Transcript Document

Theatre through the Ages
Greek theatre had a religious significance and an offering was always made to the gods
before each performance. Plays started at day break – when it was still cool. Only men
could attend performances or be actors.
Beginning of Trojan Women by
Euripedes
• Lo! From the depths of salt
Aegean floods
• I, Poseidon, come,
• where choirs of Nereids trip in the
mazes of the graceful dance
Elizabethan Theatre
Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre
Queen Elizabeth 1st (played by
Judy Dench)
The new built Globe Theatre in London –
Based on the original as accurately as possible.
Theatres were built on the north
bank of the Thames – in a rather
lawless area of London.
The flag was raised & a trumpet played to
announce the play was about to start
The theatre was a fashionable place to go –
which encourages pickpockets & other
criminals to try their luck!
The audience was a mixture of the
very rich and the very poor
Ladies had to beware of thieves
Actors were all male and many were
the sons & grandsons of actors
A few theatres were indoors – as shown in
the film ‘Shakespeare in Love’. Allowing
actors to work in the winter months
Audiences of the time liked to join in…
Actors wore contemporary costume some
of it donated by their wealthy patrons
The modern globe – showing the apron
stage, balconies & modern ‘groundlings’.
Balcony scene from Romeo &
Juliet - Shakespeare
ROMEO
He jests at scars that never felt a wound.
JULIET appears above at a window
But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks?
It is the east, and Juliet is the sun…
…See, how she leans her cheek upon her hand!
O, that I were a glove upon that hand,
That I might touch that cheek!
JULIET
Ay me!
Restoration Theatre
Charles 2nd was
‘restored’ to the
throne after the
Civil War. His
father had been
executed and
he had spent
most of his
youth abroad.
• During the rule of
Thomas
Cromwell all
theatres had
been shut – as
they were
‘ungodly’ and
thought to
encourage vice
and sin.
During the Commonwealth (when there had
been no king) theatre, music and dance had
been forbidden as sinful.
King Charles loved all the things that the
Puritans thought sinful and ungodly. He
reopened the theatres & allowed actresses
for the 1st time in Britain.
Restoration theatre was often wild and
daring! So were the audiences
Nell Gwyn –
one of the
king’s
mistresses,
started off as
an orange
seller at the
theatre
Plays were performed
in the afternoon – in
dimly lit theatres.
The actors had to
fight to be heard
over the audience
and it was not
unusual for the
audience to riot if
they disliked the
play.
If a play was set in
the past, the actors
might wear
something vaguely
historic on top of
their ordinary dress.
This is meant to be a
Roman heroine…
The Theatre
Royal, Drury
Lane.
The stage jutted
out right into
the audience.
There were
seats but the
poor still sat
downstairs
The audience loved
love stories and
tragedies, but the
style of acting
was very
exaggerated.
Actors (especially
actresses) had a
bad reputation.
Actors still wore
contemporary
fashions – often
competing with
the audience for
outrageousness
The Country Wife - Wychelry
• Alith. Did he not carry you yesterday to a play?
• Mrs. Pinch. Ay; but we sat amongst ugly people. He would
not let me come near the gentry, who sat under us, so that I
could not see ’em. He told me, none but naughty women sat
there, whom they toused and moused. But I would have
ventured, for all that.
• Alith. But how did you like the play?
• Mrs. Pinch. Indeed I was weary of the play; but I liked
hugeously the actors. They are the goodliest, properest
men, sister!
• Alith. O, but you must not like the actors, sister.
• Mrs. Pinch. Ay, how should I help it, sister?
18th century (Georgian theatre)
David Garrick playing the part of Hamlet
The biggest influence on Georgian theatre was
David Garrick. He was an actor and a manager –
so he had lots of control.
Garrick wasn’t happy that theatre had
such a bad reputation and he set about
reforming it from within.
•He insisted that his actors turned up for
rehearsals!
•That they turned up for performances on
time and not drunk!
