Lecture Slides

1. ROMAN THEATRE

2. 500 BC 0 500 AD 1000 AD 1500 AD 2000 AD
Aristophanes
Lysistrata
411 BC
Plautus
Pseudolus
191 BC
Terence
Phormio
161 BC
Aeschylus
Oresteia
458 BC
Sophocles
Oedipus
430 BC
Euripides
Trojan Women
415 BC
Aristotle
Poetics
323 BC
Horace
Ars poetica
24 BC
GREEKS
ROMANS

5. The Theatre of Pompey - Plan

6. The Theatre of Pompey - Structural Analysis

7. The Theatre of Pompey

8. Theatre of Marcellus (Rome)

9. Theatre of Marcellus (Rome)

10. Remains of Roman Theatre near Amman, Jordan

11. Theatre in Spain

12. Djebel el-Jawfa

13. Theatre at Aspendos c. 160 AD

15. Velarium (Vela)

16. Naumachiae

17. 3D Reconstructions of Theatre of Oxyrhynchus

18. 3D Reconstructions of Theatre of Oxyrhynchus

19. Theatre at Orange

20. Theatre at Orange

21. Theatre at Orange

22. Restoration of Scaena Frons

23. Stele

24. Bas Relief

32. College Production of The Twin Menaechmi

33. Vitruvius

34. Vitruvius

35. Vitruvius

36. BASICS
• tragedy is boring; comedy rules!
• still all male; still performed in masks
• still “religious,” occasion & amateur, but state pays for the festival
(ludi Romani)
• huge stage front (scaena frons) represents streets and buildings
• theatres within city and walled
• all Roman comedies take place in the street
• stock characters employed (ex: nagging wife, lazy slave)
• by time permanent theatres are built (Roman Empire) there is no
regular theatre being performed
• 2 extant writers of comedy: Plautus and Terence (some of their
stories used by Shakespeare and Moliere)
• 1 writer of tragedy: Seneca - but his plays were never produced
• philosopher: Horace (purpose of theatre is to delight and instruct)