History of theatre

African Theatre

Yoruba Theatre

In his pioneering study of Yoruba theatre, Joel Adedeji traced its origins to the masquerade of
the Egun or Egungunoud and red, rarely applauding the actors, but always shouting insults and
booing. Because the audience was so loud, much, the “cult of the ancestor.”[1] The traditional
Egun rite, which is controlled exclusively by men, culminates in a masquerade in which
ancestors return to the world of the living to visit their descendants.[2] In addition to a basis in
ritual, Yoruba theatre can be “traced to the ‘theatrogenic’ nature of a number of the deities in the
Yoruba pantheon, such as Obatala the god of creation, Ogun the god of creativeness and Sango
the god of lightning” whose worship is imbricated “with drama and theatre and their symbolic
and psychological uses.”[3]

The Aláàrìnjó theatrical tradition sprang from the egun masquerade. The Aláàrìnjó was
composed of a troupe of traveling performers, who, like the performers in the egun rite, were
masked. The Aláàrìnjó performers created satirical skits by drawing on a number of established
stereotypical characters and incorporating mime, music and acrobatics. The Aláàrìnjó tradition in
turn deeply influenced the Yoruba traveling theatre, which, from the 1950’s to the 1980’s was
the most prevalent and highly developed form of theatre in Nigeria. From the 1990s on the
Yoruba traveling theatre began working with television and film and now rarely gives live
performances.[4]

‘Total theater’ also developed in Nigeria in the 1950’s and was characterized by surrealist
physical imagery, non-naturalistic idioms and linguistic flexibility. Later playwrights writing in
the mid 1970’s valued ‘total theater’ but included “a radical appreciation of the problems of
society.”[5]

Major figures in contemporary Nigerian theatre continue to be deeply influenced by traditional

performance modes. Chief Hubert Ogunde, sometimes referred to as the “father of contemporary
Yoruban theatre,” was informed by the Aláàrìnjó tradition and egun masquerades.[6] Wole
Soyinka, who is “generally recognized as Africa’s greatest living playwright” gives egun a
complex metaphysical significance in his work.[7] Further in his essay, "The Fourth Stage:
Through the Mysteries of Ogun to the Origin of Yoruba Tragedy," originally published in 1973,
Soyinka suggests that “no matter how strongly African authors call for an indigenous tragic art
form, they smuggle into their dramas, through the back door of formalistic and ideological
predilections, typically conventional Western notions and practices of rendering historical events
into tragedy.” Soyinka then contrasts Yoruban drama with Greek drama, as discussed by
Nietzsche in The Birth of Tragedy, establishing an aesthetic of Yoruban tragedy based, in part,
on the Yoruban pantheon, including Ogun and Obatala.
Asian theatre

Indian theatre

Folk theatre and dramatics can be traced to the religious ritualism of the Vedic peoples in the 2nd
millenium BC. This folk theatre of the misty past was mixed with dance, food, ritualism, plus a
depiction of events from daily life. It was the last element which made it the origin of the
classical theatre of later times. Many historians, notably D. D. Kosambi, Debiprasad
Chattopadhyaya, Adya Rangacharaya, etc. have referred to the prevalence of ritualism amongst
Indo-Aryan tribes in which some members of the tribe acted as if they were wild animals and
some others were the hunters. Those who acted as mammals like goats, buffaloes, reindeer,
monkeys, etc. were chased by those playing the role of hunters.

In such a very simple and crude manner did the theatre originate in India during Rig Vedic times.
There also must have existed a theatrical tradition in the Harappan cities, but of this we lack
material proof.

Natya Shastra

Bharata Muni (fl. 5th–2nd century BC) was an ancient Indian writer best known for writing the
Natya Shastra of Bharata, a theoretical treatise on Indian performing arts, including theatre,
dance, acting, and music, which has been compared to Aristotle's Poetics. Bharata is often
known as the father of Indian theatrical arts. His Natya Shastra seems to be the first attempt to
develop the technique or rather art, of drama in a systematic manner. The Natya Shastra tells us
not only what is to be portrayed in a drama, but how the portrayal is to be done. Drama, as
Bharata Muni says, is the imitation of men and their doings (loka-vritti). As men and their
doings have to be respected on the stage, so drama in Sanskrit is also known by the term
roopaka which means portrayal...

