Comparison of Classical and Contemporary Theatre & Performances

The Greek arenas were built on hills to allow the sits to be curved in so that people could sit and hills increased the sitting capacity while making it possible for them to curve the stones. Modern theatres are built on flat ground mainly in towns because transport is more accessible and we no longer need the sound benefits of building our theatres on hills. Modern theatres also have a roof over them for better insulation and to allow the shows to be put up all year round because the weather can cause shows to be postponed even worse in this country where its just about always raining.

The masks were a huge part of the original performances because there was a large audience and the actors facial expressions would have not been enough. We did not use masks for our production however we did use them in the workshop for classical theatre.Athens capacity was 14000 which was also part of the genius architectural design they had going on where in our performance we had less than hundred people in the audience. For our performance we did not have food thrown at us by the audience which is something that would have been normal back in the ancient Greek theatre production.

The number of people attending the theatre has significantly dropped because people now have different ways to access entertainment for example the media plays a big part of how we receive our entertainment which is something they did not have access to back in the Greek days. People can use the internet or television to access entertainment or attend sporting events like football matches.

Women and working class people can now attend the theatre and can also act. this was something that was not accessible to the Greek society but society has now changed and the introduction of human rights means that the female and working class can enjoy theatre. This is another difference between our production and how it would have been originally performed as we had a mixture of audience and female actors.

The theatre productions were used as part of the entertainment in the celebration of the gods back in the Greek days. Religion played a big part in their society in contrast to the modern British society therefore the plays had a lot of religious influence which explains the trend of having the protagonist trying to restore the law of the gods in the dysfunctioning  family. Modern theatres don't tend to put up productions that have a huge religious influence because religion is dwindling in the United Kingdom therefore they would not get a big turn up to see the film which affects the sales and profit the theatre would make.

Another difference from the original performance of Electra back in Athens to our production is the comfort of the seats provided. Back in the Greek society people did not have to pay to enter the theatre whereas nowadays one has to pay to enter the theatre. The rise of the entry requirements to see theatre has enabled theatres to increase the comfort for their customers in contrast to the original performances where they had stone sits.

There are numerous differences between classical and modern theatres however there are some things we have kept from the Greek for example most theatre settings are semi circle shaped which helps improve the acoustics in the theatre.