WORLD THEATRE TRADITIONS
roman comedy
Roman theatre began as a
translation of Greek forms in
combination with native song
and dance, farce and
improvisation.
In Roman hands, the
materials of Greek masters
were converted to stock
characters, plots and
situations that we can
recognize in Shakespeare
and even modern sit-coms.
The jokes were coarse and
rude and made fun of well-
known people. They
became so slanderous and
obscene at one point that a
PRESENTATION ARTICLE
law was passed to retrain
Roman Comedy: Roman Comedy
them.
Plautus Pseudolus Part 2 (Terence)
The masks were made of
The only complete Romans
stiffened cloth, wood or
Comic plays that we have are
terracotta and were usually
twenty plays by Plautus and six
cheap. They had wide open
plays by Terence - they were
mouths to help project the
influenced by the Latin and
ARTICLE actor’s voice to the back of
Greek traditions of comic
Roman Comedy the theatre.
writing.
Part 1 (Plautus)
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