The Restoration was describes the era coinciding with the return of the monarchy in Britain (with King Charles II) when theatre, previously banned by Oliver Cromwell and his Puritan philosophy that frowned upon carnal desires (such as theatre), returned. The plays from this time show this return of fun to the world, often providing rude...
- Primitive Theatre and Rituals - Pre-History
Antigone by Sophocles is our first extract for the first scripted performance of our theatre studies A-Level. It is the last of the Three Theban Plays, a series of tragedies written by Greek playwright Sophocles in the 5th century BCE. The trilogy follows a connected story of a family and focuses on the theme of fate and divine law.
ANTIGONE - by Sophocles
Antigone is the daughter of the King Oedipus and his mother, Jocasta - in this tragedy, she witnesses her brothers fight for the throne that results in one of their deaths. The play is an allegory to warn against pride.
Shakespeare wrote in the Elizabethan and Jacobean period, at the height of the Renaissance, and lived between 1564 and 1616. He was a playwright and poet and wrote countless pieces, and was possibly the most influential and well-known artist of all time - he requires very little of an introduction for most. He wrote tragedies, comedies, and...
As theatre evolved from the ancient world of Greco-Roman civilisation in Europe (not forgetting the course of development through Africa, Asia and America), chorus became less popular and dialogue more prevalent, with song, dance and accompanying music present.
'Metamorphosis' was originally a novella written by Franz Kafka and published in 1915, which was later adapted by Steven Berkoff into a play and first performed in 1969, through his own specific style of total theatre that has left him as a widely recognised practitioner to this day. The play tells the story of a Gregor Samsa, an overworked...
Greek theatre is the first recorded form of theatre in human history, and began out of oral tradition, poetry and chants to eventually become the Greek tragedies and comedies of the ancient world.
To start the A-Level course, we looked at the most primitive forms of theatre, and explored, through practical work, the need for communication that spurred on the creation of performance.
The following is a review written for the Leopard magazine of Mnemonic, performed at the National Theatre in the 2024 Summer, by devising practitioner Complicite.