Roman Theater

Heir to the ancient Greek Theater, where it was related to the worship of Dionysos, the Roman theater dissociates himself some on many points. If it is associated at the origin with religious ceremonies, it evolves/moves quickly worms of the forms of representation Profane S, in which the writing, the play of the actors and the Mise in scene are clearly codified.

History

In the first times of the ancient Rome, the representations in public were given to alleviate the anger of the Gods. There seem to have been large religious processions, in which dancers and mimes (some of Etruscan origin ) presented a kind of crowned entertainment, intended to delight the gods which one majestueusement walked the statues in these feastdays. This bond between the theater and the religion disappears gradually with construction from the stone theaters.

In the beginning, the Roman theaters were indeed built in Bois and only the spectators of the first ranks could sit down. The use of wood was justified by the provisional character of the building: the Roman Senate, estimating that the spectacles diverted the population of its religious duty, was opposed indeed to stone constructions.

After 55 av. J. - C., date on which the theater out of stone of Pumped was built, provisional constructions left room to the permanent theaters. A quantity of theaters are then built in everyone Roman, mainly in the big cities of Italy, of Gaulle, Africa, Hispanie, Germanie and the the Middle East. Some of them are remarkably preserved, like that of Leptis Magna in Libya, of Orange (Vaucluse) in France or of Aspendos in Turkey (see theaters in the Roman world).

There existed two types of places of representation:

the theater itself, intended for the dramatic and comic representations and the Mime S.
the Odéon, smaller and designed for the lyric spectacles and the reading of poetic texts with musical accompaniment according to the Greek tradition.

The structure of the theaters

See also: Architecture of the Roman theater

The Roman theater is vast a Hémicycle (the theater of Pumped in Rome contains 27.000 places) closed by a gigantic wall of scene, the will frons scaenae . Contrary to the Greeks among whom the theaters were leant with hills, the Romans prefer to raise the Voûte S and the Colonnade S in flat ground. Only some cities used the hills to build steps (Vienna, Lugdunum).

In the Roman cities of certain importance, the plan of the theaters was about identical. The scene, called scaena , is separated by a low wall, the pulpitum , orchestrated , a space in half-circle where take seat the official ones and spectators of mark. Around this space the steps are laid out (also called the cavea ) to which reaches the public by arched passages, the Vomitoire S ( vomitoria ).

On each side of the scene draw up the basilicae , two turns on floors from which the actors left. A curtain, the siparium , assembled pit at the beginning of the spectacle and was gone down again at the end.

The decorations were fixed, resting on a gigantic wall of scene (that of the Théâtre ancient of Orange measurement 36 m in height and 103 m broad) decorated colonnades and statues, and bored doors. One could find also there in the center the statue of an emperor but also the many richnesses, spoils of the battles gained by the city.

To protect the public from the sun a large fabric, the velum , was tended. Behind the scene drew up a large wall dissimulating the Coulisse S ( postscaenium ). This one had the top inclined forwards in order to folding back the voice of the actors.

The theater was closed by a semicircular Portique which surrounded it. With the basement the Machinerie S or hyposcaenium were.

Representations

The Latin theater is neither a theater of the Mimésis like the ancient Greek Théâtre, nor a theater of representation like the traditional Théâtre. It is a theater of the play: the representation is one religious period during which the policy stops and which nothing must come to disturb, especially not allusions on scene to the real life. It takes part of the spectacle of the capacity in Rome.

Principal authors

In the Roman comedy illustrated mainly Plaute and Terence. All the parts were imitated néa (new Greek comedy), particularly of Ménandre, by the process of the contaminatio ; they often inspired themselves the classic authors, as Molière which took again the Aulularia of Plaute in Miserly the .

Plaute : Titus Maccius Plautus (v.254 front J. - C. - 184 av. J. - C.), Latin comic poet very popular in ancient Rome. Its comedies (of which twenties arrived to us, and who it is impossible to date) show with much liveliness the small Roman people: Host , the Soldier fanfaron , Ménechmes , Aulularia ( the Comedy of the Pot ). Molière also took again Amphitryon .

Terence : Publius Terentius Afer (v.190 front J-C - 159 av. J-C), Latin comic poet, born in Carthage. Its comedies make clash characters described with a large psychological smoothness and animated finer feelingss: Andrienne , the man who punishes itself , Hécyre , Eunuque , Adelphes , Phormion (whose was inspired Molière in Cheatings by Scapin ).