The Natya Shastra is incredibly wide in its scope. It consists of minutely detailed precepts for
both playwrights and actors. Bharata describes ten types of drama ranging from one to ten acts.
In addition, he lays down principles for stage design, makeup, costume, dance (various
movements and gestures), a theory of aesthetics (rasas and bhavas), acting, directing and music,
each in individual chapters.

Bharata sets out a detailed theory of drama comparable to the Poetics of Aristotle. He refers to
bhavas, the imitations of emotions that the actors perform, and the rasas (emotional responses)
that they inspire in the audience. He argues that there are eight principal rasas: love, pity, anger,
disgust, heroism, awe, terror and comedy, and that plays should mix different rasas but be
dominated by one. According to the Natya Shastra, all the modes of expression employed by an
individual viz. speech, gestures, movements and intonation must be used. The representation of
these expressions can have different modes (vritti) according to the predominance and emphasis
on one mode or another. Bharata Muni recognises four main modes: speech and poetry (bharati
vritti), dance and music (kaishiki vritti), action (arabhatti vritti) and emotions (sattvatti vritti).
Classical Indian theatre

The Ramayana and Mahabharata can be considered the first recognized plays that originated in
India. These epics provided the inspiration to the earliest Indian dramatists and they do it even
today. Indian dramatists such as Bhasa in the second century BC wrote plays that were heavily
inspired by the Ramayana and Mahabharata.

Kālidāsa in the first century BC, is arguably considered to be ancient India's greatest Sanskrit
dramatist. Three famous romantic plays written by Kālidāsa are the Mālavikāgnimitram
(Mālavikā and Agnimitra), Vikramuurvashiiya (Pertaining to Vikrama and Urvashi), and
Abhijñānaśākuntala (The Recognition of Shakuntala). The last was inspired by a story in the
Mahabharata and is the most famous. It was the first to be translated into English and German.
In comparison to Bhasa, who drew heavily from the epics, Kālidāsa can be considered an
original playwright

Medieval Indian theatre

The next great Indian dramatist was Bhavabhuti (c. 7th century). He is said to have written the
following three plays: Malati-Madhava, Mahaviracharita and Uttar Ramacharita. Among these
three, the last two cover between them, the entire epic of Ramayana. The powerful Indian
emperor Harsha (606-648) is credited with having written three plays: the comedy Ratnavali,
Priyadarsika, and the Buddhist drama Nagananda. Many other dramatists followed during the
Middle Ages.

Chinese theatre

Shang theatre

There are references to theatrical entertainments in China as early as 1500 BC during the Shang
Dynasty; they often involved music, clowning and acrobatic displays.

Tang theatre

The Tang Dynasty is sometimes known as 'The Age of 1000 Entertainments'. During this era,
Emperor Xuanzong formed an acting school known as the Children of the Pear Garden to
produce a form of drama that was primarily musical.

During the Han Dynasty, shadow puppetry first emerged as a recognized form of theatre in
China. There were two distinct forms of shadow puppetry, Cantonese southern and Pekingese
northern. The two styles were differentiated by the method of making the puppets and the
positioning of the rods on the puppets, as opposed to the type of play performed by the puppets.
Both styles generally performed plays depicting great adventure and fantasy, rarely was this very
stylized form of theatre used for political propaganda. Cantonese shadow puppets were the larger
of the two. They were built using thick leather which created more substantial shadows.
Symbolic color was also very prevalent; a black face represented honesty, a red one bravery. The
rods used to control Cantonese puppets were attached perpendicular to the puppets’ heads. Thus,
they were not seen by the audience when the shadow was created. Pekingese puppets were more
delicate and smaller. They were created out of thin, translucent leather usually taken from the
belly of a donkey. They were painted with vibrant paints, thus they cast a very colorful shadow.
The thin rods which controlled their movements were attached to a leather collar at the neck of
the puppet. The rods ran parallel to the bodies of the puppet then turned at a ninety degree angle
to connect to the neck. While these rods were visible when the shadow was cast, they laid
outside the shadow of the puppet; thus they did not interfere with the appearance of the figure.
The rods attached at the necks to facilitate the use of multiple heads with one body. When the
heads were not being used, they were stored in a muslin book or fabric lined box. The heads
were always removed at night. This was in keeping with the old superstition that if left intact, the
puppets would come to life at night. Some puppeteers went so far as to store the heads in one
book and the bodies in another, to further reduce the possibility of reanimating puppets. Shadow
puppetry is said to have reached its highest point of artistic development in the eleventh century
before becoming a tool of the government.

