History of Dramatic Literature The Chorus

Writing Fellows Student

November 6, 2013

The very first ancient Greek tragedies and dramatic performances originally revolved around the
chorus completely to tell the story and provoke the emotional catharsis that tragedy provokes. Even
when actors were added to tragedies to add an element of authenticity to theatres mimic of real life,
the plot of all Greek tragedies continued to rely on the chorus to provide valuable insight to a situation,
manipulate the actors actions, and even carry along the plot itself by collectively participating in the
action instead of just spectating. In Simon Goldhills chapter on the chorus in his book How to Stage
Greek Tragedy Today, Goldhill discusses the disconnect between the relevance of the chorus in ancient
tragedies and their relevance in modern productions. He argues that, while it is a somewhat outdated
concept in modern theatre in the way it existed in ancient times of tragedy, no Greek tragedy can be
complete without a chorus. The question therefore becomes, how can a chorus be incorporated in a
modernized production while still remaining relevant to that specific modernization without becoming
an entity that only spews dry wisdom at the audience in between the action? The chorus will always be
an integral part of Greek tragedy, but staging a chorus in a way that keeps their character types relevant
to a particular modern production is especially difficult.
In terms of modern theatre, we have become used to the absence of a chorus. Plays exist with
no third party group commenting on the action between scenes, so seeing productions of Greek
tragedies that have remained traditional in that respect can be rather strange. Often the chorus is
comprised of a group of people involved in the action, to some degree, who are meant to represent the
citizens as a whole or the whole town. Goldhill says that for a modern audience. . . a single person can

represent the ideal spectator or the citizen view more easily than a group1 since modern audiences are
much more accustomed to singular, individual characters as opposed to a large group that moves,
speaks, and thinks as one. Another aspect of the ancient chorus that would be poorly received by a
modern audience is the tradition of their near constant singing and dancing. Almost all of the chorus
lines in an ancient Greek text are intended to be sung by the group, and traditionally, the chorus would
be dancing almost entirely throughout the play. In contemporary theatre, these things rarely happen in
serious, non-musical theatre productions. It would be strange to us to have a random dance number
every time the chorus came on stage, and make it difficult to take the play seriously. Again, the chorus
can be strange to a modern audience when their role in society has little significance in a modernized
production. When the director of a production chooses to set an ancient Greek tragedy in a more
contemporary setting, attempting what Goldhill refers to as timelessness, a chorus of Asian serving
women or elderly men seems out of place. The way the choral parts are written in Greek tragedies can
come off in modern productions in performance as too long, dry, boring interjections of wisdom from a
completely random bunch of people who are not exactly characters in the story themselves. Staging a
chorus in a modernized production in an effective way is very complicated and difficult, and Goldhill is
able to offer many examples of specific productions that got it wrong. Solving these problems, however,
is vital to tragedy, since the story cannot effectively exist without the chorus. Whether they are a group
of citizens making sense of the action or a group directly involved with the characters, the chorus is a
huge requirement in any version of a Greek tragedy.
Solving the problem of making a chorus relevant to a modern audience depends largely on the
play being performed, since some choruses are more noticeably vital than others. In Aeschyluss
Oresteia, three completely different choruses exist to progress the plot in varying degrees of
intervention on their part. The chorus of Agamemnon is made up of the Argive elders who begin the
1

Simon Goldhill, The Chorus in How to Stage Greek Tragedy Today, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press), 53.

play by summarizing the events that led to Agamemnons return from war. The information they convey
in these speeches is important to understand Clytemestras motives for killing her husband,
Agamemnons motives for killing their daughter, and explaining how all the characters arrived at this
precise moment in time. The speeches are also ungodly long and difficult to understand at times. In this
respect, a chorus could easily lose the audiences understanding and attention when what they have to
say is fundamental to following the plot of the rest of the play. It becomes especially important in a play
like Agamemnon to stage the choral odes in such a way that they seem more like dialogue than a
monologue performed by a large group all at once. Breaking up the speech between individual members
of the chorus is one way that Goldhill suggests, making them seem to the audience less like a faceless
mass of incomprehensible wise old men.
In contrast to the chorus of Agamemnon, the chorus of the Eumenides is directly involved in the
plot of the play, making them inherently more understandable as a required element of the play. The
furies of the Eumenides inherently solve many of the problems a modern audience could have with a
chorus staged in a traditional manner. First, it makes complete sense that they travel in a pack: they all
have exactly the same goals and motivations in the play. Second, the bulk of the actual speaking is done
by the chorus leader, the head furie, making it less necessary to divide the speech among the individuals
in the chorus. Third, they are entirely mythological beings, so if they decide to jump around the stage
and dance or sing their parts or whatever other actions the director chooses, it will be easier to accept
than if a group of plain old human women started singing and dancing for no good reason. The furies
have a clear and present purpose for being in the play; there is no question of their relevance, so staging
a chorus such as this becomes much simpler and allows the director to take liberties otherwise
impossible with a different type of chorus.
Sadie,

You have a very strong paper here. Your organization is well done and you have plenty of ideas
to work with. However, your thesis statement seems to be missing one piece HOW you can still stage a
play today with a chorus and not make it weird or awkward. Just saying its difficult doesnt seem to fully
envelop your papers ideas (because at the end, youre talking about how Eumenides got it right).
However, we can talk this through in our conference.
I feel as though you may be able to split your first body paragraph into two paragraphs because
you start on the idea of us being used to no chorus but ends by saying a chorus is a huge requirement.
That seemed to lack consistency, but breaking up the paragraph will definitely help. What you really
need to watch out for is stating your opinions without outside evidence to back it up. Use Goldhills many
ideas as examples whenever you need them! You dont have very many citations yet, so you have plenty
of room for them in your paper.
And remember, the paper needs to be 4-5 pages long. I think getting some outside quotes in will
help. Looking forward to meeting with you!
Jake