Types of parts

The public wanted above all the sensational one: the Mise in scene thus became sumptuous, extravagant and fantastic. The text is secondary.

The preferred parts of the Romans were:

the atellane , short a joke, improvised by actors carrying a mask and incarnating characters of convention like Maccus, Bucco, Dossenus, and of the monstrous beings like Manducus (the ogre) and Lamia (ogress), etc Borrowed from the daily life, the topics were very simple. Primarily caricatural kind, the atellane allured by its familiar character and did not move back in front of the Obscénité. Often the atellane was used as conclusion with the scenic plays.

MIME , spectacle of dance, which puts in scene light subjects, even coarse; it is the only spectacle where play of the actresses, often associated with Prostituée S. One should not confuse the MIME in the ancient world with the MIME with the modern direction, which indicates a spectacle where the roles are only gestural, without words and with a musical accompaniment. In Rome, the MIME was a species of rather dramatic representation in which the actors played barefeet and without masks of the daily or romantic scenes, known as in prose. Essence rested on the gesticulation, the dance, on all that was addressed to the directions rather than with the intelligence.

the mime , typically Roman spectacle, ballet on Mythological subject , often tragedy. It succeeded the MIME where a single actor-dancer (the pantomimus ) mimait a history in a spectacle without words. He only played him all the characters and was accompanied by a chorus by dancers and a small orchestra. The actor carried a beautiful silk costume and a coloured mask. Of lengthened form, the tragic masks translated emotion and violence. The comic masks reproduced the features of the human face accurately and especially aimed at amusing.

confabulated It is a theatrical kind divided into several categories:

* the confabulated crepidata , a Roman tragedy of Greek subject

* the confabulated palliata , the adaptation of a Greek comedy or " part in costumes grecs" (the actors carried the Pallium and not the Toge)

* the confabulated praetexta , a serious part on a Roman historical subject. Called thus because the heroes were Roman magistrates, covered of their toga praetexta , toga bordered of a band of crimson. The subject was inspired by the national history, for example the catch of a city. The heroes of the tragedy pretext were regarded as demigods, as in the Greek theater

* the confabulated togata , or " part in costumes romains". It was a Roman comedy with indigenous topic concerning the bottom of the social scale in Rome.

Actors

The actors all were of the men, either of the Esclave S, or of the free men but were not citizens. A citizen who makes the actor is degraded by the critics (who establish the social statuses in the Roman company) and is excluded from his row. However, exceptionally, of the senators or the magistrates could go up on scene: Néron itself took part in some representations. As in Greece, the feminine roles are interpreted by disguised teenagers. In Rome, the scene is prohibited to the women.

The actors of MIME or mime are genuine stars. Their wages are increased enormous gratifications which they receive. Rich person and famous, they are socially accepted; they become the favorites of large and carry out a noisy life. The mime, popularized under Auguste, allows and supports this phenomenon of stardom, since this new dramatic kind is entirely organized around the actor, who plays all the characters and whose solos are emphasized by the singers, which take again them in echo.

The actors and the musicians are brought together in troops directed by a chief (the dominus gregis ). Just like the costumes and the make-up, the play of the actor is strictly codified. The many written treaties on this subject, either by actors (like Roscius), or by theorists (like Pline Old the), are partially preserved to us by the quotations that in fact Quintilien (especially book XI of the Institution Oratory ). The actor must work five elements in his play:

the voice;
expressions of the face;
the gestural one;
the posture;
the step.

Costumes

The Symbolic system of the forms and the colors of the costumes allows an immediate recognition of the characters most representative of the comedy or the tragedy, like the idiotic peasant or crafty one and robber, the boasting soldier and fanfaron, etc

The actors wear long loose dresses and high shoes ( cothurnes ) if they play of the tragedies, of the tunics and shoes punts ( socus ), if they play of the comedies.

For the parts of Greek subject ( confabulated palliata ), the costumes are Greek: pallium, tunic and coat; chlamyde, casaque, tunic for the women. For the parts of Roman subject ( confabulated praetexta ; confabulated togata ), the costumes are Roman: toga for the free men, tunic for the slaves, coat for the travellers, tunic, dress or coat for the women, rotten yellow of the courtesan.

In the tragedies, the actors incarnate the gods and the heroes and carry sumptuous costumes, of a richness proportional to the quality of the characters whom they represent. The wigs (fair for young people, white for the old men, russet-red for the slaves), the make-up and the masks, tragedies or comic, symbolize the age, the situation and the character of the character. The masks were also used as speaking pipe thanks to their widened mouth: the spectators could follow perfectly the scene even if they were distant.

