Theatre Design & Technology - Dec 1971 - 21

THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE
GREEK PHYSICAL THEATRE
Some Thoughts
Ron Olson
All drama stemmed from the fertility of life-the
livingness of it-and the worship of the god
Dionysus, the god of wine and fertility. In this
search by the spectators and performers, trying to
understand and appreciate the gift of life itself,
there is something as basic and honest as birth
and death.
Primitive rites and ceremonies lacked form; there
was no organization as such. The stories were held
together chronologically, but were not based on
cause and effect. The events in this unconscious
plot development were related without any attempt
at the interpretation of the meaning of life. In
these primitive rituals, there was no distinction between the narration of I ife and the performance of
the narration of life.
The combination of song and dance employed for
this observance was the dithyramb, and was probably mostly instigated by much wine and overlyreligious frenzy. There were participants (revellers)
and bystanders (spectators).
Before the drama became too complex, the
dithyramb was performed in an open place about a
sacrificial altar, the audience forming a circle
around the participants. An exchange of abuses and
antagonisms would take place. In this contest, the
revellers would always win, the lesser gods would
be eliminated and Dionysus would be pointed up
to be king. After, there would be much wine
drinking and a general union of the sexes.
The chorus' activity started to take on form du ring the middle of the seventh century. When the
performance became distinguished from the gen-

THEATER DESIGN AND TECHNOlOGY

DECEMBER. 1971

eral activities of life, when the form was detached
from life and acquired a significance of its own,
the art of theatre was born. The addition of theatrical conventions and devices make the difference
between life and art. A play is not complete as
an art form until it is performed in a space. There
must be a relationship between the space and the
spectator based upon empathy and artistic detachment. This relationship is based upon the common
denominator of the physical arrangement between
the stage and spectator.
As the importance of this particular art form increased, and the rite required a particular space,
it is probable that the threshing arena became the
first permanent home of the theatre.
The smooth surface and the circular shape of the
Greek orchestra have recently been explained from
the form of the threshing floor. which has remained
the same in Greece since antiquity. It is natural that
gay dances at religious festivals and particularly at
harvest time were performed at the same place
where the oxen had trodden out the grain or the
grapes had been dried.'

Our information about the development of the
theatre comes from inscriptions, statues, vase
paintings, sacrificial altars and theatres that have
been uncovered by archeologists. Literally no ruins
of the fifth century theatres are to be found, but
we do know about the altar and the fact that the
chorus chanted and danced about it. If the ritual
were first performed in the threshing arena, then
it makes perfect sense that the audience's seating
area would of necessity have been a temporary
structure, so that it did not interfere with the pri-

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Dec 1971