The Ancient Greek Chorus in Historical Context | Paradise by Kae Tempest | National Theatre

Summary

Dr. Lucy Jackson explores the ancient Greek chorus, a group of 12-15 male performers integral to Greek drama. She explains the chorus's evolution from a central role to a supporting one, yet still influential in shaping the play's narrative. The chorus not only commented on the action but also physically interacted with characters, provided crucial information, and through their songs and dances, evoked a sense of familiarity and irony for the audience, connecting the stage to their everyday lives.

Takeaways

• 🎭 The ancient Greek chorus was a group of 12 to 15 people who played a significant role in Greek drama, often consisting of local residents, attendants, or friends of the main characters.
• 🏛️ The chorus was not just a background element but was central to the drama, providing immediacy and context to the stories and myths being performed.
• 👤 The concept of the chorus can be traced back to the dithyramb, a performance tradition where myth was related by a group of performers.
• 🎭 The role of the chorus evolved over time, with individual characters becoming more prominent in driving the action of the play.
• 💡 Despite the evolution, the chorus remained an innovative element in Greek drama, used by poets for dramatic effects even after the deaths of Aeschylus, Euripides, and Sophocles.
• 💰 The chorus was often the most expensive part of a production, involving multiple performers, costumes, props, and specialized training.
• 🌐 The chorus was physically active on stage, interacting with characters and even driving the action of the drama, contrary to the common misconception that they only commented on the action.
• 🎵 The chorus performed odes that were connected to the plot and used familiar imagery, tunes, and rhythms to resonate with the audience on a personal level.
• 🎭 The chorus could profoundly shape the course of action in a play, providing crucial information, setting off events, and influencing the outcome.
• 👥 The chorus in Greek tragedy often acted as a character with its own motivations, backstory, and development throughout the drama.
• 🌐 The chorus provided a poetic counterpoint to the action, connecting the world of the play to the world outside through familiar songs and ritual utterances.

Q & A

What is the role of the chorus in ancient Greek theatre?

The chorus in ancient Greek theatre was a group of 12 to 15 people who were integral to the performance, often playing local residents or friends of named characters. They were not merely commentators but active participants who could drive the action, provide crucial information, and physically interact with characters on stage.

Who was the first actor in ancient Greek theatre according to some scholars?

Thespis is often hailed as the first actor and the inventor of tragedy, based on very slim evidence and the name given to the individual who separated from the chorus to initiate dialogue in Greek drama.

What was the dithyramb and how did it relate to the development of Greek tragedy?

The dithyramb was a kind of song and dance where myth was related by a chorus of performers. Aristotle suggests that tragedy emerged when an individual separated from this chorus, allowing for a conversation between the individual and the chorus, marking the beginning of Greek tragedy.

How did the role of the chorus evolve from the time of Aeschylus to the time of Sophocles and Euripides?

Initially, Greek tragedy was predominantly choral, but as the fifth century progressed, individual characters became more prominent. However, the chorus continued to be innovative and valuable, playing a major role in Greek tragedy throughout the Classical period.

Why was the chorus considered an expensive part of a Greek theatrical production?

The chorus was expensive due to the need to pay 15 performers, provide costumes and props for each, hire a large rehearsal space, and engage specialist trainers for choral song and dance.

Can you provide an example of the chorus acting as a protagonist in a Greek tragedy?

In Aeschylus' 'Eumenides,' the chorus are the Furies, who are pursuing Orestes and drive the action of the drama, showing that the chorus can be a protagonist with its own motivations and development.

How did the chorus physically interact with characters in Greek tragedies?

In Sophocles' 'Oedipus at Colonus,' the chorus is shown to physically intervene by surrounding Antigone to protect her from Creon, indicating that the chorus was not just a commentary but an active participant in the drama.

What is the significance of the chorus's songs and dances in Greek tragedies?

The chorus's songs and dances, or odes, were connected to the plot and used imagery, tunes, rhythms, and prayers familiar to the audience from their own cultural practices, making the plays resonate on a personal level.

How did the chorus create ironic feelings in the audience?

Tragedians used the chorus to create ironic and complicated feelings by deploying traditional songs related to events like weddings or healing in contexts where these themes were subverted or problematic.

What is the modern relevance of the chorus in Greek tragedy as seen in Kae Tempest's rewriting of 'Philoctetes'?

