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The ancient Roman theatre was, in many respects, the natural outgrowth of the ancient Greek theatre that came before it, though it differed in many fundamental ways, and served a fundamentally different purpose.

The Roman playhouse incorporated the elements of the Greek ampitheatres: the stadium seating optimized for accoustics, the orchestra area which was used primarily for the choral dancing, and the skene, or staging house, behind the orchestra, a wall with several doors through which actors could enter and exit. The area immediately in front of the skene, the protoskenion, was developed more fully, and took on its Latin name that survives to this day: proscenium.

So while the elements of the Greek and Roman theatre designs were similar, how they were put together was much different. The Greeks took advantage of hillsides other natural features to created the playing space; the Romans relied solely on their engineering prowess, constructing the first theatre buildings. And whereas each element in the Greek theatre was a stand alone piece - the orchestra, skene and audience areas all developed separately, the Romans unified the elements, physically connecting one part with the other, drawing actor and audience closer together, and giving rise to a more intimate, collaborative experience.

We know very little about the plays of ancient Rome, about as much as we do about the plays of ancient Greece. We know that Greek plays were often "Italinised" and presented (sometimes in crudely bastardized reproductions), but there were also Roman playwrights, who both adapted Greek works and created works of their own. While there may have been a great many playwrights, we only have the work of three: Plautus and Terrence, who wrote comedies, and Seneca, who wrote tragedies.

The Roman period was also a time where theatre and drama as we understand the terms today began to spread, with theatres built across the Roman empire, and smaller groups of traveling players beginning to ply their trade. It is also the point where performance as a larger concept took hold. The spectacles in the Coliseums often had dramatic elements incorporated into them, and the very nature of the Roman political system lent itself well to theatrics in speeches from Senators and Emperors alike.

Perhaps the most important distinction between Greek and Roman drama was in its purpose. For the Greeks, going to a day of plays was a religious experience. It was timed with religious festivals, the stage designed to accommodate an altar, and the performance itself the maturation of rituals designed to honour Dionysus and other gods.

In the Roman period the purpose of theatre shifted from religious obligation to mass entertainment. It was all a part of the "bread and circuses" meant to keep the populace from worrying too much about the affairs of the state, and rather than worrying about satisfying the tastes of the gods the Roman theatre was more concerned with the tastes of the audience, no matter how vulgar or violent they may have been.

Learn more about this author, Eric Goudie.
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