Theatre: Ancient Art Form Since Ancient Greece - Essay Sample

Introduction

Theatre is loosely defined as the collective live performance art, usually executed by actors to portray the experience of an actual or imagined situation to a live audience, often on a stage, in auditorium, amphitheater, or coliseum. Theatre is not contemporary idea and has been a central culture of many societies for decades. The inception of theatre is not precise; however, it is widely thought it was conceived in the ancient Greek society. Predominantly marked with tragic themes, theatre in this antediluvian society was not a mere entertainment, but an instrumental cultural item. For the Greeks, the entire society expressed its thoughts and moods (Jennings 1) through a social experience. In its long history, some factions have associated theatre with immaturity, immorality, and danger. On the other hand, others view it in light of a true mirror for human demeanor and as an entertainment that should be embraced (Brockett et al 1). Versatility of theatre production allow a play to take different styles and themes. Theatre styles are influenced by factors such as place, artistic era, and social structure. In this easy different theatre style that include Noh Theatre style, Roman Theatre style, Greek Theatre style and Comedia theatre style which are classical will be evaluated by examining how the play Thyestes by Seneca will be performed in each style.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

The Greek theatre style is mainly characterized by play acts mimicking and portraying through imitation incidences as presented in a script and in its earlier days was mainly embedded with themes of tragedy. For the Greeks performance was a critical element in every aspect of their life. The paramount theme of tragedy inherent in this theatre style often perceived to have mushroomed from the ritualistic orientation with Dionysus (Jennings 3).

Drawing inspiration from the Greek theatre culture, the Roman theatre was conceived with almost all Greek theatre paraphernalia, albeit with gruesome portrayal of tragedies. Beyond the depiction of tragedy with in-depth intellectual spectra and questions as did the Greek style, the Roman style shifted to a savage-fashion theatre. Its audience was not only one with a shallow intellectual opinion and diminished appreciation for drama; it also had little respect for the performers. The performances spilled beyond delivery through mimicking and virtual portrayal of themes as embedded in the scripts to actual depiction of violent themes, or whatever theme was being put across. Often it would involve gladiator contests, animal baiting, and racing of chariots done in amphitheaters with large audiences (Jennings 18).

Noh theatre style has its roots in Japan and it has grown to be a celebrated tradition art. The art begun practice in 14th century and remain until today. A man known as Zeami during the Muromachi era championed the Noh theatre art. The Noh theatre is structured around musical artsy as dance and songs are mainly featured during play. The Noh can be defined as a musical drama. The actors or characters featured are compelled throughout the play by one emotion. Men solemnly dominate the theatre characters. The play Thyestes by Seneca has male and female roles to be played however when translated to a Noh theatre all character have to be male the female characters will be taken up by males who disguise themselves in female costumes.

The male characters are shite, who is the lead character, Waki the supporting character, Hayashi the musician, Jiutai sings the chorus and Koken he is just a helper. To have this characters fit in the play Thyestes by Seneca, the play has to be musically dramatized and the roles of the sons will be taken by Shiti the lead character a and Waki the support character who will play the revengeful characters of the sons and that of the deity. Costumes are a big deal in the Noh theatre and masks is one of the won costume. The lead characters always win the mask, a mask is also won to represent the women character and that of deities with the type of costume an actor wares on stage audiences are able to tell the role they paly . The costumes are customised with elaborate layers and textures to symbolize elegance and they are used to create massiveness in figures.

To crate humour in the Noh theatre the Kyogen a comedy like act is introduced at intervals at the Noh play proceeds. Kyogen is often witty and other times exegerrated to create humour among the audience. The play Thyestes by Seneca, which alas allot of dialogue in this case, will require a lot of adjustments and bold gestures to convey the message.

A theatre orientation goes a long way to influence the delivery of a theme embedded in a story or script. A tragic themed story for example can have a very huge differential in how it is portrayed in a Roman theatre and a Noh theatre. A classic example would be the Seneca's tragic Thyestes. Thyestes is a tragedy of gruesome revenge and bitter animosity of two brothers. At the back of his brother Thyestes committing adultery with his wife, Atreus retaliates by butchering Thyestes children. He then cooks them and serves them to their father.

Bringing to life such a tragedy in a theatre through performance can vary to a great extent depending on the theatre style adopted by the actors. Greek theatre for example would dramatize the story by employing actors and actresses to represent the characters within the story. The actors would accentuate the theme of the story by displaying to the audience through action the events as they unfold in the tragedy. It would involve reciting the words uttered by characters in the story by the play acts and imitation of incidences encompassed in it through imitation. The Roman theatre would also vivify the essence of such a tragedy in a fashion akin to the Greek theatre, however given the gruesomeness inherent with it, the ancient Roman theatre would adopt more actuality in portraying such a theme. For instance, it would opt to have people engage in real fights in order to shed more realism to the story.

In a contrasting fashion to both the Greek and Roman theatre styles, the Noh theatre would portray the unfolding of this tragedy from a different angle. Rather than opt to depict the violence engrossed in this tragedy through verbal and performed imitation of the incidences, Noh theatre would adopt a reserved method with no verbal reiteration of the character's utterances. Instead the actors at the center of play would reflect the unfolding of events in the story to an informed audience through symbolistic deliveries.

The Comedia style has its roots in Italy before it gained popularity and spread to the rest of Europe in the 16-18th century. The Comedia theatrics wee portformed mostly in the streets, markets and fairs but later as time passed the performances hit the theatres stages. Professionals who assumed different roles often did the play. The characters in the Comedia were classified in three categories. The masters, lovers and servant. Players who played the role of merchants, business owners, and landowners among other elite adopted the master character. Young and handsome men and attractive women took up the lover's character. Stupid and witty males, males who had a profound physical appearance, took up the servant character

. In the play Thyestes by Seneca the actors would be categorized in these three characters. The play revolves around one family who competitively planned to ravage and outshine each other to inherit the throne. The king and his sons who are to competing for the throne will take up the role of masters, their wife's especially Palop wife of Tantalus and the wife of Atreus Aerope who had an affair with Thyestes will be in the category of lovers. The children to the brothers will be casted under servants.

Costumes was another aspect embraces in the Comedia theatres. The costumes were well picked to suite each character such that the audience would identify who played what character in the play. With the costume a character wore, it was also easy for audience to pick out what social class the character presented. Masks were a common attire worn by masters. All the masters in each play often were masked. The sons battling for the throne Atreus and Thyestes and the grandfather Tantalus in the play Thyestes by Seneca assumed the master's character. The women and those who fell under lover's category were often not masked or unmasked. The masked character were forced to portray strong emotions and audible body gestures, gags among others for them to be understood.

Music was another aspect integrated in the comedian plays. The Comedia plays were often playful such that at the end of each piece the audience would merry join. The witty music and dance were introduced as the play proceeded. Dialogues was often used in the play Thyestes by Seneca the characters would dialogue on who to take the throne. They would argue among themselves why each was superior for the throne. A good dialogue would also be seen when Thyestes pleads with Atreus to give him his son's body for burials.

Works Cited

Brockett, Oscar G., et al. The essential theatre. Cengage Learning, 2016.

Jennings, Sarah Kellis. "Storytelling and Community: Beyond the Origins of The Ancient Theatre, Greek and Roman." (2015).