In Kae Tempest's modern adaptation, the chorus is transformed into a community of women deeply rooted in the setting, providing a new way for contemporary audiences to connect with the chorus by exploring individual backstories and character development.

How did the chorus serve as a poetic counterpoint to the action in Greek tragedies?

The chorus provided a poetic counterpoint by summoning up the world beyond the play through familiar songs and ritual utterances, creating a connection between the drama and the audience's own experiences.

Outlines

00:00

🎭 Introduction to the Ancient Greek Chorus

Dr. Lucy Jackson introduces the ancient Greek chorus, explaining its historical context and role in Greek drama. She discusses the chorus as a group of 12 to 15 male performers who were integral to the plays, contrasting them with the individual tragic characters like Oedipus, Antigone, and Medea. The chorus, she notes, was not just a backdrop but the heart of the drama, providing immediacy to the audience's lives. She also touches on the origins of Greek drama, suggesting that it evolved from the dithyramb, a choral performance tradition, and mentions Aristotle's 'Poetics' as a primary source of information on the subject. Dr. Jackson highlights the evolution of the chorus's role from a central figure to a supporting one as Greek drama developed.

05:00

💃 The Chorus as a Dramatic Element

This section delves into the practical and artistic significance of the chorus in ancient Greek drama. Dr. Jackson points out that the chorus was not just a commentator but an active participant that could drive the action, as seen in Aeschylus' 'Eumenides' where the chorus are protagonists. She also discusses the financial implications of the chorus, noting the costs associated with their presence, which underscores their value. The chorus's physical interactions with characters and their role in providing crucial information are highlighted, using examples from Sophocles' 'Oedipus at Colonus' and Euripides' 'Ion'. The section concludes by emphasizing the chorus's ability to shape the narrative through their actions and inactions, and their use of songs and dances that resonated with the audience's cultural experiences.

10:02

🎶 The Chorus's Poetic and Emotional Impact

Dr. Jackson explores the emotional and poetic role of the chorus in Greek tragedy. She discusses how the chorus's songs and dances, known as odes, were connected to the plot and the audience's cultural practices. The chorus used familiar imagery, tunes, and rhythms to evoke personal and communal experiences, making the plays resonate on a deeper level. She provides examples of how playwrights like Euripides and Sophocles used the chorus to create irony and complex emotions, such as in 'Hippolytus' and 'Oedipus the King'. The section concludes by considering the relevance of the chorus in modern adaptations, using Kae Tempest's rewriting of 'Philoctetes' as an example of how the chorus can be reimagined to connect with contemporary audiences.

Keywords

💡Ancient Greek Chorus

The Ancient Greek Chorus refers to a group of 12 to 15 people in ancient Greek drama who played a significant role in the performance. They were often local residents or friends of the main characters and were always played by male performers. The chorus was integral to the drama, providing commentary, participating in the action, and connecting the story to the audience's own experiences through song and dance. In the script, Dr. Lucy Jackson explains that the chorus was not just a background element but was central to the drama, contributing to the immediacy of the stories being told.

💡Tragedy

Tragedy is a genre of drama that originated in ancient Greece and is characterized by serious, often somber themes, and usually involves a downfall or catastrophe that leads to the protagonist's destruction. In the script, Greek tragic theatre is highlighted for its ability to present complex and elemental characters such as Oedipus, Antigone, and Medea. The chorus plays a crucial role in these tragedies, often driving the action and providing commentary on the events.

💡Dithyramb

Dithyramb was a kind of song and dance performed by a chorus in ancient Greece, where myth was related through their performance. According to Aristotle's 'Poetics', tragedy evolved from the dithyramb when an individual separated from the chorus, initiating a conversation between the individual and the chorus. This separation marked the beginning of drama as we know it, with the individual becoming the protagonist and the chorus providing context and commentary.

💡Aeschylus

Aeschylus was an ancient Greek playwright who lived in the first half of the fifth century BCE and is considered one of the great tragedians, along with Sophocles and Euripides. He is noted for transforming tragedy from being predominantly choral to more spoken, with individual characters becoming more prominent. In the script, Dr. Jackson mentions Aeschylus as a key figure in the evolution of Greek tragedy.

