Drama
The word drama comes from a Greek term meaning deed or act. This root connects directly to the verb I do. Ancient Greeks viewed performance as action rather than mere speech. Aristotle's Poetics established early distinctions between dramatic, epic, and lyrical modes of poetry. He argued that poets should create plots instead of verses since they imitate actions. The two traditional masks associated with drama represent comedy and tragedy divisions. In English, the standard term for plays was play until William Shakespeare's time. Creators were called play-makers while buildings were known as play-houses. The Theatre in London served as an intentional reference to Latin terms for specific venues. The dramatist title remained unknown in English during this earlier period.
Western drama originated in classical Athens during the fifth century BC. All surviving plays date from the era of Athenian democracy. Three genres emerged: tragedy, comedy, and satyr plays. These forms became institutionalized within competitions celebrating Dionysus. Thespis introduced the actor who spoke rather than sang while impersonating characters. Competitions began around 534 BC with official records starting in 501 BC when satyr plays appeared. Aeschylus won first prize at City Dionysia in 472 BC after writing plays for over twenty-five years. Tragic dramatists presented tetralogies consisting of three tragedies plus one satyr play. Comedy received official recognition through prizes between 487 and 486 BC. Five comic dramatists competed annually though numbers sometimes reduced during wars. Only small fractions of work by five major dramatists survive today including Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes, and Menander.
Rome encountered Greek drama following territorial expansion between 270 and 240 BC. Regular Roman drama began in 240 BC with Livius Andronicus writing tragedies and comedies. Gnaeus Naevius started composing dramas five years later but no works from either writer survived. By the second century BC a guild called collegium poetarum had formed. Surviving Roman comedies are all fabula palliata based on Greek subjects. Titus Maccius Plautus wrote between 205 and 184 BC with twenty comedies surviving today. His farces remain best known while his dialogue wit earned admiration. Publius Terentius Afer composed six comedies between 166 and 160 BC that have all endured. Terence combined multiple Greek originals creating complex double-plots showing contrasting human behavior. No early Roman tragedy survives despite high regard during its time. Nine tragedies by Stoic philosopher Seneca exist including Phaedra adapted from Euripides' Hippolytus. The only extant fabula praetexta Octavia remains anonymous though once attributed to Seneca.
Churches staged dramatized biblical events starting in the early Middle Ages as liturgical dramas. The earliest example is the Easter trope Whom do you Seek sung responsively in Latin without character impersonation. By the eleventh century this practice spread through Europe reaching Russia, Scandinavia, and Italy excluding Islamic-era Spain. Hrosvitha wrote six plays in Latin modeled on Terence's comedies treating religious subjects in the tenth century. Her works represent the first known compositions by a female dramatist. Hildegard of Bingen created Ordo Virtutum as a musical drama later. Adam de la Halle wrote Robin and Marion in French during the thirteenth century as an early secular play. Trade guilds performed vernacular mystery plays in England composed of long cycles containing many pageants. Four such cycles survive: York with forty-eight plays, Chester with twenty-four, Wakefield with thirty-two, and N-Town with forty-two. The Second Shepherds Play features Mak trying to pass off stolen sheep as his newborn child asleep in a crib. Morality plays emerged around 1400 representing ethical ideals through characters like Good Deeds and Knowledge. Everyman reinforces conflicts between good and evil for audiences while Castle of Perseverance depicts archetypal progress from birth to death.
England experienced great flowering of drama during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Many plays were written in verse particularly iambic pentameter. Christopher Marlowe, Thomas Middleton, and Ben Jonson stood alongside Shakespeare as prominent playwrights. Historical plays celebrated past kings enhancing Tudor monarchy images. Authors drew storylines from Greek mythology, Roman mythology, or works by Plautus and Terence. Restoration comedy refers to English comedies written and performed from 1660 to 1710 following theater reopening after Puritan bans. George Henry Nettleton notes that comedy of manners serves as synonym for Restoration comedy. The genre peaked twice: mid-1670s aristocratic extravaganzas followed by mid-1690s softer comedies appealing to diverse audiences. John Dryden, William Wycherley, and George Etherege created unsentimental hard comedies reflecting court atmosphere. Wycherley's The Country Wife contains notorious china scenes with sustained double entendres supporting obscenity charges. William Congreve and John Vanbrugh developed softer comedies focusing on marital relations vicissitudes. The Way of the World premiered in 1700 showing only moderate audience enthusiasm despite being Congreve's first comedy in five years.
