Staging Greek Tragedy

One serious problem faced by all modern directors is how to make Greek drama conform to modern stage spaces. This problem was accute in the case of 19th-century theaters, when excessive devotion to the idea of the inviolable proscenium posed a problem for the placement of the chorus. In the photograph below, one sees how the ancient Athenian theater of Dionysus is largely focused on the orkhestra, the "dancing ground" occupied by the chorus after their entrance (parodos). Though most of the stone ruins in this picture are Hellenistic or Roman in origin, the basic shape of the theater conforms to that of the 5th-century BCE performance space used by the great tragedians, including Sophocles. (Image 20) In the photographs of the Comédie Française production, one can see the 19th-century expedient of slimming down the chorus to a few speaking parts, while compensating for this depletion of the spectacle by means of a large cast of silent extras arranged behind and to the sides of the actors, thus providing a human backdrop to the action. This is the opposite arrangement from the ancient theater, where the actors were positioned behind the chorus; the chorus thus provided a degree of aesthetic mediation between the audience and the protagonist.
In the photograph below, one can see a serious problem that can develop on a stage that lacks the depth of the ancient arrangement. This is a production of Oedipus Rex done in California at the "Greek Theater" in Berkeley in 1910. It is an outdoor theater with a Doric façade, which for the time made it a "Greek" theater. But the height of the stage creates an awkward relationship between the actors and the chorus, who are necessarily tucked to one side. Notice how the space that would be the ancient orkhestra is occupied by its modern namesake: the orchestra.
(Image 21)
The production of Oedipe Roi at Orange, in spite of being in an ancient theater, deviated from ancient practice in a very important way: it was performed at night with electric lighting, thus wedding the ancient outdoor playing space with the lighting conventions of the modern indoor theater. The theater's semi-ruined state lent itself to interesting effects in the performance, and the towering scaenae frons or scenic façade made a more convincing palace. However, such massive stone constructions were a feature of Roman theater design and were not to be found in the 5th-century Athenian theater of Dionysus. Though Mounet-Sully had hoped to perform Oedipus on the site of the theater of Dionysus, in the end the production was put on at the Dimotiko Theatro, a 19th-century building.

Like the production at Orange, Max Reinhardt's Oedipus also made considerable use of modern lighting; his spectacular crowd scenes have more in common with the 19th-century crowds of extras than with the ancient chorus. His desire to stage Oedipus in larger spaces like circuses did create larger audiences for the work than those found in the theaters of the time, but at most the number of spectators for the Reinhardt productions was around 5,000. By contrast, the capacity of the ancient theater of Dionysus in Athens in the 5th century BCE was around 17,000.