💡Euripides

Euripides was another of the great ancient Greek tragedians. His plays are known for their complex characters and often controversial themes. In the script, Euripides' play 'Ion' is used as an example where the chorus plays a pivotal role by providing the queen with crucial information that sets off a chain of events.

💡Sophocles

Sophocles was a playwright from the 5th century BCE, known for his contributions to the development of Greek tragedy. His plays often deal with fate and free will. In the script, 'Oedipus at Colonus' is mentioned, where the chorus physically intervenes to protect a character, demonstrating their active role in the drama.

💡Odes

Odes, or stasima, are the songs performed by the chorus in Greek drama. These songs are connected to the plot and often use imagery, tunes, and rhythms familiar to the audience. In the script, Dr. Jackson explains how odes allowed the chorus to create a connection between the drama and the audience's own experiences, as most major life events were celebrated with communal singing and dancing.

💡Irony

Irony is a rhetorical device, literary technique, or event in which what appears, on the surface, is contrary to what is actually the case. In the context of the script, Dr. Jackson discusses how tragedians used the chorus to create ironic and complicated feelings in the audience. For example, in 'Hippolytus', traditional wedding songs are used by the chorus to highlight the distorted views on marriage within the play.

💡Kae Tempest

Kae Tempest is a contemporary playwright and performer who has reimagined Sophocles' 'Philoctetes'. In the script, Dr. Jackson refers to Tempest's work as an exploration of how the chorus can resonate with modern audiences. Tempest transforms the chorus from male soldiers to a community of women, providing a new perspective and connection to the characters and themes of the play.

💡Aristotle's Poetics

Aristotle's Poetics is a work that has significantly influenced Western literary theory and criticism. It is the earliest surviving work to focus on literary theory and it is where Aristotle discusses the origins of tragedy. In the script, Dr. Jackson mentions the Poetics as a source of information about the development of Greek drama, although she also notes its limitations due to its patchy and unclear nature.

Highlights

The ancient Greek chorus was a group of 12 to 15 people with a reason to be in the time and place of each play.

The chorus was played by male performers in ancient Greek times.

The chorus was the beginning of drama and the center of everything in ancient Greek theatre.

Aristotle's 'Poetics' is a key source for understanding the origins of Greek drama.

Tragedy emerged from the dithyramb, a performance tradition involving a myth-telling chorus.

Thespis is often hailed as the first actor and inventor of tragedy.

Aeschylus was the first to make tragedies more spoken than choral.

The chorus continued to be innovative in fourth-century BCE Greek drama.

The chorus was a major and valued element in Greek tragedy throughout the Classical period.

The chorus in Greek tragedy does more than just comment on the action; they can be protagonists.

The chorus can physically interact with characters on stage.

The chorus can provide crucial information to characters and set off a chain reaction of events.

The chorus can profoundly shape the course of action in a play through their speech and silence.

The chorus in tragedy would have had an additional power through their songs and dances.

The chorus's songs were connected to the plot and would have resonated with the audience's lived experiences.

Tragedians used the chorus to create deliberately ironic and complicated feelings in their audiences.

The chorus brought spectacle, song, and dance to the production, acting as characters in their own right.

The chorus provided a poetic counterpoint to the action, summoning up the world beyond the play for the audience.

Kae Tempest's rewriting of Sophocles' Philoctetes explores the modern relevance of the chorus.

Transcripts

- I'm Dr. Lucy Jackson

and I'm Assistant Professor in Ancient Greek Literature

at Durham University.

I'm going to be talking to you a little bit

about the ancient Greek chorus,

its context, and some of its history.

When we think of Greek plays,

the Greeks, as actors often refer to them,

our first thoughts might well be of brilliant,

terrifying, and, well, tragic individual characters.

Oedipus.

The poor guy that was told he would kill his father

and marry his mother and, despite his best efforts,

ended up doing it anyway.

Antigone, a young woman, a girl,

probably only 13 or 14,

who defies the law laid down by her uncle

and performs the necessary funeral rites

for her brother, an enemy of the state.

For this supposed crime

she is sentenced to death.

Or Medea, a woman so heartbroken

and enraged by the behavior of her husband, Jason,

that she enacts a horrific, self-defeating revenge,

murdering her and Jason's children.

Greek tragic theatre excels

in presenting these complex and elemental figures.

But there is something else that appears

in every single ancient Greek drama,

a chorus.

