To what extent has the purpose of theatre changed since its origins in Ancient Greece.

To what extent has the purpose of theatre changed since its origins in Ancient Greece.

Theatre has been around since the 5th Century BC, and its origins comes from Athens in Ancient Greece. Since then, theatre has become an “living, ever-changing art” (O’Connor, 1968, p.37). New styles and genres have been introduced and continue to gain popularity, while also more people are able to take part and get involved. What started off as a competition in a festival, is now enjoyed by millions every year. Now in the modern day, there is a vast range of different kinds of theatre. The purpose of this essay is to figure out if there is something that connects all styles of theatre together. Has the purpose of theatre changed from where it started back in Ancient Greece?

The actual word ‘theatre’ “origins in the Greek word Theatron, a place for viewing or seeing” (Allain and Harvie, 2014, p.250). It’s known that Ancient Greece is “regarded as the birthplace of the drama”(Arnott, 1959, p.15). During festivals, Athenians would watch both comedies and tragedies. Tragedies were in inspired by Greek Mythology and featured stories about the gods. Performances would take place in an open-air theatre with a limited number of actors on stage. A chorus would be present to help tell the story, while masks were worn by actors. As a result, Greek Theatre has “inspire modern theatre audiences with their timeless examination of universal themes” (Cartwright, 2016), because we still use a lot of the same techniques. Thus, Greek Theatre’s purpose was to tell/retell stories which would involve the gods and entertain the Greek people.

Theatre has changed a lot since Ancient Greece, but we have taken elements and carried on using them. Masks are still used today and songs, which were key elements of an Ancient Greek performance. There have been new styles of theatre introduced like immersive, ritual, and physical, to name a few. However, “styles, setting, acting and production vary from year to year, and from generation to generation” (Arnott, 1959, p.1).  Classic texts are still brought to life, but in new ways to keep the audience interested. All these different styles are trying to tell their stories but in different ways.

Classic texts are still enjoyed today by modern audiences. Like Ancient Greek theatre, Shakespeare has been a huge influence on theatre. It is worth noting that “Shakespeare’s plays are performed more widely around the world, and more often, than those of any other dramatist, alive or dead, is itself a phenomenon” (Elsom, 1989, p.7). Some companies still perform Shakespeare in the way it was performed in the Elizabethan era. While other companies have made their performances more modern by using modern equipment. The purpose behind Shakespeare’s work was to entertain the public. He wrote about ” life and death, youth versus age, love and hate, fate and free will” (Celtic English Academy, 2017). These themes are still relatable today, which is why his kind of theatre is still enjoyed. For Shakespeare and many other practitioners, theatre is about entertaining the audience. Panto is enjoyed all over the world every year. Even though we know the stories they are telling, it is an entertaining show that we know will make us laugh and be enjoyed.

Theatre has always been about going to watch a performance and enjoying it. For Ancient Greek and Shakespearean Theatre, theatre was about entertainment. However, there are now practitioners that don’t want to create work for us to enjoy but to make us think and question. For example, Bertold Brecht, created work for the audience to “judge and argue over what they had seen, and to consider its political and social relevance to their own lives” (Bradley, 2016, p.1029). Brecht’s, Epic Theatre wants the audience to question what they have seen and apply it to their own lives. Compared to the theatre we have already explored; this kind of theatre’s purpose is to make us think. It wants us to question the work we are seeing and the world that we live in. You go to watch a performance because you want to enjoy it, but Brecht’s first aim isn’t enjoyment but to make us think.

Like Brecht, Augusto Boal and his Theatre of the Oppressed aimed “offer tools for liberation by using theatre methods to examine social injustice, power relations and oppression” (Osterlind, 2008, p.72). For Boal, the meaning of theatre was to put a spotlight on important issues for the audience to think about. While also giving possible answers on how to fight it. His theatre tried to question and “engage with real issues and situations and attempt to resolve them” (Allain and Harvie, 2014, p33). Both Brecht and Boal had a different idea of the meaning behind theatre, compared to where it started. They saw it as a way to question society and offer ideas