- [UNTITLED]
- List of Contributors
- List of Abbreviations
- Introduction: Ancient Comedy: The longue durée
- In Search of the Essence of Old Comedy: From Aristotle’s Poetics to Zieliński, Cornford, and Beyond
- Performing Comedy in the Fifth through Early Third Centuries
- Dionysiac Festivals in Athens and the Financing of Comic Performances
- The First Poets of Old Comedy
- The Last Laugh: Eupolis, Strattis, and Plato against Aristophanes
- Aristophanes<span>1</span>
- Comedy in the Fourth Century I: Mythological Burlesques
- Comedy in the Fourth Century II: Politics and Domesticity
- Comedy in the Late Fourth and Early Third Centuries bce
- Menander
- Reconstructing Menander
- Crossing Genres: Comedy, Tragedy, and Satyr Play
- Crossing Conceptual Worlds: Greek Comedy and Philosophy
- The Politics of Comic Athens
- Law and Greek Comedy
- Religion and the Gods in Greek Comedy
- The Diffusion of Comedy from the Age of Alexander to the Beginning of the Roman Empire<span>1</span>
- Hellenistic Mime and its Reception in Rome<span display="print">*</span>
- The Beginnings of Roman Comedy
- Festivals, Producers, Theatrical Spaces, and Records
- Plautus between Greek Comedy and Atellan Farce: Assessments and Reassessments
- Plautus’s Dramatic Predecessors and Contemporaries in Rome
- Plautus and Terence in Performance
- Metrics and Music
- Prologue(s) and <i>Prologi</i>
- Between Two Paradigms: Plautus
- The Terentian Reformation: From Menander to Alexandria
- The Language of the <i>Palliata</i>
- Tragedy, Paratragedy, and Roman Comedy
- Roman Comedy and the Social Scene
- Law and Roman Comedy
- Religion in Roman Comedy
- The Transmission of Aristophanes<span display="print">*</span>
- Later Greek Comedy in Later Antiquity
- The Rebirth of a Codex: Virtual Work on the Ambrosian Palimpsest of Plautus1
- The Transmission of Terence
- Graphic Comedy: Menandrian Mosaics and Terentian Miniatures
- Greek Comedy, the Novel, and Epistolography
- Roman Comedy in the Second Sophistic
- The Reception of Plautus in Antiquity
- Aelius Donatus and His Commentary on Terence’s Comedies
- Appendices
- Post-Menandrian Comic Poets: An Overview of the Evidence and a Checklist
- Index
Abstract and Keywords
This chapter examines the stagecraft and performance of Plautus's and Terence's comedies. The first section gives an overview of the production process, discussing ancient rehearsal practices, possible performance locations, and the structural characteristics of Roman theater buildings. To complement this historical background, the chapter's second section concentrates on four individual scenes and describes various ways in which they could be staged. For Pseudolus 129-229 and Menaechmi 1050-1162, the major performance issues are role division, stage properties, and the size of acting troupes; Eunuchus 46-206 demonstrates clearly the dramatic effects of impersonation; and Hecyra 623-726 calls for the creative enactment of one character's asides. Throughout, these discussions of performance emphasize the effects that different staging techniques will have on the audience.
Keywords: stagecraft, performance, production process, acting troupes, theater buildings, audience, role-division, stage properties, impersonation, asides
Erica M. Bexley is Visiting Research Fellow at The Australian National University.
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- [UNTITLED]
- List of Contributors
- List of Abbreviations
- Introduction: Ancient Comedy: The longue durée
- In Search of the Essence of Old Comedy: From Aristotle’s Poetics to Zieliński, Cornford, and Beyond
- Performing Comedy in the Fifth through Early Third Centuries
- Dionysiac Festivals in Athens and the Financing of Comic Performances
- The First Poets of Old Comedy
- The Last Laugh: Eupolis, Strattis, and Plato against Aristophanes
- Aristophanes<span>1</span>
- Comedy in the Fourth Century I: Mythological Burlesques
- Comedy in the Fourth Century II: Politics and Domesticity
- Comedy in the Late Fourth and Early Third Centuries bce
- Menander
- Reconstructing Menander
- Crossing Genres: Comedy, Tragedy, and Satyr Play
- Crossing Conceptual Worlds: Greek Comedy and Philosophy
- The Politics of Comic Athens
- Law and Greek Comedy
- Religion and the Gods in Greek Comedy
- The Diffusion of Comedy from the Age of Alexander to the Beginning of the Roman Empire<span>1</span>
- Hellenistic Mime and its Reception in Rome<span display="print">*</span>
- The Beginnings of Roman Comedy
- Festivals, Producers, Theatrical Spaces, and Records
- Plautus between Greek Comedy and Atellan Farce: Assessments and Reassessments
- Plautus’s Dramatic Predecessors and Contemporaries in Rome
- Plautus and Terence in Performance
- Metrics and Music
- Prologue(s) and <i>Prologi</i>
- Between Two Paradigms: Plautus
- The Terentian Reformation: From Menander to Alexandria
- The Language of the <i>Palliata</i>
- Tragedy, Paratragedy, and Roman Comedy
- Roman Comedy and the Social Scene
- Law and Roman Comedy
- Religion in Roman Comedy
- The Transmission of Aristophanes<span display="print">*</span>
- Later Greek Comedy in Later Antiquity
- The Rebirth of a Codex: Virtual Work on the Ambrosian Palimpsest of Plautus1
- The Transmission of Terence
- Graphic Comedy: Menandrian Mosaics and Terentian Miniatures
- Greek Comedy, the Novel, and Epistolography
- Roman Comedy in the Second Sophistic
- The Reception of Plautus in Antiquity
- Aelius Donatus and His Commentary on Terence’s Comedies
- Appendices
- Post-Menandrian Comic Poets: An Overview of the Evidence and a Checklist
- Index