A group of between 12 and 15 people

who have some reason to be in the time and place

of each play, local residents, attendants

or friends of one of the named characters.

In ancient Greek times,

this group would have always been played

by male performers.

Understanding what and who the chorus is,

and how they add to and shape the performance

of ancient Greek theatre

can often be a challenge for contemporary audiences.

On the one hand, we're used to seeing choral groups,

choirs of singers, the choruses of opera

if opera's your bag, musical choruses

when the stage is flooded with a bunch of people

singing and dancing in unison,

perhaps the corps in ballet,

or banks of unison dancers behind artists

like Beyonce at Coachella.

Often these groups are in the background,

and they're frequently regarded as far less important

than the stars of the show, the ballet, the opera,

the music video or concert.

But for the ancient Greeks,

the chorus was the beginning of drama,

the centre of everything,

and the feature of drama that gave the stories

and myths that were played out on stage

an immediacy to their own lives.

We know very little about how ancient Greek drama

came into being.

We rely on a few hastily written sentences

from Aristotle and his oft-quoted work, the Poetics.

As a side note, I find it mildly horrifying to think

Aristotle never intended this work for publication.

It is so unclear and patchy,

and yet it has become the authoritative text

for so much of what is said and has been written

about European traditions of theatre.

But I digress.

In the Poetics, Aristotle tells us

that tragedy grew out of the performance tradition

known as the dithyramb.

This was a certain kind of song and dance

where myth was related by a chorus of performers.

Aristotle implies that tragedy was invented

when an individual separated themselves from this chorus,

allowing there to be a conversation

between this individual, and the myth-telling,

all-singing all-dancing group.

Later writers, on the basis of very slim evidence,

would give a name to this individual, Thespis,

often hailed as the first actor

and the inventor of tragedy.

He's the reason why we call those

of an actorly persuasion thespians.

Aristotle goes on to say that it was only with Aeschylus,

a playwright active during the first half

of the fifth century, that tragedies

became more spoken than choral,

that is, for a long time, Greek tragedy

seems to have consisted predominantly

of choral performance.

As the fifth century progressed,

so Aristotle says,

individual characters started to become

more and more prominent

and more responsible for driving the action of the play.

We might be tempted to extrapolate

from Aristotle's account of the development of tragedy

that as the art form became more sophisticated,

and also more and more popular,

we have evidence for ancient Greek drama

being performed in northern Africa, in Sicily,

and as far north and east as Odessa

in modern-day Ukraine.

So with this sophistication and increased popularity,

individual actors became more important,

while the chorus had its role cut down

and their significance for the play reduced.

Many august and well-respected scholars

have said as much,

talking about the steady decline

in the importance of the chorus in Greek drama.

However, there is a ton of evidence

from the fourth-century BCE,

the century following the deaths

of the great tragedians Aeschylus, Euripides,

and Sophocles, that the chorus continued

to be an innovative element,

deployed by poets for stunning dramatic effects.

Aside from artistic interpretation, money talks,

the chorus, then as now,

might often be the most expensive element in a production.

15 salaries, although we're not quite sure

how ancient choral performers were paid,

15 sets of costumes and props,

hiring a big enough area to rehearse so large a group,

the time to rehearse music and choreography,

hiring specialist trainers of choral song and dance.

The resources put into staging the chorus

in Classical Greece demonstrate

that it was always a valuable and valued part

of the theatrical production.

The chorus then was a major element in Greek tragedy,

throughout the Classical period

in the ancient Greek world.

But what is it that the chorus

of Greek drama actually does?

We may have heard, and it is often said,

that the chorus are there to comment

on the action of the play.

The chorus in Greek tragedy, however,

contrary to what many of us are told,

do a great deal more than just comment.

An extreme example of this

is the chorus of Aeschylus to play Eumenides.

This is the third in a trilogy of plays,

known as the Orestia.

In that third and final play,

the chorus are the Furies,

female spirits of vengeance

who are pursuing the Prince of Mycenae, Orestes,

punishing him for the crime of murdering his own mother.

Here then, the chorus is a protagonist,

driving the action of the drama

and only allowing it to end

when their claim for retribution

or restitution has been met in some way.

The chorus of tragedy can get physical

with characters on stage.

In Sophocles' last play, Oedipus at Colonus,

produced posthumously in 401 BCE,

the chorus appear to surround Oedipus' daughter Antigone

in an attempt to protect her from Creon,

who's come to find and take her by force back to Thebes.

