Description
Book SynopsisIn recent years, classicists have begun aggressively to explore the impact of performance on the ways in which Greek and Roman plays are constructed and appreciated, both in their original performance context and in reperformances down to the present day. While never losing sight of the playscripts, it is necessary to adopt a more inclusive point of view, one integrating insights from archaeology, art, history, performance theory, theatre semiotics, theatrical praxis, and modern performance reception. This volume contributes to the restoration of a much-needed balance between performance and text: it is devoted to exploring how performance-related considerations (including stage business, masks, costumes, props, performance space, and stage-sets) help us attain an enhanced appreciation of ancient theatre.
Trade Review“While reading I often felt that the individual authors were inviting me to change places and sit near them for a slightly better look at the same stage from another part of the theater. Some readers will find some seats more rewarding than others, but on the whole this is a diverse but pleasingly cohesive collection that greatly expands our view of ancient performance.[...] The volume on the whole is meticulously edited, remarkably free of typographical errors, and contains numerous helpful black and white photographs” - Christopher B. Polt, Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2013.11.27
Table of ContentsINTRODUCTION Vayos Liapis George W.M. Harrison Costas Panayotakis OPSIS, PROPS, SCENE The Misunderstanding of ‘Opsis’ in Aristotle’s ‘Poetics’ Grigoris M. Sifakis Propping Up Greek Tragedy: The Right Use of Opsis David Konstan Generalizing about Props: Greek Drama, Comparator Traditions, and the Analysis of Stage Objects Martin Revermann Actors’ Properties in Ancient Greek Drama: An Overview Robert Tordoff Skenographia in Brief Jocelyn Penny Small GREEK TRAGEDY Aeschylean Opsis A.J. Podlecki Casting votes in Aeschylus Geoff Bakewell Under Athena’s Gaze: Aeschylus’ ‘Eumenides’ and the Topography of Opsis Peter Meineck Heracles’ Costume fromEuripides’ ‘Heracles’ to Pantomime Performance Rosie Wyles Weapons of Friendship: Props in Sophocles’ ‘Philoctetes’ and ‘Ajax’ Judith Fletcher ‘Skene’, Altar and Image Euripides’ ‘Iphigeneia among the Taurians’ Robert Ketterer Staging ‘Rhesus’ Vayos Liapis GREEK COMEDY Three Actors in Old Comedy, Again C. W. Marshall ‘The Odeion on his head’: Costume and identity in Cratinus’ Thracian Women fr. 73 Jeffrey Rusten Rehearsing Aristophanes Graham Ley ROME AND EMPIRE Haven’t I Seen you Before Somewhere? Optical Allusions in Republican Tragedy Robert Cowan Anicius vortit barbare: the Scenic Games of L. Anicius Gallus and the Aesthetics of Greek and Roman Performance George Fredric Franko Otium, Opulentia and Opsis: Setting, Performance and Perception Within the mise-en-scène of the Roman House Richard Beacham Towards a Roman Theory of Theatrical Gesture Dorota Dutsch Lucian’s ‘On Dance’ and the poetics of the pantomime mask A.K. Petrides Pantomime: Visualising Myth in the Roman Empire Edith Hall INTEGRATING OPSIS Stringed Instruments in Fifth-Century Drama George Kovacs Bloody (Stage) Business: Matthias Langhoff’s Sparagmos of Euripides’ ‘Bacchae’ (1997) Gonda Van Steen From Sculpture to Vase-painting: Archaeological Models for the Actor Fiona Macintosh
