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VI. Staging and Performance

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2016

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Extract

The staging and performance of Aristophanes’ comedies have in recent times been given much attention. Comedies were presented at the City Dionysia and (more often than tragedy) at the Lenaia. They were put on — at whichever of these festivals — in the Theatre of Dionysos: it has been supposed, but on no convincing evidence, that Lenaian comedies were also staged in the Lenaion, the site of a ‘teatro di fortuna’. The Dionysan theatre had probably no stage, at least not a permanently raised one: ava-, καταβαίνω, verbs quoted in support of it, are consistent — where their meaning is not completely different — with a low, temporary platform, giving easy access to the orchestra (Dardanis is pulled up from there to the ‘stage’ by Philokleon, W. 1341). Performances took place in the open air, in daylight, and the audience could not consult a programme; a play which has a night scene must therefore either say so (‘Will it never be day?’, C. 3) or introduce some prop (a lamp, E. 1) to indicate it.

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Research Article
Information
New Surveys in the Classics , Volume 13: Aristophanes , 1979 , pp. 34 - 40
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1979

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References

Notes

1. The question, in recent times, has been given much attention: see (for Clouds, Ecclesia-zusae, Peace, Wasps) the Oxford commentaries; (for Achamians) Dale, CP, 281-94; (more generally) Dover, K.J., ‘The Skene in Aristophanes’, PCPhS 192, N.S. 12 (1966), 2–17 Google Scholar; Bibliography s. w. Amott, Bieber, Dearden, Pickard-Cambridge, Webster.

2. Pickard-Cambridge, DFA, p. 41. There is some evidence that prior to the Peloponnesian War senior (or superior) comic poets competed at the Dionysia, junior (or inferior) at the Lenaia. See Sutton, Dana Ferrin, ‘ P. Oxy. XXXV 2737: New Light on the Production of Old Comedy’, BASP 13 (1976), 125-7Google Scholar.

3. Anti, C., Teatri greci arcaici da Minosse a Pericle (Padua, 1947)Google Scholar; Russo, C.F., ‘I due teatri di Aristofane’, RAL Ser. 8axi (1956), 14–27 Google Scholar; id., Aristophane Autore di Teatro (Florence, 1962), pp. 3-18.

4. See e.g., Bieber, HT, 73; Webster, GTP, 7; Roussel, L., ‘La Scène dans les théâtres grecs classiques’, Mélanges Charles Picard ii (1949), 893 Google Scholar; for an.opposing view, Arnott, GSC, p. 34.

5. Though ‘each has a book and understands the witty points’ (F. 1114). Whatever that means, it can hardly be a reference to a spectator’s copy of the play. This line and F. 52-3 are seen as evidence for a limited literacy: Woodbury, L., ‘Aristophanes’ Frogs and Athenian Literacy. Ran. 52-53, 1114’, TAPhA 106 (1976), 349-57Google Scholar.

6. There, of course, the sight of the two men in their beds will already have made the matter clear.

7. This is a fair inference, whatever weight one places on P. 962-7. That passage certainly suggests the women’s presence: on the other hand, they are missing from the list of all the audience (E. 1146). But women attended the plays in the fourth century (PI. Grg. 502 b-d) and it is hard to see why they could not in the fifth. For discussion see Rogers, Ecclesiazusae, pp. xxix-xxxv; Ehrenberg, p. 27 n. 2; Pickard-Cambridge, DFA, p. 264. There are measured comments in Sandbach, p. 155.

8. This term is preferable to the commoner ‘illusion’; David Bain, Actors and Audience (1977), p. 6; cf. Sifakis, pp. 7 ff.

9. See above, p. 12 n. 2.

10. Bieber, M., ‘The Entrances and Exits of Actors and Chorus in Greek Plays’, A]A 58 (1954), 277-84Google Scholar; E.W.Handley, The Dyskolos of Menander (1965), pp. 128 ff.

11. The scribe of R tends to indicate a change of speaker after either ούκοϋν (as here) or οϋκουν.

12. Pickard-Cambridge, DFA, p. 179. See Webster, T.B.L., ‘The Masks of Greek Comedy’, BJRL 32 (1949-50), 111 Google Scholar; id. GTP, p. 55, and Monuments illustrating Old and Middle Comedy,2 BICS Supp. 23 (1969); Bieber, figs. 133 ff., 316 ff.; Pickard-Cambridge, DFA, figs. 109-39.