The actors carried also shoes equipped with heels from 20 to 30 cm: the cothurne ( cothurni ), with very high sole, whose the tragic actors fitted themselves and, for the comic actors, of the crepida (sandals of Greek origin) or of the socci .

The Decoration and the Music

The decoration varies little from one part to another, because the principal decoration is fixed: it is the wall of scene. Its decoration increasingly heavier meets two aims: to make see the generosity of the donee of the spectacle and manufacture the illusion, according to a very precise code.

The Romans take again and develop the techniques developped at the point by the Greek engineers and invent cranes and trap doors, to reduce from the gods of the sky (from where the Latin expression: Deus ex machina ) or to make assemble phantoms of the world of deaths. Roman public raffole of these fairy-like achievements.

The role of the music is essential in the Latin theater. Like a opera today, a scenic representation is unimaginable without musical accompaniment: a professional musician composes opening, interludes and accompaniment on the worms of the poet. The music is played by the tibicines (players of flute) on two flutes ( tibiae ), one of your low register ( will dextra ), the other of its acute ( sarrana ) or on double, serious and acute flutes. The tone is selected according to the role, the low register and the acute one underline the dialogs between fathers and wire in the comedies.

The music does nothing but increase in importance in the stage performances. Under the Empire, one sees appearing new instruments in the mime, formant of true orchestras: Syrinx, Quadrant, Zither, Trumpet, Organ.

The theater in the company

With the theater

Everyone could go to the theater: men, women, children, slaves. The citizens had as an obligation to wear the toga.

In Rome and in the Roman cities, the theater occupies a social role: one goes there to discuss, meet, show oneself or seek adventures in love, as tells it Ovide in the Art to like . The theater is also used as dialog space between the prince and the people, and the important people made a point of being present at the spectacles to show itself closer to the people. But the distribution of the public in the cavea reproduced the social hierarchy.

the place of the spectators : The people of various social classes were separate: the Vomitoire S were organized so that they do not mix. Moreover, each person has a place in the steps according to her row. At the beginning, the spectators were upright, which avoided a distinction then they could sit down. The cavea was divided into three “crowns”: the first crown, the ima cavea , was reserved to the senators and with the knights, which left them fourteen rows, the people had sat in the crown of the medium, the media cavea , and the slaves and the foreigners remained upright in the third crown, the summa cavea , which was with the last row.
the two public ones and their preferences : The spectators partagaient themselves in two categories:

the general public which preferred the large spectacle with settings in scene époustouflantes, rare animals, privileging light stories accessible to all,
the public of the well-read men which preferred a more literary theater aiming at the elite.

Financing of the spectacle

The spectacle free and is opened with all, but its development represents, for that which finances it, the dator ludi , a considerable investment. The cost of the spectacle is often dealt with by magistrate who seizes this occasion to increase his popularity and his chances to be elected with higher functions. This thus caused a competition between the donees who wanted to always make better than the others. Each time all is more sumptuous and more astonishing than the preceding one.

The heritage of the Roman theater

There remain to us only some fragments of this theatrical life: some monuments preserved more or less well, of the parts (of negligible number with the glance of the extraordinary dramatic activity of the Greek authors), some theoretical writings (like Vitruve, which, in the book V of the Of Structured milked places favourable with the construction of the theaters, their architecture and their acoustics).

As the current programming of the theater seasons proves it, the ancient repertory and especially Greek forever ceased being played, sometimes within an ancient framework. And of the Rebirth at the 20th century, the authors never ceased adapting, copying, transforming the Greek theater. In the French traditional theater, on the twelve tragedies of Root, four only are not inspired by graeco-latin antiquity. In the contemporary theater, Giraudoux ( Host 38 , the Trojan War will not take place , Electra ), Anouilh ( Antigone ), Sartre ( the Flies ) and others includes good number of topics of traditional antiquity. With a nuance however: from Rome only the subjects (Britannicus, Bérénice, etc), and the sources are taken again are not dramatic authors, but historians.

The evolution of the theater will result in many changes in the way of writing the parts and of putting them in scene: the women play of the feminine roles, the writing and the setting in scene is not as codified as during Antiquity, the costumes are free and the masks are not used any more but for the ancient resumptions of parts.

Random links: