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A Short Introduction to the Ancient Greek Theater
Contemporary productions on stage and film, and the development of theater studies, have created a new audience for ancient Greek drama. This volume fills the need for a clear, concise statement of what is known about the original conditions of production for tragedy, comedy, and satyr play in the age of Pericles and provides observations on all aspects of performance.
Reexamining the surviving plays of the tragic writers Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides and of the comedian Aristophanes, Graham Ley discusses the actor's technique, the power and range of the chorus, the use of theatrical space, and parody in the plays. A series of diagrams relates the theater to the city and political life of ancient Athens, and photographic illustrations of scenes from Greek vases document the visualization of theatrical performance.
An ideal companion to The Complete Greek Tragedies (University of Chicago Press), Ley's work is a valuable user's guide to the critical assessment of modern translations and adaptations of tragedy and comedy. It is designed for all students of Greek drama with an interest in performance, and for theatrical practitioners who require a concise but informative introduction to one of the great periods of world drama.
Reexamining the surviving plays of the tragic writers Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides and of the comedian Aristophanes, Graham Ley discusses the actor's technique, the power and range of the chorus, the use of theatrical space, and parody in the plays. A series of diagrams relates the theater to the city and political life of ancient Athens, and photographic illustrations of scenes from Greek vases document the visualization of theatrical performance.
An ideal companion to The Complete Greek Tragedies (University of Chicago Press), Ley's work is a valuable user's guide to the critical assessment of modern translations and adaptations of tragedy and comedy. It is designed for all students of Greek drama with an interest in performance, and for theatrical practitioners who require a concise but informative introduction to one of the great periods of world drama.
118 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 1991
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
December 18, 2017
This is a good introduction to Greek theatre, which covers a wide swath of information. Ley is particularly interested in the original performance conditions of 5th century BCE Athenian drama, more so than he is interested in the texts of the surviving plays, so if what you're interested in is an analysis of the extant plays by Aiskhulos, Sophokles, Euripides, Aristophanes, and Menander, then this is not the text for you. But if you're interested in a quick and relatively easy summation of how the Greeks likely performed, this is a good starting place.
Despite being a short introduction, Ley does a pretty good job dealing with and mentioning scholarly uncertainties. Sometimes he acknowledges these uncertainties, like that there is debate over the shape of the original orkestra area; and sometimes he even emphasizes uncertainty, like how we know very little of what Choral dancing would have looked like. But there are other areas where he minimizes the range of debate.
Despite being a short introduction, Ley does a pretty good job dealing with and mentioning scholarly uncertainties. Sometimes he acknowledges these uncertainties, like that there is debate over the shape of the original orkestra area; and sometimes he even emphasizes uncertainty, like how we know very little of what Choral dancing would have looked like. But there are other areas where he minimizes the range of debate.
February 21, 2025
This was a helpful short book featuring numerous aspects of how Greek plays were originally produced, acted, and are now translated or adapted. I think it will be helpful to me going forward as I read Greek tragedies and comedies.
August 9, 2016
It's sort of hard to rate this book. While it didn't have as much information that I would have liked to have read it's not really the author's fault. So much on the history of the Greek theater itself has been lost, from manuscripts to plays. They can only solely rely on surviving written accounts from other people living at that time, and study various theaters throughout Athens (Sparta didn't participate in the festivities, both for entertainment and worship reasons, for these plays were done in the honor of the god Dionysus.
There were a lot of very interesting points in this book, such as all the English words we borrowed from the Greeks, such as words like "scene", "hypocrisy", "theater", "comedy", and many others. I think if you want a history on the Greek theater, you may or may not like this. If you want to learn on the more "mechanical" parts of it (such as how the stage was set up, where actors would stand, etc. then you might like this. If you want to learn the history on the plays themselves like I did, then I'd look on.
Overall it was a good read but sort of went under my expectations. Again, not really the book's fault.
There were a lot of very interesting points in this book, such as all the English words we borrowed from the Greeks, such as words like "scene", "hypocrisy", "theater", "comedy", and many others. I think if you want a history on the Greek theater, you may or may not like this. If you want to learn on the more "mechanical" parts of it (such as how the stage was set up, where actors would stand, etc. then you might like this. If you want to learn the history on the plays themselves like I did, then I'd look on.
Overall it was a good read but sort of went under my expectations. Again, not really the book's fault.
January 16, 2025
This short introduction that is under a 100 pages if you don’t include bibliography, index, and other extraneous material covers all aspects of ancient Greek drama from the the process of putting on a play to the structure of the theater to how actors would use the physical space, other types of dramatic entertainments that existed in Ancient Greece like puppet shows and mimes, etc.
Unfortunately a large part of the evidence are the plays themselves with all surviving complete plays being Athenian, even though we know that dramatic performance occurred elsewhere, and mostly relegated to four playwrights: the seven tragedies of Aeschylus who likely wrote around 80 plays , the seven works of Sophocles who likely wrote around 120, and the 19 works of Euripides who likely wrote around 90, and the eleven comedies of the comedian Aristophanes who likely wrote around 40, and one complete play by Menander. Although there are some surviving fragments from other plays these playwrights composed and fragments from a few other known playwrights. Alongside this evidence is archaeological, images from vase painting depicting choruses, dances, or music and surviving remains of theaters.
The Athenian plays were composed for the major festival of Dionysus known as the Great Dionysia (in March/April) and the Lenaea (January) and performed in a theater dedicated to Dionysus on southern slope of the Acropolis where a temple of Dionysus was located as well. Alongside the major festivals there was smaller local festivals too. These festivals were competitions in which three tragedians and three - five comic writers competed against each other. The festival consisted of four - five plays a day for three to four days. Although the winner would get a prize, Levy suggests most playwrights likely had enough land to support themselves to have the leisure time to compose plays.
Drama likely emerged from earlier choral and dance pieces associated with the worship of Dionysus. Masks were also part of the worship of Dionysus and became part of the theater as well. Due to the masks hiding facial expressions and male actors having to play female and male characters, voice became a key tool for actors’ expressions.
A magistrate known as an archon was responsible for organizing City Dionysia. Playwrights who wanted to compete needed to apply for a chorus to the magistrate. The expenses to produce the plays were taken on by wealthy citizens known as Choregoi (producer) as a form of liturgy who paid the chorus, while the state paid for the actors. Then they would have six months to produce the play.
The theater of Dionysus included a circular orchestra space for performers, a space higher up for the audience, and a skene (a building) that served as setting. It likely around 10,000 - 14,000 audience members could fit in theater. Some sources indicate panels of the skene were painted to create a more distinct setting. There was various devices like the ekkuklema and mechane (crane) that could lift actor above the skene.
Thespis may have been the playwright to introduce an actor and play the role. Aeschylus added a second. Either Aeschylus or Sophocles added a third actor. A single actor could play several roles in the play. The actors were always men and there was a separate prize/competition for best actor.
In the final chapter, the author explores the thorny issue of translation, starting by offering a variety of English translations of the opening of Aeschylus’s Agamemnon for comparison with each other. He also discusses the art of literary adaptations such as those done by Racine and Sartre.
Very informative, even if the last four chapters meandered a little bit and got too overly theoretical for my taste. I preferred the more concrete discussions of the actual stage structure and social context of how plays were put together over the hypothetical relationships between the actor and the chorus or meditations of the use of space on the stage.
Unfortunately a large part of the evidence are the plays themselves with all surviving complete plays being Athenian, even though we know that dramatic performance occurred elsewhere, and mostly relegated to four playwrights: the seven tragedies of Aeschylus who likely wrote around 80 plays , the seven works of Sophocles who likely wrote around 120, and the 19 works of Euripides who likely wrote around 90, and the eleven comedies of the comedian Aristophanes who likely wrote around 40, and one complete play by Menander. Although there are some surviving fragments from other plays these playwrights composed and fragments from a few other known playwrights. Alongside this evidence is archaeological, images from vase painting depicting choruses, dances, or music and surviving remains of theaters.
The Athenian plays were composed for the major festival of Dionysus known as the Great Dionysia (in March/April) and the Lenaea (January) and performed in a theater dedicated to Dionysus on southern slope of the Acropolis where a temple of Dionysus was located as well. Alongside the major festivals there was smaller local festivals too. These festivals were competitions in which three tragedians and three - five comic writers competed against each other. The festival consisted of four - five plays a day for three to four days. Although the winner would get a prize, Levy suggests most playwrights likely had enough land to support themselves to have the leisure time to compose plays.
Drama likely emerged from earlier choral and dance pieces associated with the worship of Dionysus. Masks were also part of the worship of Dionysus and became part of the theater as well. Due to the masks hiding facial expressions and male actors having to play female and male characters, voice became a key tool for actors’ expressions.
A magistrate known as an archon was responsible for organizing City Dionysia. Playwrights who wanted to compete needed to apply for a chorus to the magistrate. The expenses to produce the plays were taken on by wealthy citizens known as Choregoi (producer) as a form of liturgy who paid the chorus, while the state paid for the actors. Then they would have six months to produce the play.
The theater of Dionysus included a circular orchestra space for performers, a space higher up for the audience, and a skene (a building) that served as setting. It likely around 10,000 - 14,000 audience members could fit in theater. Some sources indicate panels of the skene were painted to create a more distinct setting. There was various devices like the ekkuklema and mechane (crane) that could lift actor above the skene.
Thespis may have been the playwright to introduce an actor and play the role. Aeschylus added a second. Either Aeschylus or Sophocles added a third actor. A single actor could play several roles in the play. The actors were always men and there was a separate prize/competition for best actor.
In the final chapter, the author explores the thorny issue of translation, starting by offering a variety of English translations of the opening of Aeschylus’s Agamemnon for comparison with each other. He also discusses the art of literary adaptations such as those done by Racine and Sartre.
Very informative, even if the last four chapters meandered a little bit and got too overly theoretical for my taste. I preferred the more concrete discussions of the actual stage structure and social context of how plays were put together over the hypothetical relationships between the actor and the chorus or meditations of the use of space on the stage.
January 25, 2021
TL;DR: Slim but good summary of ancient Athenian theater -- but not ancient Athenian plays or playwrights.
This is a fairly good introduction as to how the ancient Greek theater (with a larger focus on Athenian theater for historical reasons) was set up and how plays were put upon in the ancient world. This focuses primarily on the actual mise-en-scène of the Ancient Greek Theater. If you want information on how many roles an actor may have played, how ancient stages were set up, and even how those infamous deus-ex-machina moments were made, then this is your book.
If you want information on the playwrights, or literary analysis of the characters in ancient Greek plays, or more than brief mentions of some of the most famous works in the ancient Greek canon -- well, move on. This is not meant to be a volume focusing on such. This is almost exclusively focused on the physical set up of a stage, on potential movements of the chorus, on who attended and how genre dictated how the stage was set.
It will not appeal to most but to those who it does appeal, this is a well-written summary of many of the current positions of scholars as concerns the physical set-up of ancient Greek theater. Author includes a further resources for selected topics which is very helpful if you are interested in more detail on anything here. This isn't an exhaustive research by nature, but it doesn't need to be. It accomplishes what it sets out to be: a slim introduction to the physical Athenian theater.
This is a fairly good introduction as to how the ancient Greek theater (with a larger focus on Athenian theater for historical reasons) was set up and how plays were put upon in the ancient world. This focuses primarily on the actual mise-en-scène of the Ancient Greek Theater. If you want information on how many roles an actor may have played, how ancient stages were set up, and even how those infamous deus-ex-machina moments were made, then this is your book.
If you want information on the playwrights, or literary analysis of the characters in ancient Greek plays, or more than brief mentions of some of the most famous works in the ancient Greek canon -- well, move on. This is not meant to be a volume focusing on such. This is almost exclusively focused on the physical set up of a stage, on potential movements of the chorus, on who attended and how genre dictated how the stage was set.