Sung and Yuan theatre

In the Sung Dynasty, there were many popular plays involving acrobatics and music. These
developed in the Yuan Dynasty into a more sophisticated form with a four or five act structure.

Yuan drama spread across China and diversified into numerous regional forms, the best known
of which is Beijing Opera, which is still popular today.

Southeast Asian theatre

Theatre in Southeast Asia was mostly influenced by Indian theatre.

Thai theatre

In Thailand, it has been a tradition from the Middle Ages to stage plays based on plots drawn
from Indian epics. In particular, the theatrical version of Thailand's national epic Ramakien, a
version of the Indian Ramayana, remains popular in Thailand even today.

Khmer and Malay theatre

In Cambodia, at the ancient capital Angkor Wat, stories from the Indian epics Ramayana and
Mahabharata have been carved on the walls of temples and palaces. Similar reliefs are found at
Borobudur in Indonesia.

Japanese theatre

Noh

During the 14th century, there were small companies of actors in Japan who performed short,
sometimes vulgar comedies. A director of one of these companies, Kan'ami (1333-1384), had a
son, Zeami Motokiyo (1363-1443) who was considered one of the finest child actors in Japan.
When Kan'ami's company performed for Ashikaga Yoshimitsu (1358-1408), the Shogun of
Japan, he implored Zeami to have a court education for his arts. After Zeami succeeded his
father, he continued to perform and adapt his style into what is today Noh. A mixture of
pantomime and vocal acrobatics, this style has fascinated the Japanese for hundreds of years.

Bunraku

Japan, after a long period of civil wars and political disarray, was unified and at peace primarily
due to shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu (1600-1668). However, alarmed at increasing Christian growth,
he cut off contact from Japan to Europe and China and outlawed Christianity. When peace did
come, a flourish of cultural influence and growing merchant class demanded its own
entertainment. The first form of theatre to flourish was Ningyō jōruri (commonly referred to as
Bunraku). The founder of and main contributor to Ningyō jōruri, Chikamatsu Monzaemon
(1653-1725), turned his form of theatre into a true art form. Ningyō jōruri is a highly stylized
form of theatre using puppets, today about 1/3d the size of a human. The men who control the
puppets train their entire lives to become master puppeteers, when they can then operate the
puppet's head and right arm and choose to show their faces during the performance. The other
puppeteers, controlling the less important limbs of the puppet, cover themselves and their faces
in a black suit, to imply their invisibility. The dialogue is handled by a single person, who uses
varied tones of voice and speaking manners to simulate different characters. Chikamatsu wrote
thousands of plays during his lifetime, most of which are still used today.

Kabuki

Kabuki began shortly after Bunraku, legend has it by an actress named Okuni, who lived around
the end of the sixteenth century. Most of Kabuki's material came from Nõ and Bunraku, and its
erratic dance-type movements are also an effect of Bunraku. However, Kabuki is less formal and
more distant than Nõ, yet very popular among the Japanese public. Actors are trained in many
varied things including dancing, singing, pantomime, and even acrobatics. Kabuki was first
performed by young girls, then by young boys, and by the end of the sixteenth century, Kabuki
companies consisted of all men. The men who portrayed women on stage were specifically
trained to elicit the essence of a woman in their subtle movements and gestures.

