OLD COMEDY

The earliest Athenian comedy, from the 480s to 440s BCE, is almost entirely lost.

In order to impress the refined and cultured community of Athens in the democratic age of Pericles the dramatists of Old Comedy borrowed the features of tragedy; choral dances, masked actors, poetic meters, scenery and stage mechanics and then infuse them with pungent political satire, audacious personal invectives, and sexual and scatological innuendo.

The most important dramatist of the Old Comedy was Aristophanes.
Aristophanes lampooned the most influential personalities and institutions of his day, as can be seen in his buffoonish portrayal of Socrates in The Clouds, and in his anti-military farce Lysistrata.

He was accused by other poets of his time of trying to degrade Athenian society, but his thoughtful examination of politics and culture would ultimately prove their accusations inaccurate.

The legacy of Old Comedy can be seen in contemporary times in political satires such as Dr. Strangelove and in the televised buffoonery of Monty Python and Saturday Night Live.

BRIEF NOTES ON GREEK COMEDY PERFORMANCE

Actors were usually all men and played more than one role.
Tragedy leaned toward idealization; comedy toward burlesque.

The Chorus for Old Comedy was usually 24 people and made up of amateurs who were put through months of training.

Functions of the chorus included:
-giving advice, asking questions of character and audience
-establishing ethical framework
-"ideal spectator" reacting as playwright hopes the audience would
-adding movement, spectacle, song, and dance
-adding rhythm, pauses and pace to the action so that the audience can reflect.

Music was considered integral to performance.
No record of composers or quality of the sound exists.

Dance was usually mimetic, expressive of character or situation.
In comedy dancing was usually less dignified with more jumping, spinning, etc.

Costumes were adapted from everyday Greek life.
Chitons made too short to emphasize comic elements.
Male characters wore a phallus.
Slaves and old men wore comically exaggerated costume.
Comedy masks were stylized and varied and often resembled birds and animals. Not naturalistic.