Greek theatre
Section: culture Author: Angela
From now, for three times, I want to put into our blog, some interesting news about the history of Greek theatre. I love this subject very much because my passion was born during university, thanks to Pattoni teacher and her teachings of classical culture and Greek theatre’s history. I think she’s a wonderful teacher, but also a wonderful person. So, my favorite topic during these teachings was the birth of theatre, starting from ancient Greece. This is the first part of the story.
Greek theatre and its functions
Theatre was very important, from ancient Greece to European civilization.
Ancient theatre was not exclusive or independent, like now, but it had an important relationship to Athens during the 5° century. The play had:
• Religious valence: plays took place during parties in Dionysus’s honour. Play had a relationship with the ritual and drama was inspired to sacre history and to the myth of ancient Greeks. Plays were often about the relationship among human beings and religion;
• political valence: the State controlled the play’s organisation. It payed actors and the richest inhabitants payed choirs. There were no direct taxes and only the reachest people gave money to the State. The theatre was “theatre for everybody”: it was not a society event, but it was a collective moment, altough only men were invited to the theatre;
• competitive valence: in Athens, there were a competition among authors and there were also a classification with gifts. So, play had a competitive feature; theatre was a good way to canalize violence and competitiveness among inhabitants.
So, theatre was RITE, ASSEMBLY and COMPETITION.