Butoh

Middle-Eastern theatre

Ancient Egyptian theatre

The earliest recorded theatrical event dates back to 2000 BC with the passion plays of Ancient
Egypt. This story of the god Osiris was performed annually at festivals throughout the
civilization, marking the known beginning of a long relationship between theatre and religion.
Medieval Islamic theatre

The most popular forms of theater in the medieval Islamic world were puppet theatre (which
included hand puppets, shadow plays and marionette productions) and live passion plays known
as ta'ziya, where actors re-enact episodes from Muslim history. In particular, Shia Islamic plays
revolved around the shaheed (martyrdom) of Ali's sons Hasan ibn Ali and Husayn ibn Ali. Live
secular plays were known as akhraja, recorded in medieval adab literature, though they were
less common than puppetry and ta'ziya theater.[8]

Western theatre history

Greek theatre

The vast majority of Ancient Greek theatrical texts have not survived intact. A small number of
works from four Greek playwrights writing during the sixth century B.C. remain fully intact.

• Aeschylus
• Sophocles
• Euripides
• Aristophanes

The above-mentioned playwrights are regarded as the most influential by critics of subsequent
eras including Aristotle. The tragic and satyr plays were always performed at the festival (City
Dionysia) where they were part of a series of four performances (a "tetralogy"): the first, second
and third plays were a dramatic trilogy based on related or unrelated mythological events, and
the culminating fourth performance was a satyr play, a play on a lighter note, with enhanced
celebratory and dance elements. Performances lasted several hours and were held during
daytime.

The dramas rarely had more than three actors (all male), who played the different roles using
masks. There was a chorus on the stage most of the time which sang songs and sometimes spoke
in unison. As far as we know, most dramas were staged just a single time, at the traditional
drama contest. Such contests were always held in the context of major religious festivals, most
notably those in honor of the god Dionysos, and competed for an honorific prize (such as a tripod
and a sum of money) awarded by a panel of judges - usually these were the sacerdotal and civil
officers presiding over the particular religious festival. The prize was awarded jointly to the
producer, who had financed the staging, and the poet, who was at the same time the author,
composer, choreographer and director of the plays.

The actors wore large masks, which were very colourful. These masks did not amplify the actors
voice as has been previously thought. Actors also wore thick, padded clothing, and shoes with
thick soles. This made them seem larger, so the audience could see them better when seated in
the uppermost rows of the amphitheatre.
Roman theatre

The theatre of ancient Rome was heavily influenced by the Greek tradition, and as with many
other literary genres Roman dramatists tended to adapt and translate from the Greek. For
example, Seneca's Phaedra was based on the Hippolytus of Euripides, and many of the comedies
of Plautus and Terence, the most famous Roman comic playwrights, were direct re-elaborations
of works by Menander.

When comparing and contrasting ancient Roman theatre to that of Greece it can easily be said
that Roman theatre was less influenced by religion. Also, Roman theatre was more for aesthetic
appeal. In Roman theatre war was a more common thing to appear on stage as opposed to the
Greek theatre where wars were more commonly spoken about. This was no doubt a reflection of
Roman culture and habits.

The audience was often loud and rude, rarely applauding the actors, but always shouting insults
and booing. Because the audience was so loud, much of the plays were mimed and repetitive.
The actors developed a kind of code that would tell the audience about the characters just by
looking at them.

• A black wig meant the character was a young man.

• A gray wig meant the character was an old man.
• A red wig meant the character was a slave.
• A white robe meant the character was an old man.
• A purple robe meant the character was a young man.
• A yellow robe meant the character was a woman. (Needed in early Roman theatre, as
originally female characters were played by men, however as the Roman theatre
progressed, women slaves took the roles of women in plays.)
• A yellow tassel meant the character was a god.

Plays lasted for two hours, and were usually comedies. Most comedies involved mistaken
identity (such as gods disguised as humans).

