nature and the term that is used is liturgy and the derivation
is liturgical. So, drama was liturgical in nature, extremely
religious in nature. This is one of a very well known example from a typical liturgical
drama play. I will read it out to you. The women, the moaning women. Jesus of Nazareth,
the crucified have only one to whom answer with the angel, what Christians seek the living
with the dead, the lord is risen as to his own he said.
Remember, how he speaks in Galilee that he must die, but after it should see three days
being past his Easter with tree. This is just a very small example of a typical liturgical
play that would be performed in the medieval English churches.
Are you familiar with the terms mysteries and miracles? What were these yes Anisha,
the American play were Rome basically based on biblical character. Good. Both mysteries
and miracle plays were based on two things; one was the biblical stories, biblical allusions.
Secondly, on the life of the martyrdom of saints. So, the life of saints and stories
from the bible, so that was the mysteries and the miracles and some well known mysteries
were that title itself would suggest a lot the scarifies of Isaac and the mystery of
the holy sacrament. So, these were extremely popular mysteries and miracles that the English
church showed and again associated with this is another kind of play, moralities. Now,
what could moralities be? Good, yeah. The directive plays more or less. So, what could
be an idealized life ok? What could be an ideal christian life? That
was what it was the all about. Examples of moralities, I am sure you have done something in one of
your earlier causes; moralities. See the characters were types, so you would have a common man
and common man being confronted with sins, the sinning ways of life ok. So, you will
have the seven deadly, personifications of the seven deadly scenes. For example, yes
sloth. Yeah for example, anger. These characters, these attributes, these sins would be personified
as actors and an average man and every man. So, there was morality play and extremely
a well known morality play title Every Man perhaps you are aware of that, Every Men and
anonymously written. So, the authorship is unknown. I will read you a passage from Every
Man which is, Every Man, you know are typical average man and how during the course of his
life, he comes into contact this sins and then how he overcomes worldly temptations
and then he is unlighted. It is like an idealized kind of life which
every man has to lead. So, here Everyman: Gentle knowledge, what do you call it? Knowledge:
It is a garment of sorrow: from pain it will borrow; contrition it is, that getteth forgiveness.
It pleaseth god passing well. Good-Deeds, so Good-Deeds is another character. Knowledge
is one, Good-Deeds is another. Everyman, will you wear it for your heal? Everyman: Now blessed
by Jesu. Mary’s son! From now have I on true contrition and let us go now without
tarrying. Good-Deeds, have we clear our reckoning? Good-Deeds: yeah indeed I have it here. Everyman:
Then I trust we need not fear; now friends, let us not part in twain. Knowledge: Nay,
Everyman that we will not, certain. Good-Deeds: Yet must thou lead with thee. Three persons
of great might. Everyman: Who should they be? Good-Deeds: Discretion and Strength, they
hight, and thy beauty may not abide behind. Knowledge: Also ye must call to mind. Your
Five-Wits as for your counselors. Good-Deeds: You must have them ready at all hours. Everyman:
How shall I get them hinder? Knowledge: You must call them all together, and they will
hear you incontinent. So, what is the idea behind a play like this?
The first few lines, they should tell you. Man come everyman who is born on this earth
ok. He is quite susceptible to sins, but it is through contrition, through regret that
he seeks god’s forgiveness. So, that is the moral, therefore the name moralities.
These were the kinds of you know plays or this was the kind of drama that was in existence
during the middle ages. Any questions? Do we have any kind of plays or any kind of drama
along the same lines as mysteries, moralities and miracles now a day’s? Guess Aneesha.
In modern contemporary drama, unless and until you are talking about extremely preachy or
extremely didactic sort of play, these plays have survived in the original form. They are
still enacted, they are still read for academic knowledge for historical knowledge but by
enlarge, they have not they did not have a far reaching influence on modern contemporary
drama because you know the contemporary drama, we have people like Pinter and we have people
like Stopper and we have people like Samshepard ok.
So, mysteries, miracles and moralities, perhaps you know has forms of direct literalism, has
form of preaching, some good things of life. Perhaps they do exist but they did not have
an influence on the contemporary drama ok. Alright, thank you so much then.