INTRODUCTION TO ROMAN STAGECRAFT

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Roman drama has several origins, some native to Italy, some imported. One of the most important influences on Roman Comedy (called the fabula palliata in Latin, after the 'Greek' cloak or pallium worn by the actors) was the Atellan Farce, a non-scripted theatrical form which made use of stock masks (characters) and slapstick gags.

Roman Slapstick These slapstick characters and pratfalls were welded

onto the tradition of Greek New Comedy, which was imported into Rome after its conquest of Greece. New Comedy is the ancestor of sitcoms, with plots focusing on domestic issues, usually involving boy-meets-girl-parents-forbid-marriage and the intervention of a clever slave to save the day. The Greek versions were fairly genteel, but Plautus and the other early Roman comic playwrights added lively action, ferocious puns (in Latin and Greek), rude jokes, and lots and lots of physical comedy

The actors of Roman comedy were all men, and about five of them shared out all the different roles in the play. The costumes were fairly simple, consisting of a tunic and a pallium, which was long for female characters and short for male characters. The actors also wore masks, which were wildly distorted stereotypes, not very realistic, but funny.

Theater of Pompei, Reconstruction These plays were

performed at religious festivals sponsored by junior officials in the Roman government. The audience was clearly rowdy, and drama competed for audience attention with tightrope walkers, jugglers, and gladiatorial combats.

Permanent stone theaters were forbidden in the city of Rome itself by the uptight Roman government, so the plays of Plautus and Terence were performed on temporary wooden stages like this one. The design is based on theatrical wall paintings from Rome, Pompeii, and Oplontis.

Roman Tragedy The Romans also produced tragedies, and these were

more straightforward translations and adaptations of the Greek plays of the 5th and 4th centuries BCE. Costumes, masks, and language were all rather inflated. Although tragedy was very popular in Rome in the heyday of the Republic, we have only fragments of Roman tragedy remaining, except for the works of Seneca, which date to between 40 and 60 CE (AD). Whether Seneca's tragedies were ever performed is a matter of considerable debate. Seneca violates the Greek tradition of having violence take place offstage.

Historical PlaysThe Romans also wrote historical plays (fabula praetexta) and comedies set in Rome. (The comedies of Plautus, Terence, and their contemporaries were set in Greece, though the characters displayed a lot of Roman characteristics.) These seem to have died out soon after the Republic began to be ruled by emperors.

Stage Layout

The Romans remodeled many existing Greek theaters, including the Theater of Dionysos in Athens, and the theaters at Pompeii. They fused the skene (scaena in Latin) with the theatron (cavea in Latin) and reshaped the horseshoe-shaped orchestra into a semicircle. In some cases they built in trapdoors, underground passages, and facilities for flooding the orchestra in order to stage aquatic games and sea battles.

Theaters in Rome The first permanent stone theater in Rome was built

by Pompey the Great, and was inaugurated in 55 BCE. He was only allowed to build his theater by disguising it as a temple to Venus. Others soon imitated him, including the new emperor Augustus, who built the Theater of Marcellus in honor of his nephew. However, none surpassed the sheer scale of the Theatre of Pompey, which to this day remains probably the largest theatre ever built.

Plan of the Romanized theater at Pompeii

The Romans remodeled many existing Greek theaters, including the Theater of Dionysos in Athens, and the theaters at Pompeii. They fused the skene (scaena in Latin) with the theatron (cavea in Latin) and reshaped the horseshoe-shaped orchestra into a semicircle. In some cases they built in trapdoors, underground passages, and facilities for flooding the orchestra in order to stage aquatic games and sea battles.

During later imperial times the Romans built many enormous stone theaters all over Europe/Africa, like this one at Sabratha.

Very little drama as such was performed in these theaters, which instead hosted mimes and pantomimes. Mimes were acrobatic and bawdy, and women acted in them; pantomime was an art much like ballet, and pantomime dancers became the popular celebrities of the ancient world