Medieval European theatre

In Europe in the courts of kings and noblemen scripted re-enactments of the Arthurian legends
and other romances, usually associated with jousting or tournaments, were popular the early 13th
century until the middle of the 14th. By the 16th century the practice had developed into staged
theatrical events.[9]

In the Middle Ages, after the fall of Roman civilization, cities were abandoned, southern and
western Europe became increasingly more agricultural. After several hundred years, towns re-
emerged. The Roman Catholic church dominated religion, education and often politics. Theatre
was reborn as liturgical dramas performed by priests or church members. Then came vernacular
drama spoken in the vulgar tongues (i.e the language of the people as opposed to Church Latin);
this was a more elaborate series of one-act dramas enacted in town squares or other parts of the
city. There were three types of vernacular dramas. Mystery or cycle plays, like the York Mystery
Plays or Wakefield Cycle were series of short dramas based on the Old Testament and New
Testament organized into historical cycles. Miracle plays dealt with the lives of saints. Morality
plays taught a lesson through allegorical characters representing virtues or faults. Secular plays
in this period existed, but medieval religious drama is most remembered today.

Plays were set up in individual scenic units called mansions or in wagon stages which were
platforms mounted on wheels used to move scenery. Often providing their own costumes,
amateur performers in England were only men, but other countries had female performers. The
platform stage allowed for abrupt changes in location which was an unidentified space and not a
specific locale.

Among the more notable religious plays were "The Summoning of Everyman" (an allegory
designed to teach the faithful that acts of Christian charity are necessary for entry into heaven),
passion plays (such as the later Oberammergau Passion Play, which is still performed every ten
years), and the great cycle plays (massive, festive wagon-mounted processions involving
hundreds of actors, and drawing pilgrims, tourists, and entrepreneurs) York Corpus Christi Play
Simulator. The morality play and mystery play (as they are known in English) were two distinct
genres.

Since many of the more theatrically successful medieval religious plays were designed to teach
Catholic doctrine, the Protestant Reformation targeted the English Renaissance theatre, in an
effort to stamp out allegiance to Rome.[10]

Whereas most churches carefully watched over the scripts of their dogmatic plays, in order to
ensure that the faithful were being taught the accepted doctrine, by the end of the 1500s Queen
Elizabeth I was controlling the stage just as effectively through a system of patronage, licensing,
and censorship. Hamlet's reference to a frenetic performance that "out-Herods Herod" refers to
the tradition of presenting King Herod as a bombastic figure, suggesting that Shakespeare
expected his audience to be familiar with this particular medieval tradition, long after the
religious landscape in England had changed.

Puritan opposition to the stage – informed by the arguments of the early Church Fathers who had
written screeds against the decadent and violent entertainments of the Romans – argued not only
that the stage in general was pagan, but that any play that represented a religious figure was
inherently idolatrous. In 1642, at the outbreak of the English Civil War the Protestant authorities
banned the performance of all plays within the city limits of London. A sweeping assault against
the alleged immoralities of the theatre crushed whatever remained in England of the dramatic
tradition.

Commedia dell'Arte

Commedia dell'Arte troupes performed lively improvisational playlets across Europe for
centuries. It originated in Italy in the 1560s, and differed from conventional theatre in that it was
neither professional nor open to the public. Commedia dell'Arte required only actors at its heart,
no scene and very few props were considered absolutely essential. Plays did not originate from
scripts but scenarios, which were loose frameworks of productions providing only the situations,
complications, and outcome of the work. The actors improvised most dialogue and comedic
interludes(called lazzi). The plays were based around a few stock characters, which could be
divided into three groups: the lovers, masters, and servants. The lovers had different names and
characteristics in most plays and often were the children of the master's character. The role of
master was normally based on one of three stereotypes: Pantalone, an eldery Venetian merchant
who wore his pajamas most often; Dottore, Pantalone's friend or rival, a doctor or lawyer who
acted far more intelligent than he really was; and Capitano, who was once a lover's character, but
evolved into a man who bragged about his exploits in love and war, but was often terrifically
unskilled in both. He normally carried a sword and wore a cape and feathered headdress. The
servant character type (called zanni) had only one recurring role: Arlecchino (also called
Harlequin). He was both cunning and ignorant, but an accomplished dancer. He typically carried
a wooden stick with a split in the middle so it made a loud noise when striking something. This
"weapon" gave us the term "slapstick." A troupe typically consisted of 13 to 14 members. No
women were allowed to act in theater at this time. So there were absolutely no female
performers. Most actors were paid by taking a share of the play's profits roughly equivalent to
the size of their role. The style of theatre was in its peak from 1575-1650, but even after that time
new scenarios were written and performed. Carlo Goldoni wrote a few scenarios starting in 1734,
but since he considered the genre too vulgar, he refined the topics of his own to be more
sophisticated. He also wrote several true plays starring Commedia characters. By 1775, however,
the genre of Commedia dell'Arte had lost public interest and died out. Improvisation today is
very close to the Commedia.

