Seneca on the Stage

Description

In the absence of the stage directions employed by their modern equivalents, ancient playwrights were obliged to ''encode'' information into their texts that can be described as implicit stage directions. It is the presence of such information that permits modern ''production criticism, '' intended to determine how ancient plays were meant to be staged. Since the early nineteenth century, it has been debated whether Seneca's tragedies were or were not written for stage production. Seneca's dramatic texts contain material that looks precisely like the implicit stage directions found in all other ancient drama, and when his plays are subjected to production criticism, it emerges that they make sound dramaturgic sense. Also, Seneca avails himself of the same artificial and sometimes irrational dramatic conventions used by other ancient playwrights, a fact often ignored by those who argue that Seneca was only writing plays for reading or recitation. The internal evidence of the plays offers much to support, and little to contradict, the idea that his plays were written with the stage in mind SENECA ON THE STAGE CONTENTS Acknowledgements Introduction PART ONE: USE OF THE THEATER AND ITS RESOURCES I. Use of Dramatic Space and the Scaenae Frons II. Scenic Features A. The Stage Door B. The Interior of the Stage Building C. The Roof of the Stage Building D. Interior Scenes E. The Altar F. The Trap Door G. Other Possible Features III. Scenic Effects IV. Dramatic Time V. The Actors A. Disposition of Roles B. Mutes, Extras, and Children VI. The Chorus A. Identity B. Onstage Presence C. Secondary Choruses PART TWO: IMPLICIT STAGE DIRECTIONS Introduction The Plays Hercules Furens Troades Medea Phaedra Oedipus Agamemno Thyestes Hercules Oetaeus Phoenissae Conclusion Appendix I: Artificial Blood in the Roman theater Appendix II: Use of the Two-Building ''Set'' in the Medea Index Locorum