We have to infer some of this physical activity

from the text.

The texts of Greek tragedies don't include stage directions.

But it is clear that the chorus are physically intervening

on behalf of Antigone and her aged father, Oedipus.

A chorus of tragedy can also be responsible

for giving characters crucial information

and setting off a chain reaction of other events.

In a play by Euripides, the Ion,

the chorus hear of a plot to install

a new prince at Athens,

and tell their queen, Creusa,

warning her that she is about to be duped by this plot.

With this knowledge, Creusa then plans

to murder this new prince,

who is, in fact, unbeknownst to her, her own son,

the eponymous Ion of the play.

Disaster does not quite ensue,

but here we see again that the chorus

profoundly shapes the course of action in a play.

At other times, their speech and silence

likewise allows certain, usually tragic, action

to come to pass.

In Euripides' Medea, the chorus have heard

of Medea's plan to kill her own children

but don't tell anyone who might be able

to prevent this awful act.

This is a decision

and not some inevitable by-product

of theatrical convention

that the chorus doesn't intervene.

We've seen in Eumenides that they can and do intervene.

These are just a few examples of how the chorus

in Greek tragedy often acts as a character

in its own right, with its own motivation,

backstory, character,

and development throughout the drama.

For the ancient Greeks, the chorus in tragedy

would have had an additional power,

one that is less accessible for us today.

In every play, the chorus sing and dance

what we call odes, songs, or stasima,

if you're using the technical term.

These songs will have been connected to the plot,

although these connections are sometimes

deliciously and poetically suggestive

rather than directly relevant.

But the songs would also have deployed imagery,

tunes, rhythms, and even prayers,

that the audience would recognize

from their own song and dance practice

outside of the theatre.

For the ancient Greeks, every major event in life

was celebrated by coming together with others

to sing and dance traditional songs.

When a baby was born, at marriages, and funerals,

and celebrations of war victory, athletic victory,

and festivals for the gods.

Most people, whatever their innate

musical and dancing ability,

would participate in these songs,

these choruses, throughout their lives.

Tragedians like Aeschylus, Euripides, and Sophocles

made sure to capitalize on their audience's lived experience

outside of the theatre, to make their plays

resonate on a personal,

as well as universal or political level.

Tragedians being what they are, of course,

they use their choruses to create

deliberately ironic complicated feelings in their audiences.

In Euripides' Hippolytus,

whose central figure is a young man

who has no interest in getting married,

but whose stepmother has been cruelly struck

by Cupid's arrow and has the hots for her stepson,

the poet deploys traditional wedding songs

in the choral odes, just to turn the knife

and highlight just how screwed up

the figures in this play are when it comes to marriage.

Or if we look at the chorus in Sophocles' masterpiece,

Oedipus the King,

the chorus frequently call on the god Apollo for help,

using refrains from a specific genre of choral song,

the paean, a healing song,

that was dedicated to Apollo.

When the play opens,

with Thebes in the midst of a deadly plague,

a chorus appealing to Apollo with such a song

is absolutely appropriate.

Perhaps we, plague-ridden as we still are,

should try singing a paean or two.

But the choruses refrain of 'o paean'

is also deeply ironic when we, the audience, recognize

that the god Apollo is responsible

for all the mess that Oedipus is in,

and the mess that will be revealed to him

over the course of the play.

These are some of the aspects

of the ancient Greek chorus

that made it an invaluable element

in the creation of powerful dramatic works of art

in ancient Greece.

They brought spectacle, song, and dance to the production,

they acted as characters in their own right,

and they provided a poetic counterpoint to the action,

summoning up for the audience

the world that existed beyond the world of the play

in the form of familiar songs and ritual utterances.

But what can the chorus say and do for us now

in the modern world?

Kae Tempest's rewriting of Sophocles' Philoctetes

gives us a brilliant exploration of this question.

In the play, the chorus has been transformed

from the male soldiers of the original

into a community of women who are deeply rooted

in the place where the play is set,

only referred to as the island.

In the snapshots that we see of individual characters,

their individual backstories,

plot arcs, hopes for the future,

the injuries and disappointments of the past,

Kae Tempest has found a different way

for modern audiences

to connect with this 'other' character

of Greek tragedy, its chorus.