Greek audience Essay

The minds of modern theatre goers are somewhat lazy compared to their Greek counterparts, hundreds of years ago. Today we go to a play and at best mope and follow the story, we remain silent throughout and maybe the most analytical and critical of us will have some thoughts on the screenplay. The Greeks however had a rapport with the play, they watched every move, and got behind every line especially in tragedy. The reasons why this occurred are as follows: Modern plays fall into the category of illusion dramas. The Audience are invisible spectators of others lives. The characters are made to look and act convincing, so a king will be dressed ornately, a girl will actually be small girl, and a cowboy will sport a Stetson and colt 45. The audience have everything made up for them and so they find it easy to fall into the illusion and just watch. Greek Theatre is conventional drama, the characters are often not in costume and symbols merely indicate who was who in the play. For example a king may wear a simple crown on his head. In Greek drama all the actors wore masks. All these factors made it very demanding on a Greek audience to follow the play before them. In effect they are forced to watch very carefully and a rapport is developed between the audience and the play. This audience got very vocal during a performance, which is all part of the rapport. Today we go to a theatre and maybe watch a play, which we have never seen, Greek plays were all well known stories, and the themes and issues were well known to the audience. The lack of a surprise element means the audience watches the play with a critical eye seeing how well the play was done, and also whether dramatist has inserted a moral or political issue. This is illustrated in The Aeneid, Virgil makes Aeneas a ancestor to the Roman race. Iulus who was his descendant was directly linked to Julius Caesar the dictator of the time. By doing this he legitimises the history of the peoples past, and they look upon the story in a new light. The Aeneid would be politically interesting to the average Greek due to the Carthaginian wars. Even the mention of Carthage would have alerted the audience and they would be pleased to see that the city was â€Å"raised to the ground† The issue of morality, as I said is often explored, and personified in a character, Was Oedipus immoral? The Greek audience would have to think hard over this tragic question. On the one hand he wasn’t because he didn’t know what he was doing, but yet he was cursed and destroyed like an immoral person. This is where the tragic element lies, the audience would feel for him and pray that they themselves don’t suffer a similar fate. On the other hand he was impious, which was highly immoral in Greek times, and this is an issue I will cover later in my essay. Greek theatre however is full of tense and surprising moments. During Oedipus the king, Jocasta was aware that Oedipus was going to find out his fate. The scenes here were very tense. The audience would get behind it and voice their excitement. The best dramatists when they put on the play will include dramatic irony in the play. The whole Oedipus the king is based around this. The audience aware of his fate watch him squirm to his doom, because they know and cannot stop it happening makes it even more tragic. When Tiresias the prophet enters, Virgil creates many references to blindness and confusion, all reflect Oedipus’ state, as he doesn’t know the truth, but is highly ironic because the blind priest is the only one aware of the imminent danger. As I have illustrated the last thing a Greek audience is going to do is to sit silently through the play. They would murmur to each other, gasp, sometimes-even cheer at the action unfolding before them. The whole experience would be more than just a trip; it is more a moral lesson, and a place full of high emotion reminiscent of a modern church. The Greek audience would be very religious people; the whole theatre experience was infact an act of worship, and it was regarded the right and duty of every citizen to attend. In the theatre a statue of Dionysus was present adding to the religious undertone. Having establishes the religious importance of the theatre; it is understandable how the audience have issues of morality and respect to the Gods on their minds. When Oedipus is impious, this is considered highly immoral as he had full control over his actions unlike his other actions. Everyone was expected to attend the theatre, and even those who couldn’t afford it were paid for by the state. One can only imagine but the atmosphere was full of people from all walks of life. It is said there were around 14000 people in the oval shaped arena sat all round, this is almost like a modern day football match. The huge social importance of the theatre can be seen and understood from this, people went there to share ideas with friends, see friends, and meet people. I can imagine that because of all these factors and variety of people, the theatre was a very interesting place. People would obviously have different motives for going but it is established that it was more than just ente rtainment.