Roman Theatre

Question 1

Name two of Rome’s most famous play writes

Answer 1

Plautus and Terence

Question 2

Who were the Romans greatly inspired by theatre wise

Answer 2

The greeks

Question 3

Name the 5 commonly used stock characters in plays

Answer 3

• The Clever Slave
• The Grumpy Father
• The Young Master
• The Arrogant Soldier
• The Cook

Question 4

What was the most common setting and key aspects of the Roman plays?

Answer 4

• Setting was nearly always Athens (allowing romans to mock the greeks)
• The key aspects of roman plays were commonly crude jokes, humour and slapstick action

Question 5

What enabled actors to play more than one role in a play and become caricatures of the character they were playing?

Answer 5

Masks (even allowing men to play the female roles as women were not allowed on stage)

Question 6

Audiences (who got in for free) to Roman plays would often get restless and when bored, what was the phrase often shouted and its meaning?

Answer 6

“We want bears! We want boxers!” meaning they wanted to see more action

Question 7

Were actors usually considered upper class or lower class men?

Answer 7

They were usually drawn from slaves and lower classes, they could be beaten or killed if acting was not up to standard and were denied Roman citizenship

Question 8

What was done to keep roman audiences comfortable during shows?

Answer 8

They often brought cushions to put on the 40cm wide seats, the had a large awning to provide shade and they were sprayed with scented water during intervals.