Theatre

Panoramic view of the Hellenic theatre at Epidaurus.

A young cast of "Princess Turandot"

Theatre (British English and also American English), or Theater (American English only), has several meanings.

The word comes originally from the Greek Theatron, meaning roughly, 'a place to behold'. In American English, the word 'theater' can mean either a place where films are shown (this is also called a cinema) or a place where live stage plays are performed. In British English, 'theatre' means a place where live plays are performed.

'Theatre' or 'Theater' can also mean the business of putting on plays. An actor might say "I am in the theatre business", or a writer might say "I write for the theatre", meaning that they write plays, rather than writing for movies or television shows.

History

An ancient Roman theatre in Syria

Neolithic stone mask, 7,000 years BC.

Ancient Greece

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The first people we know created plays were the Ancient Greeks, about the year 500 B.C. They divided plays into two kinds: tragedy and comedy. This division is still used today. The best known Ancient Greek writers of plays are Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides and Aristophanes. Some of their plays survived, and are still performed today.

These ancient Greek plays were performed outdoors in large amphitheatres, so that many people could see them. There were contests among the playwrights (people who write plays are called playwrights) and the winner would get a prize.

The Greeks were full of brilliant ideas. They used mechanical devices like trap doors and the machina: a crane for winching gods on and off the stage (hence 'Deus ex machina'). They had a Greek chorus that offered information to help the audience follow the performance. The chorus comments on themes, and shows how an audience might react to the drama. The players wore masks. Illustrations on vases show helmet-like masks, covering the entire face and head, with holes for the eyes and a small aperture for the mouth, plus a wig. The mask was to ‘melt’ into the face and allow the actor to vanish into the role. Therefore, onlookers did not think about the actor, but thought about the character.

Middle Ages

In the Middle Ages, the Catholic church began to use theatre as a way of telling the stories from the Bible to people who did not know how to read. They wrote Mystery Plays, where each part of the Bible story would be a play put on by a different group of people. They also wrote Miracle Plays which were plays about the lives of the saints. There were also Morality plays which taught the audiences how to live a good Christian life.

Commedia dell' arte plays

Harlequine and Columbine

In the 1500s, groups of actors who would tour around Italy performing comic plays to entertain townspeople. These plays were called Commedia dell'arte, and different stories would be created around the same group of characters. Often the spoken lines would be made up by the actors for each performance.

Other kinds of plays called Neoclassical Dramas and Neoclassical Comedies were also popular in Italy and in France at this time. These plays were written to copy the style of the plays from Ancient Greece and Rome.

Elizabethan theatre

At the end of the sixteenth century (the 1500s), the traveling actors began to perform in fixed theatre buildings. This was the period when William Shakespeare wrote. He lived from 1564 to 1616. At that time, in England, women were not allowed to perform, so male actors would play female characters.

His theatre was in London, England. It was called The Globe. It was an outdoor theatre and plays were performed in the daytime for large audiences. His plays were very popular and are many are still performed today. Many scholars and theatre people believe Shakespeare was one of the best playwrights (a writer of plays).

He wrote many kinds of plays: tragedies, comedies, romances and also history plays. All of his plays are written in beautiful, poetic language. Shakespeare often wrote plays set in Italy or in exotic, far-away places that would be interesting to London audiences. His plays are still popular today for many reasons. His characters (the people in his plays) are interesting and talk about interesting ideas.

The stories he tells in his plays are often exciting, very funny (in the comedies), or very sad (in the tragedies) and make you want to know what happens to his characters. He also talks in his plays about things we still think about today, like love, sadness, hope, pride, hatred, jealousy, and foolishness.

Famous actors of the 1700s, David Garrick and Susannah Cibber in Venice Preserved.

Plays from the 1900s

After World War II, playwrights in Europe and the United States began doing plays in a new style called "Theatre of the Absurd." After seeing the horrors of war, these playwrights felt that all their old values had been destroyed. Playwrights such as Samuel Beckett, Eugène Ionesco, Harold Pinter, and Jean Genet wrote plays that are considered to be "Theatre of the Absurd."

The "Theatre of the Absurd" plays have some of the same ideas that are found in the philosophy (a way of thinking) called existentialism. Existentialism is very different from many other philosophies. Most religions and philosopies say that human life has a meaning (or a purpose). The philosophy of existentialism is that human life does not have a meaning (or a purpose). When something has no meaning, it is "absurd". (absurd means means silly and meaningless.)

The plays written in this style make people think about questions like "what is it like to be a person in the world?" and "what does it mean for a person to be free?" They are often filled with sad emotions, such as worry, fear, and thoughts about death.

Plays from the 2000s

There are many other types of plays performed in the theatre today.

Theatre breaks

Theatre breaks are a form of short holiday, based around viewing a theatrical show. Theatre breaks tend to include a nights hotel accommodation included in the price. Some theatre breaks websites have been trading for over 20 years.