Classical Comedies

Theater Masks

Comedy in Greece“Glue of Democracy”

Athenian citizens could attend for freeTheoric Fund

Two main purposes:Entertain the audience

Teach/inform the audience

Divided into Old, Middle and New comedyMost of Middle comedy has been lost

Roman Comedy most like New comedy

Comedies would be performed at one of two festivals:Laenaea

Less prestigious

Comedy based festival

City/Great Dionysia

City/Great Dionysia

Named after the god of theater: Dionysus

Held in Theater of Dionysus not far outside of Athens

14,000-18,000 attendees

Five days long

City/Great Dionysia

Started 10th day of Elephebolion (March/April)

First had comedies in 486 BC

Day I: Great procession, Communal beef supper

Day 2:Prayers and Libations, Procession of tribute, Procession of ephebes, Civic business

Days 2-4: three authors get to showcase their work:

Three tragedies in a theme

Ex: Oedipus the King, Antigone, and Oedipus at Colonus

Satyr play

Slapstick and crude humor

Day 5: Comedies

DithyrambsChorus songs that tell story

Structure of Greek PlaysPrologue, -1st scene or scenes. Everything before first entrance of chorus. Farsical, often irrelevant to main plot

Parodos-initial entrance of chorus. Sing while they enter. Stay even if not singing

Episodes- that which follows the ode. Acts. Generally in speech, though it could be songs, too. All characters but chorus leave stage at end of episode

Stasimon-Choral odes sung between episodes. Strophe and Antistrophe.

Parabasis-“coming forward” of the chorus. Chorus gives advice to the audience, unconnected to anything in the play. Often voice of playwright, but could just be something that would be popular.

Old Comedy

Most famous Old Comedy author: Aristophanes

Highly satirical

Mostly written in Athens

Characters had symbolic and political valueCharacter could represent actual political figure

Character could represent something more vague, like the people, or disbelief

New ComedyOrigins/Underpinnings of Comedy

Comedy=Komos (revel)+aoide (song)

Purpose: uplift an audience

Means of doing so?

Upsetting social order

Proper realignment of the social orderCharacters receive their proper rewards

Comedy of MannersForm of drama that plays on the manners and fashions of a particular social class or set

Plot and characters are shallow and repetitive from play to playAlways ends happy.

Athens was now subjugated to the Macedonians after the death of Alexander the Great

Most famous author: Menander

Roman Comedy

Very similar to New Comedy, but with some more crude jokes

Often reinterpreted or translated from Greek plays into Latin

Clever slaves as trusted advisors/skilled manipulators

Most famous authors: Terence and Plautus

Were performed at games and celebrations with many other distractions, not at festivals

Costumes/scenery

Would wear clothes appropriate for the social class of the character

Theater Masks over-sized and over-exaggerated

Would resonate sound like a bull-horn so the actors could be heard

Scenery consisted of three doorways-nothing else

Limited props