Roman theatre

Romans were extremely powerful in battles and overpowered most of Europe due to victory in battles.

The romans borrowed extensively from Greek theatre

Roman inherited the land, so the theatres, rather than being instrumental in the evolution of theatre

We still use the word play which comes from Roman times

Roman theatre took two forms, and translated the Greek plays into Latin, claiming it to be theirs

There were original plays but they were based off Greek plays

Terence lives from 119-150 BC, he created sub plots to allow their plays to become more intricate and individuals responses to events

These plays were usually a reflection of society itself

They took slaves and got them to fight against each other, or lions

They watched battles between gladiators, this was diluting theatre as theatre was important in Greek times but in Roman times it devolved to violence. Forms of entertainment went downhill

Roman plays were made to be read or recited rather than actually acted

Roman theatres were full circles, like the colosseum, so the whole style of the semicircle was changed

The first play written in latin was translated rather that original work

Dancing and improvisation existed before but then the Greek developed it to theatre

Elements of Greek festival transformed to Latin festival

The Greek world had to dynamic political center like Rome, the international language had evolved into Greek

Everything culturally was based on the Greeks

The Romans imported statues of Greek gods and evolved them into Roman gods

The plays that were evolved based on Greek plays were still set in Greece, they wore Greek costumes and Greek masks as well

They often represented the Greek world in a negative way, trying to brainwash the people into telling them that the Roman way is better

They established a guild of actors and writers where they represented a body for themselves

The work that survived from those times was based off of two people, Plautus, 20 plays by him and 6 by Terence

There is no such thing as a typical Roman play

The most identified factor of comedy was trickster slaves

Early Roman theatres were temporary wooden auditoriums, but they didn’t last so we were not able to see what they look like now

The romans were catholic and some had a strong religion so they looked down on theatre and they didn’t want it to be part of society, they said it was immoral and realized the power theatre had, this is why theatre devolved from the Greek times to the Roman times

The romans were in control of the world so theatre started to die out all over the continent

We acted out the first bit of the play 'the haunted house' by Plautus: