Modern Scholarship: Purpose of Theatre, Chorus, Audience

What did Higgins say about the duty to go to the theatre?

"To attend the theatre was a religious duty and the responsibility of all pious citizens"

What does Hall say about the portrayal of foreigners, women and slaves in theatre?

"Non-Athenians, women, and slaves, are permitted by the multivocal form of tragedy to address the public in the theatre as they never could in reality"

What did Garvie say about the prior knowledge of the audience in theatre?

"The audience is, as it were, in the position of the gods themselves"

What did Higgins say about the theatre and cultural identity?

"The dramatization of stories from a shared heritage helped to nurture and preserve a cultural identity through times of hardship and war"

What did Cartledge say about the link between the theatre and the law courts?

"The tragedians' exploitation of technical legal language and ideas underlines the affinity between the theatre and the courts"

What does Cartledge say about festivals and Greek religion?

"Festivals were the beating heart of classical Greek religion"

What did Cartledge say about the context of the performance of tragedy and Dionysus?

"All Athenian Tragedy was performed within the context of religious rituals in honour of… Dionysus"

What does Dugdale say about the connection of the plays to Dionysus?

"The plays, though performed in honour of Dionysus, were not intrinsically connected with him and subject matter"

What does McLeish say about the celebration of Dionysus at the theatre?

"The heart of the Athenian experience was celebration of Dionysus, first in the village shrines outside the city and then at his cult centre at the foot of the Acropolis (the Theatre)"

What does Arnott say about plays in the context of Greek festivals?

"We see the Greek plays in isolation, out of their festival context. For the Athenians the plays were simply one element, although an important one, in a mixed programme"

What did MacDowell say about the attendance of women at the theatre?

"Whether women attended the place is a disputed question"

What did Goldhill say about the involvement in the festival?

"The festival, unlike theatre today, involved the majority of the city"

What does Cartledge say about the attendance of the theatre?

"It was the essence of democratic thinking that not just the social elite but all Athenian citizens should be able to participate equally in these relaxing and renovating holy days"

What does Zimmerman say about the arrangement of the stage?

"Because of the simplicity of this arrangement (in the theatre), the stage scenery necessarily left much to the spectators' imagination"

What did Dugdale say about the theatricality of Greek plays?

"Greek theatre never aimed at naturalism; rather, it developed its own repertoire of theatrical props, costumes, language, gestures and movements that were recognisably theatrical"

How does Taplin explain the function of the chorus?

"The Chorus act as an 'emotional bridge' between the audience and the narrator, telling us we should be feeling/acting and thus overcoming the limitations of only having 3 on stage"

What does McLeish say about the entry of the chorus?

"The entry of the chorus was usually a spectacular set piece, poetically rich and establishing the emotional landscape of the play much as the prologue had set out its narrative parameters"

What does Easterling say about the position of the chorus?

"The chorus members are physically at the centre of the theatre space, as they perform in the orchestra, and in their movements they can mime past and future events, thus contributing in a radial way to the stage action"

What did Arnott say about choral lyrics and the plot?

"It is noticeable that the playwrights do not rely on choral lyrics to given information essential to the plot"

What does Dugdale say about the function of the chorus?

"The chorus also functions as the emotional barometer for a play - at once a participant in the action and witness to it"

What does MacDowell say about the necessity of the chorus?

"A play without a chorus was inconceivable"

What does Zimmerman say about the chorus?

"The chorus is itself not an individual, but rather a general concept represented in material form"

What does Carey say about the chorus and the audience?

"As the only vocal group within the play the chorus are the dramatic character which most resembles the theatre audience"