Henrik Ibsen and Bertolt Brecht dominate modern drama through pivotal innovative contributions. Ibsen founded modern theater with world classics staged globally studied everywhere annually. Hundreds of Ibsen productions occur each year according to Moi. His followers include George Bernard Shaw and Arthur Miller while Brechtians encompass Dario Fo, Joan Littlewood, W.H. Auden, Peter Weiss, Heiner Müller, Tony Kushner, Caryl Churchill, John Arden, Howard Brenton, Edward Bond, and David Hare. Both playwrights incorporated formal experimentation meta-theatricality social critique blending modernist realist approaches. Antonin Artaud, August Strindberg, Anton Chekhov, Frank Wedekind, Maurice Maeterlinck, Federico García Lorca, Eugene O'Neill, Luigi Pirandello, Tennessee Williams, Jean Genet, Eugène Ionesco, Samuel Beckett, Harold Pinter, Friedrich Dürrenmatt, and others form important modern era rosters. Richard Wagner renewed operatic forms emphasizing equal importance music and drama calling them music dramas. Chinese opera developed conservatively over longer periods compared to Western changes.
Sanskrit theatre represents earliest Indian drama surviving fragments from first century AD. The Nātyaśāstra treatise attributed to Bharata Muni offers most complete ancient dramaturgy work addressing acting dance music architecture costuming props competitions mythological origins. Famous early playwrights include Bhasa Kalidasa Śudraka Asvaghosa Dañdina Emperor Harsha. Śakuntalā influenced Goethe's Faust between 1808 and 1832. Mobile theatre developed in eastern India where entire crews travel performing plays with makeshift stages equipment. Jatra originates Vaishnavite movement Chaitanya Mahaprabhu Bengal while Assam's Bhramyoman stages Hindu mythology adaptations Hollywood movies using live visual effects. Assamese mobile theatre industry worth hundred million supports remote village performances. Rabindranath Tagore pioneered modern Indian drama exploring nationalism identity spiritualism material greed through Bengali plays like Chitra Raja Dakghar Raktakarabi. Girish Karnad wrote Tughlaq Hayavadana Taledanda Naga-Mandala critiquing contemporary relevance ideas ideals. Mohan Rakesh Danish Iqbal architect new age Drama with Aadhe Adhoore Dara Shikoh considered modern classics. Japanese Nō combines drama music dance into aesthetic performance experience developing fourteenth fifteenth centuries. Kyōgen serves comic counterpart concentrating dialogue less music Kabuki includes dance from seventeenth century.
Common questions
What is the origin of the word drama?
The word drama comes from a Greek term meaning deed or act. This root connects directly to the verb I do.
When did Western drama originate in classical Athens?
Western drama originated in classical Athens during the fifth century BC. All surviving plays date from the era of Athenian democracy.
Who was the first actor introduced by Thespis and when did competitions begin?
Thespis introduced the actor who spoke rather than sang while impersonating characters. Competitions began around 534 BC with official records starting in 501 BC when satyr plays appeared.
Which Roman playwright wrote twenty comedies that survive today between 205 and 184 BC?
Titus Maccius Plautus wrote between 205 and 184 BC with twenty comedies surviving today. His farces remain best known while his dialogue wit earned admiration.
How many mystery play cycles survive in England and what are their names?
Four such cycles survive: York with forty-eight plays, Chester with twenty-four, Wakefield with thirty-two, and N-Town with forty-two.
What is the significance of Sanskrit theatre fragments from the first century AD?
Sanskrit theatre represents earliest Indian drama surviving fragments from first century AD. The Nātyaśāstra treatise attributed to Bharata Muni offers most complete ancient dramaturgy work addressing acting dance music architecture costuming props competitions mythological origins.