Chapter 13: Early Roman Theatre The Phases of Roman Theatre and - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

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Chapter 13: Early Roman Theatre The Phases of Roman Theatre and - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Oct 12, 2022 21 likes •293 views

Chapter 13: Early Roman Theatre The Phases of Roman Theatre and Drama Native Italian drama (pre-240 BCE ) Native Italian drama Fescennine verses, phlyaces , Atellan farce Literary Drama (240-100 BCE ) Literary Drama

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Chapter 13: Early Roman Theatre

The Phases of Roman Theatre and Drama

  • Native Italian drama

Native Italian drama (pre-240 BCE)

– Fescennine verses, phlyaces, Atellan farce

  • Literary Drama

Literary Drama (240-100 BCE)

– Plautus and Terence, Republican tragedians

  • Popular Entertainment

Popular Entertainment (100 BCE-476 CE)

– circuses, spectacles, mime (Seneca)

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Chapter 13: Early Roman Theatre

The Evidence for Roman Theatre and Drama

  • there is a major discrepancy between the

textual and material evidence

– the majority of Roman drama comes from the late Republic (late 200’s/early 100’s BCE)

  • Seneca’s tragedies are later but it is questionable

whether they were designed for performance

– all existing Roman theatres—and depictions

  • f them!—date to after the 100’s BCE
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Chapter 13: Early Roman Theatre

The Evidence for Roman Theatre and Drama

  • there is a major discrepancy between the

textual and material evidence

– moreover, the shows presented in Roman theatres were aimed at the lower classes

  • those interested in sports, circuses, mimes

– conversely, all existing dramas—even those

  • f Plautus—were aimed at the higher social

strata of Roman society

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Chapter 13: Early Roman Theatre

The Evidence for Roman Theatre and Drama

  • it comes down to a difference between

“readers” and “viewers”

– that is, a literate nobility as opposed to an uncultured mob – cf. Greece where the aristocrats and Intelligentsia ruled the stage

  • thus, Roman literary drama rose and fell

quickly

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Chapter 13: Early Roman Theatre

Native Italian Drama

  • the earliest attested forms of Roman

entertainment come from the Etruscans, e.g. gladiatorial combat

– Etruscan ister > Latin histrio histrio (cf. histrionics) – Etruscan phersu > Latin persona persona (cf. person, personality)

  • n.b. the Etruscans dominated the early

Romans (600’s/500’s BCE)

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Chapter 13: Early Roman Theatre

Native Italian Drama

  • cf. scenes of merriment on Etruscan tombs
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Chapter 13: Early Roman Theatre

Native Italian Drama

  • Fescennine

Fescennine verses verses (from Fescennium Fescennium)

– crude clowns improvising alternating verses – cf. early Greek komos—is this a “history” concocted in the absence of real data?

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Chapter 13: Early Roman Theatre

Native Italian Drama

  • hilarotragodia

hilarotragodia (or phlyaces/phlyax plays)

– no scripts preserved – and only one author’s name and play titles are cited: Rhinthon Rhinthon of Syracuse

  • f Syracuse
  • but he lived in southern Italy and wrote in Greek, so

how “Roman” can he have been?

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Chapter 13: Early Roman Theatre

Native Italian Drama

  • cf. vases from southern Italy
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Chapter 13: Early Roman Theatre

Native Italian Drama

  • phlyax plays or Aristophanes exported?
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Chapter 13: Early Roman Theatre

Atellan Farce

  • also at this time, Atellan

Atellan farce farce

– from the Oscan city of Atella Atella

  • focus: Atella’s crazy ways
  • repeating cast of characters

– very broadly drawn, e.g.

  • Maccus

Maccus the clown

  • Bucco

Bucco the braggart

  • Dossenus

Dossenus the glutton

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Chapter 13: Early Roman Theatre

Atellan Farce

  • also Pappus

Pappus, the foolish old man

– cf. Pantalone in commedia dell commedia dell’ ’arte arte

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Chapter 13: Early Roman Theatre

Atellan Farce

  • cf. scenarios as well, e.g. balcony scenes
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Chapter 13: Early Roman Theatre

Atellan Farce

  • how could Atellanae

Atellanae have been preserved from antiquity until the early modern age?

– very popular in early Rome

  • only eclipsed during the height of fabulae

fabulae palliatae palliatae (“Greek-attired [literary] drama”)

– revived in the first century BCE by Novius Novius and Pomponius Pomponius

  • literary Atellan farce?

– again during the reign of Hadrian (2nd c. CE)

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Chapter 13: Early Roman Theatre

Native Italian Drama

  • after Atellanae, “Literary Drama” arose
  • we’ll study this in greater depth in the next

chapter when we examine Plautus and Terence

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Chapter 13: Early Roman Theatre

Roman Theatre

  • no permanent (stone/concrete) theatre in

the city of Rome until 55 BCE

– the Theatre of Pompey

  • before that, all theatres were “temporary”

– i.e. made of wood, but not necessarily cheap! – these are now impossible to reconstruct

  • all the same, theatres existed throughout

the rest of the Roman world

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Chapter 13: Early Roman Theatre

Roman Theatre

  • all extant theatres date to the first century

BCE and later

  • when the Romans began to use concrete

concrete

  • thus, they could be situated downtown
  • major question: how representative are the

extant structures of Roman theatre design in general?

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Chapter 13: Early Roman Theatre

Roman Theatre

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Chapter 13: Early Roman Theatre

Roman Theatre

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Chapter 13: Early Roman Theatre

Roman Theatre

Cavea Cavea Orchestra Orchestra Versurae Versurae Scaena Scaena Scaenae Scaenae Frons Frons

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Chapter 13: Early Roman Theatre

Roman Theatre: Scaenae Frons

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Chapter 13: Early Roman Theatre

Roman Theatre: Scaenae Frons

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Chapter 13: Early Roman Theatre

Roman Theatre: Versurae

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Chapter 13: Early Roman Theatre

Roman Theatre

  • do the plays which have been preserved

tell us anything about the theatres in which they were performed?

– and do the data which the plays provide accord with the structures which survive?

  • e.g., was there an altar

altar on stage?

– no altars in surviving Roman theatres! – but cf. the end of Plautus’ Mostellaria

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Chapter 13: Early Roman Theatre

Roman Theatre

  • in general, Roman theatre reflects the age

in which it lived, i.e. Hellenistic tastes

– focus on spectacle – cf. late Republican scaenae which rotated or were made of marble/glass/gilded wood

  • also, Roman plays were produced at a

number of festivals, even funerals

– and huge budgets — but for sets, not drama!

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Chapter 13: Early Roman Theatre

Roman Theatre

  • acting was also Hellenistic

– with emphasis on pathos

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Chapter 13: Early Roman Theatre

Roman Theatre

  • actors were often slaves

– belonged to a grex grex (“flock”) – led/owned by a dominus dominus (“master”)

  • no three-actor rule!
  • thus, were masks used?

– Yes! masks allowed some role-sharing, though nothing as regimented as in Greece