Renaissance theatre

Renaissance theatre derived from several medieval theatre traditions, such as the mystery plays
that formed a part of religious festivals in England and other parts of Europe during the Middle
Ages. The mystery plays were complex retellings of legends based on biblical themes, originally
performed in churches[citation needed] but later becoming more linked to the secular celebrations that
grew up around religious festivals. Other sources include the morality plays and the "University
drama" that attempted to recreate Greek tragedy. The Italian tradition of Commedia dell'arte as
well as the elaborate masques frequently presented at court also contributed to the shaping of
public theatre.

Companies of players attached to households of leading noblemen and performing seasonally in

various locations existed before the reign of Elizabeth I. These became the foundation for the
professional players that performed on the Elizabethan stage. The tours of these players
gradually replaced the performances of the mystery and morality plays by local players, and a
1572 law eliminated the remaining companies lacking formal patronage by labelling them
vagabonds. At court as well, the performance of masques by courtiers and other amateurs,
apparently common in the early years of Elizabeth, was replaced by the professional companies
with noble patrons, who grew in number and quality during her reign.

The City of London authorities were generally hostile to public performances, but its hostility
was overmatched by the Queen's taste for plays and the Privy Council's support. Theatres sprang
up in suburbs, especially in the liberty of Southwark, accessible across the Thames to city
dwellers, but beyond the authority's control. The companies maintained the pretence that their
public performances were mere rehearsals for the frequent performances before the Queen, but
while the latter did grant prestige, the former were the real source of the income professional
players required.

Along with the economics of the profession, the character of the drama changed toward the end
of the period. Under Elizabeth, the drama was a unified expression as far as social class was
concerned: the Court watched the same plays the commoners saw in the public playhouses. With
the development of the private theatres, drama became more oriented toward the tastes and
values of an upper-class audience. By the later part of the reign of Charles I, few new plays were
being written for the public theatres, which sustained themselves on the accumulated works of
the previous decades.[11]

Restoration comedy

Restoration spectacular

Neoclassical theatre

Neoclassicism was the dominant form of theatre in the eighteenth century. It demanded decorum
and rigorous adherence to the classical unities. Neoclassical theatre as well as the time period is
characterized by its grandiosity. The costumes and scenery were intricate and elaborate. The
acting is characterized by large gestures and melodrama. Theatres of the early 18th century –
sexual farces of the Restoration were superseded by politically satirical comedies, 1737
Parliament passed the Stage Licensing Act which introduced state censorship of public
performances and limited the number of theatres in London to just two.

Late modern theatre

Late Modern, and especially twentieth century theatre, often continues the project of realism.
However, there has also been a great deal of experimental theatre that rejects the conventions of
realism and earlier forms. Examples include: Epic theatre, absurdist theatre, and postmodern
theatre. Key figures of the century include: Luigi Pirandello, Bertolt Brecht, Antonin Artaud,
Konstantin Stanislavski, Harold Pinter, Eugene O'Neill, Samuel Beckett, Dario Fo and Tony
Kushner.

A number of aesthetic movements emerged in the 20th century, including:

• Naturalism
• Realism
• Dadaism
• Expressionism
• Surrealism
• Absurdism
• Postmodernism