It will not appeal to most but to those who it does appeal, this is a well-written summary of many of the current positions of scholars as concerns the physical set-up of ancient Greek theater. Author includes a further resources for selected topics which is very helpful if you are interested in more detail on anything here. This isn't an exhaustive research by nature, but it doesn't need to be. It accomplishes what it sets out to be: a slim introduction to the physical Athenian theater.
January 24, 2023
Excellent book, I highly recommend.
July 19, 2023
this was quite a treat
February 4, 2011
Despite being less than a hundred pages, this book felt long to me. I tentatively attribute that to its uneasy blend of styles. Essentially, Ley's book is a brief, general introduction to Greek theater, with an emphasis on production considerations. In this mode the book touches on numerous aspects of Greek drama such as the evolution of tragedy and comedy over the centuries, the use of costumes, the layout of the Dionysus Theater in Athens, scenery, and so forth. Each general point is illustrated by numerous highly-specific allusions, however. As a newcomer to Greek theater, as I would assume most readers of this book would be, I could not easily register or track the numerous examples drawn from plays I have not yet read, and felt bombarded by unfamiliar references.
This is a problem I am surprised to find quite often in "introductions" and "basic guides." The author seems to forget that their audience is beginners, who need the background explained, and who are not able to parse frequent references to technical terms. I can't see awarding more than three stars to any billed introduction that makes this obvious and serious error.
This is a problem I am surprised to find quite often in "introductions" and "basic guides." The author seems to forget that their audience is beginners, who need the background explained, and who are not able to parse frequent references to technical terms. I can't see awarding more than three stars to any billed introduction that makes this obvious and serious error.
March 22, 2013
Thorough and concise presentation of the salient aspects of Greek drama as it was presented in the 5th century B.C. Ley makes the most of every scrap of information, notably from references to dramas made in the comedies of Aristophanes as well as from surviving vases depicting actors and choruses. The actors used plaster masks and often interacted with the chorus. This was a time of great invention and Ley charts the emergence of the skene, the earliest known scenic design. He examines the audience of the day, the proximity of actors to one another, who the actors were and whether this was a full time occupation. Ley speculates on the music played and, as always, bases his speculations on primary source material.
One gets a deeper understanding of when, how and by whom these productions took form and also who saw them. The importance of theater in the lives of the Greeks is a wonderful complement to the emerging democracy as, especially in the case of the comedies, it was very political and topical. The Daily Show's roots are certainly here as are the roots of our dramatic movies and the shaping of myth.
One gets a deeper understanding of when, how and by whom these productions took form and also who saw them. The importance of theater in the lives of the Greeks is a wonderful complement to the emerging democracy as, especially in the case of the comedies, it was very political and topical. The Daily Show's roots are certainly here as are the roots of our dramatic movies and the shaping of myth.
February 7, 2019
A very useful introduction for someone who aims at reading Greek plays. It traces the roots of the Greek theatre to Dionysia festival, explains all its technical features and sketches the timeline along which it developed. The book is only some 100 pages but allowed me later on, when reading, to better imagine how the actual play might have looked like.
Note: The book does not provide any analysis of the plays themselves.
Note: The book does not provide any analysis of the plays themselves.
July 9, 2015
Graham Ley's A Short Introduction to the Ancient Greek Theater is packed with details, focusing on blocking and performances. Though this is in fact a short introduction, it moves slowly and is extremely thorough - Ley references Greek plays to explain his points. I read this for a Greek mythology class and it was a great introduction since I had little to no experience with either theater or Ancient Greece.
January 22, 2012
Surprisingly thorough for such a short introduction. More Greek Theater courses should use this book at the beginning of the semester. It helps a lot to visualize the complicated context in which these plays were written. Each chapter is a short perspective on a single topic that plays a role on the context of Greek Theater.
April 25, 2012
Maybe the title should read "A very short introduction." This book is okay. I think there must be other better intros out there. While I was reading this thing, I felt like it was the reprint of a much much earlier edition...which is probably not a good sign. Will update this post if I find a better intro reader.
August 15, 2009
A bit dry in places, but wickedly comprehensive (and short!) in its crash-course explanation of 5th century Greek theatre.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews