This course traces the history of Western theatre from its Greek origins to the beginning of the eighteenth century in England and France, with specific references to the plays in a core anthology, The Harcourt Brace Anthology of Drama.
It provides an analysis of individual plays as theatre and as literature, and includes brief background notes on the authors and on the significance of the plays in the context of Western theatre. It traces the common elements of drama from ritualistic and ceremonial dance and song, through the liturgical drama of the Middle Ages, English Renaissance tragedy and tragi-comedy, French neo-classical comedy and tragedy, and the social comedy of the Restoration. It also shows the development of the theatre as a physical structure, from the early Greek open air amphitheatres to the modified tennis courts in London, investigating the relationship of the physical theatre and the structure and style of the drama.
