History of theatre

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Performer playing Sugriva in the Koodiyattam form of Sanskrit theatre

Hannah Pritchard as Lady Macbeth and David Garrick as Macbeth at the Theatre Royal,
Drury Lane in April 1768

Symbolist Shakespeare at the MAT: Edward Gordon Craig's 1908 design for his
collaboration with Konstantin Stanislavski, the MAT production of Hamlet (191112)
The history of theatre charts the development of theatre over the past 2,500 years. While
performative elements are present in every society, it is customary to acknowledge a
distinction between theatre as an art form and entertainment and theatrical or
performative elements in other activities. The history of theatre is primarily concerned
with the origin and subsequent development of the theatre as an autonomous activity.

Since classical Athens in the 6th century BC, vibrant traditions of theatre have flourished
in cultures across the world.[1]

Contents
[hide]

1 Origins
2 Western tradition
o 2.1 Greek theatre
o 2.2 Roman theatre
o 2.3 Transition and early Medieval theatre, 5001050
o 2.4 High and late Medieval theatre, 10501500
o 2.5 Commedia dell'arte
o 2.6 Golden age theatre
o 2.7 Renaissance theatre
o 2.8 Restoration comedy
o 2.9 Restoration spectacular
o 2.10 Neoclassical theatre
o 2.11 Nineteenth-century theatre
o 2.12 Twentieth-century theatre
3 African theatre
o 3.1 Ancient Egyptian quasi-theatrical events
o 3.2 Yoruba theatre
4 Asian theatre
o 4.1 Indian theatre
4.1.1 Overview of Indian theatre
4.1.2 Sanskrit theatre
4.1.3 Rural Indian theatre
4.1.4 Kathakali
4.1.5 Modern Indian theatre
4.1.6 21st Century Indian theatre
o 4.2 Chinese theatre
4.2.1 Shang theatre
4.2.2 Han and Tang theatre
4.2.3 Song and Yuan theatre
o 4.3 Philippine theatre
o 4.4 Thai theatre
o 4.5 Khmer and Malay theatre
o 4.6 Japanese theatre
4.6.1 Noh
4.6.2 Bunraku
4.6.3 Kabuki
4.6.4 Butoh
5 Medieval Islamic theatre
6 See also

7 Notes
8 Sources
9 External links

Origins[edit]
Theatre probably arose as a performance of ritual activities that did not require initiation
on the part of the spectator. This similarity of early theatre to ritual is negatively attested
by Aristotle, who in his Poetics defined theatre in contrast to the performances of sacred
mysteries: theatre did not require the spectator to fast, drink the kykeon, or march in a
procession; however theatre did resemble the sacred mysteries in the sense that it brought
purification and healing to the spectator by means of a vision, the theama. The physical
location of such performances was accordingly named theatron.[2]
According to the historians Oscar Brockett and Franklin Hildy, rituals typically include
elements that entertain or give pleasure, such as costumes and masks as well as skilled
performers. As societies grew more complex, these spectacular elements began to be
acted out under non-ritualistic conditions. As this occurred, the first steps towards theatre
as an autonomous activity were being taken.[3]

Western tradition[edit]
Greek theatre[edit]

The best-preserved example of a classical Greek theatre, the Theatre of Epidaurus, has a
circular orchstra and probably gives the best idea of the original shape of the Athenian
theatre, though it dates from the 4th century BC.[4]
Main articles: Theatre of Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek comedy and Satyr play
Greek theatre, most developed in Athens, is the root of the Western tradition; theatre is in
origin a Greek word. It was part of a broader culture of theatricality and performance in
classical Greece that included festivals, religious rituals, politics, law, athletics and
gymnastics, music, poetry, weddings, funerals, and symposia.[5] Participation in the city-

state's many festivalsand attendance at the City Dionysia as an audience member (or
even as a participant in the theatrical productions) in particularwas an important part of
citizenship.[6] Civic participation also involved the evaluation of the rhetoric of orators
evidenced in performances in the law-court or political assembly, both of which were
understood as analogous to the theatre and increasingly came to absorb its dramatic
vocabulary.[7] The theatre of ancient Greece consisted of three types of drama: tragedy,
comedy, and the satyr play.[8]
Athenian tragedythe oldest surviving form of tragedyis a type of dance-drama that
formed an important part of the theatrical culture of the city-state.[9] Having emerged
sometime during the 6th century BC, it flowered during the 5th century BC (from the end
of which it began to spread throughout the Greek world) and continued to be popular
until the beginning of the Hellenistic period.[10] No tragedies from the 6th century and
only 32 of the more than a thousand that were performed in during the 5th century have
survived.[11] We have complete texts extant by Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides.[12]
The origins of tragedy remain obscure, though by the 5th century it was institutionalised
in competitions (agon) held as part of festivities celebrating Dionysos (the god of wine
and fertility).[13] As contestants in the City Dionysia's competition (the most prestigious of
the festivals to stage drama), playwrights were required to present a tetralogy of plays
(though the individual works were not necessarily connected by story or theme), which
usually consisted of three tragedies and one satyr play.[14] The performance of tragedies at
the City Dionysia may have begun as early as 534 BC; official records (didaskaliai)
begin from 501 BC, when the satyr play was introduced.[15] Most Athenian tragedies
dramatise events from Greek mythology, though The Persianswhich stages the Persian
response to news of their military defeat at the Battle of Salamis in 480 BCis the
notable exception in the surviving drama.[16] When Aeschylus won first prize for it at the
City Dionysia in 472 BC, he had been writing tragedies for more than 25 years, yet its
tragic treatment of recent history is the earliest example of drama to survive.[17] More than
130 years later, the philosopher Aristotle analysed 5th-century Athenian tragedy in the
oldest surviving work of dramatic theoryhis Poetics (c. 335 BC). Athenian comedy is
conventionally divided into three periods, "Old Comedy", "Middle Comedy", and "New
Comedy". Old Comedy survives today largely in the form of the eleven surviving plays
of Aristophanes, while Middle Comedy is largely lost (preserved only in relatively short
fragments in authors such as Athenaeus of Naucratis). New Comedy is known primarily
from the substantial papyrus fragments of plays by Menander. Aristotle defined comedy
as a representation of laughable people that involves some kind of error or ugliness that
does not cause pain or destruction.[18]