Greek Mythology plays a key role in greek theatre. To please gods as to gain a bountiful harvest, safe return from war, or some other type of positive reward, gods and goddesses were often the main characters in the plays. They were often seen interacting with other gods and goddesses or teaching humans lessons. A prominent theme in greek theatre is also history. Myths passed down for generations were acted out in order to remind people what gods have endured.
One of the most notable playwrights is Shakespeare. His most notable work is likely hamlet. There were three greek playwrights who had a multitude of intact plays. These three were Euripides, Sophocles, and Aeschylus.
There are two types of plays. The greeks mostly only used these 2 themes. The first is the comedy. In this, playwrights use either misunderstanding, satire, or some other greek form of comedy to introduce humor to a story. Merriam Webster defines comedy as “professional entertainment consisting of jokes and satirical sketches, intended to make an audience laugh.” This shows that the
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comedy does in fact attempt to brighten viewers’ moods. The 2nd form was the tragedy. Merriam webster defines the term “tragedy” as “a play dealing with tragic events and having an unhappy ending, especially one concerning the downfall of the main character.” Not to overuse the dictionary, but in defense they do know what they’re doing. As such, a greek tragedy is a play in which playwrights portray a situation that is extremely dramatic and has an abundance of emotional twists. As with most greek plays, these will usually include many references or outright portrayals of greek gods or goddesses. Henceforth, tragedies involve many emotional moments in contrast to greek comedies which or more funny than sad.
Greek plays are often separated into two main eras, Old or Ancient and Newer greek plays. Old greek plays usually involved greek gods whom spoke directly to characters or, more commonly, came down to earth in the form of mortals to swing the fate of events. Older or “Ancient” Greek Comedies also often made fun of religions, public figures, or mythology. Although, to be clear, higher gods like Zeus and Athena were not made fun of as this was too offensive to be funny. In addition, ancient greek comedies would often portray events in a fashion that was impossible. For instance, characters would often travel from one place to another in days when it would have taken weeks if not months at the time. In contrast, new greek plays were usually more realistic. Writers would take time to make it seem as if fiction was reality. New greek comedies were more concerned with everyday people rather than the gods/goddesses or rulers of ancient greek comedy.
There are many other aspects to plays besides whether they are comedies/tragedies or new/old. When playwrights write a new (or old) comedy/tragedy, they also must implicate stage design, masks, and costumes. Stage design is important because it sets
the scene. The stage design makes it
feel like the watchers are actually
there in Ancient Greece, Rome, or
even Lesbos. Masks, too, are
important in greek theatre. Masks
also help with setting but they also
help to disassociate the actors from
what onlookers see before them.
Because greeks did not have time to do makeup, etc. to make actors embody their characters, they gave them masks. These masks help onlookers to think of actors as their characters. For example, Sophocles surely wouldn’t want onlookers to see the actor playing Oedipus as Andromeere, the butcher who lives in the town square in
Athens. He’d want them to see Oedipus, and nothing more. This is why masks were so important. This is also the point of costumes. They help the audience not to see the actor, but to see the character. Not Andromeere, or whoever is playing Oedipus, but to see Oedipus alone on the stage. As such, they would wear costumes. Andromeere would have worn the kinds of clothes Oedipus would have worn. He would have worn shoes befitting Oedipus’ social class, and went to great lengths to use his acting as its own costume. These are all just techniques to make the play really surround viewers.
Modern society does the same. We use setting to really embody the time and place the play is set in. We do not however perform most plays outdoors or in an amphitheatre. While we make use of Grecian acoustics, modern theatre is usually performed inside. We also make use of masks, but only when it is called for. We do so not nearly as often as the greeks. Modern theatre shares the Grecian affinity for the art of costume. Our portrayals of characters are usually dependent on costumes. We tend to try to be very accurate and detailed, unlike the Greeks who aimed for simplicity in a “less is more” sort of stance. We share with the greeks many things, but differ innumerably too. I learned the difference between modern and greek plays. your essay in here…