•He tried to get the prostitutes off the stage
and made sure that his actresses were
respectable women
He also had a go at improving the quality
of the audience:
•He stopped people leaving half way through –
and selling their tickets to other people.
•He improved the stage lighting, so the audience
could see what was happening.
•He provided benches for the ‘pit’ so everyone sat
down.
•He brought Shakespeare’s plays back to the
stage.
•He introduced a more natural way of acting.
The theatre became a safer place to go –
and it became fashionable again.
•Many new playwrights started writing for the
stage – witty, clever plays, but without the
rudeness of the Restoration playwrights.
Richard Sheridan – an 18th
century playwright
Actresses became more respectable
An 18th century theatre
An extract from The Rivals by
Sheridan
The Rivals is a play about parents trying to arrange
the marriages of their children. Neither the man or
woman want to marry their parent’s choice because
they are already in love with someone else!
( What they don’t realise is that both choices are the
same).
This is from the scene when Sir Anthony tries to tell
his son Captain Absolute that he’s arranged a
marriage for him…
Sir Anthony : Sir, you shall be master of a large estate in a few weeks.
Captain Absolute: Let my future life, sir, speak my gratitude—Yet, sir, I
presume you would not wish me to quit the army?
Sir Anth. Oh, that shall be as your wife chooses.
Abs. My wife, sir!
Sir Anth. Ay, a wife—why, did not I mention her before?
Abs. Not a word of her, sir.
Sir Anth. Odd so!—I mustn’t forget her—Yes, Jack, the independence I was
talking of is by marriage—the fortune is saddled with a wife—but I suppose
that makes no difference.
Abs. Sir! sir!—you amaze me!
Sir Anth. Why, what the devil’s the matter with the fool? Just now you were
all gratitude and duty.
Abs. I was, sir—you talked to me of independence and a fortune, but not a
word of a wife.
Sir Anth. Why—what difference does that make? Odds life, sir! if you have
the estate, you must take it with the live stock on it, as it stands.
Victorian Theatre
Queen Victoria
ruled for over
70 years.
During this time
there were
many social
changes
Theatre was still popular with the whole
population
Theatres were still places to meet friends &
socialise – especially if you could afford a box
The Alhambra
Theatre in
Bradford was
built at the turn
of the 20th
century
Victorians liked
happy fairytale
endings and the
sets and
costumes were
often rich and
decorative.
The Victorians
found some of
Shakespeare’s
plays and
language rather
rough and vulgar.
They censored
some of the plays
making them
more suitable for
a Victorian
audience.
Stages were more set back from the audience
Theatre was meant to be ‘improving’ and
educational – rather than earthy & real!
Romeo and Juliet
was performed in
a highly
sentimental way
– often with
complex scenery
and many
‘extras’.
The painting of the
time give us an
idea of what the
scenery, painted
backdrops and
acting style
might have been
like.
The Victorians found the tragedy in
Shakespeare’s plays too savage
Some productions actually had Juliet waking
up just in time to save Romeo from death!
th
20
Century
British
Theatre
The Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford, built
in the 1920’s was very modern at the time.
Theatre seen from the stage
The audience was much closer to the stage
20th century productions tried to relate
Shakespeare’s plays to the modern audience –
which some theatre goers still find disturbing!
The musical ‘West
Side Story’ which
was made into a
major film
reinterpreted the
play for a modern
audience
The death
scene was
changed to
Romeo being
stabbed in the
street – Juliet
surviving
Franco Zaferelli
directed a film
version of the
play in the 1960s.
He used actual
Italian locations &
believably young
actors. The film
was a huge hit
with a wide
audience
unfamiliar with
Shakespeare.
Directors in the
20th century tried
to make the play
relevant to
modern
audiences.
Romeo & Juliet
were kept apart
by racial &
cultural barriers
– issues that
modern
audiences can
relate to.
Baz Luhrmann’s 1996 version starred
Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes.
The action was
transferred to a
modern version of
reality, with mafiastyle families vying
for power.
Again, the film was
very popular with
people who would
not normally go to
the theatre.
Where
next?