13. K.J. Dover, ‘Portrait-Masks in Aristophanes’ (above, p. 24 n. 14), 23: cf. AC, p. 28. Dover believes that the actor’s mask did not resemble Kleon because ‘there was nothing unusual about Kleon’s face’. Welsh, however, notes (above, p. 24 n. 10), p. 492, Kratinos’ comment (fr. 217A) that his eyebrows were especially repulsive (CQ N.S. 29, (1979), 214-15).

14. It is very improbable that the ‘ladies’ who appear in some finales enter naked (Wilamowitz, p. 57) if only because the weather (at least at the Lenaia) would be chilly. See Holzinger, K., ‘Erklarungen umstrittener Stellen des Aristophanes’, SAWW ccviii. 5 (1928), 38 Google Scholar.

15. Aristophanes does not mean here that nobody in Clouds wears the phallos, merely that he himself does not employ it to gain the crude effects of other playwrights. For phallic costume see Pickard-Cambridge, DFA, pp. 220-2; for padding, Webster, T.B.L., ‘South Italian Vases and Attic Drama’, CQ 42 (1948), 19 CrossRefGoogle Scholar;id., JHS 71 (1951), 229; BJRL 36(1953-4, 563 (cf. GTP, p. 29); AE (1953-4 B, 193 ff.; WS 69 (1956), 110; Pickard-Cambridge, DTC, pp. 169 ff.; Bieber, figs. 481-502; for tights, Webster, CQ N.S. 5 (1955), 95; id., WS 69, 111; Bieber, pp. 39, 332 n.; Pickard-Cambridge, DFA, p. 222.

16. Wüst, E., PhW 62 (1942), 460 Google Scholar.

17. Cf. the juxtaposed references to Kleokritos and Kinesias in F. 1437-41 ( Valk, M. Van der in Studi classici in onore di Quintino Cataudelia ii (Catania, 1972), 60 ffGoogle Scholar.

18. She is compared to a креаури, ‘a meat-hook’: cf. the old woman (PI. 1036). Poverty, one supposes, is thin like her adherents ( ιχαρ’ έμοι 6’ ισχνοί καί σφηκώΟΕκ, ibid. 561).

19. It is demonstrable, at least, that not all choruses were padded: the wasps are realistically corseted (W. 1071-2). κατ’ αύτοTOUTO (ibid. 1062) is strong evidence (in the context) for the phallos: there is no trace, however, of its use elsewhere by chorusmen, and clearly it ill suits birds, clouds, and frogs.

20. Even had actors been capable of blanching, or like Sophy Streatfield in Fanny Burney’s Diary, of producing tears at will, they could not, visibly, have justified the question, τί χρώς тєтраігтаі; τί δάκρυον κατβίβεται; (L. 127).

21. Cf. (though primarily, of course, with reference to tragedy) Arist. Po. 1456b 10, Rbet. 1404b 18 ff. See also above, p. 27 n. 72.

22. It is not clear if this is true of all non-speaking extras: slaves and especially prostitutes (above, n. 14) could well be played by women.

23. Dale, A.M., ‘An Interpretation of Ar. Vesp. 136-210 and its Consequences for the Stage of Aristophanes’, JHS 77 (1957), 205-11CrossRefGoogle Scholar (= CP, pp. 103-18).

24. See Dover (above, n. 1), pp. 14 ff.; AC, pp. 22-4, 134 ff., 197 ff.

25. Dover, AC, p. 180.1 find it unconvincing that Xanthias (at 196) ‘departs through the parados leading the donkey with him’, Dearden, p. 172: cf. Mn. N.S. 23 (1970), 17-21. The donkey here is, incidentally, a real one: contrast the pantomime or model donkey beneath which Philokleon clings in Wasps.

26. It is possible that the famous rowing scene (however managed) had a precedent in the Taxiarchs of Eupolis. See A.M. Wilson in CQ N.S. 24 (1974), 250-2.

27. Not necessarily the buffoon: cf. В. 1567 (the Triballian).