An introduction to The History Of European Theatre Podcast

Episode 1

An Introduction to the podcast and your host.

Pre-history and how the urge to mimic and present might have been the start of theatre.

Religious ritual and Shamanism.

The Abydos Passion play and the Egyptian Book of the Dead.

The beginning of Greek Theatre.

A note on dates and the nature of translations.

Episode 2

An overview of the history of Greece to the 5th Century BCE including Minoan and Mycenaean periods, the Greek dark age and the rise of the city state.

The development of the religious festivals and their main features

An overview of the main playwrights and their plays:

Aeschylus

Sophocles

Euripides

Aristophanes

Menander

Episode 3

The vocabulary of the theatre we inherit from the Greeks

The layout of the Theatre of Dionysus in Athens and it's main features

Developments in the theatre over time

The Chorus

Stage Machinery

Masks and costume

The judging and prizes

Episode 4

The situation of Athens at the time of the first extant tragedies.

The very earliest dramatists and the little we know of them

The life of Aeschylus including his service in the Persian Wars

His earliest surviving play 'The Persians'

Episode 5

A detailed review of Agamemnon, the first part of The Oresteia trilogy by Aeschylus

Episode 6

A detailed review of The Libation Bearers and Eumenides, the second and third part of The Oresteia trilogy by Aeschylus

Episode 7

The life of Sophocles almost spanned the 5th Century BCE and included events from the defeat of the Persian invasion to the relentless grind of the Peloponnesian wars. We look at his life and times and get an overview of the surviving plays and theatrical innovations the he created.