154-594: Dundee Repertory Theatre , better known simply as the Dundee Rep , is a theatre and arts company in Dundee , Scotland . It operates as both a producing house with some shows co-produced by other theatres and a receiving house – hosting work from visiting companies throughout Scotland and the United Kingdom including drama , musicals , contemporary & classical dance , children's theatre, comedy , jazz and opera . It
308-671: A 1967 version starring Laurence Harvey as Leontes. An "orthodox" BBC production was televised in 1981. It was produced by Jonathan Miller , directed by Jane Howell and starred Robert Stephens as Polixenes and Jeremy Kemp as Leontes. Choreographer Christopher Wheeldon created a full-length ballet , with music by Joby Talbot , based on the play. The ballet is a co-production between The Royal Ballet and National Ballet of Canada , and premiered in Royal Opera House in London in 2014. In 2015, author Jeanette Winterson published
462-410: A collective form of reception. The structure of dramatic texts , unlike other forms of literature , is directly influenced by this collaborative production and collective reception. The early modern tragedy Hamlet (1601) by Shakespeare and the classical Athenian tragedy Oedipus Rex ( c. 429 BCE ) by Sophocles are among the masterpieces of the art of drama. A modern example
616-460: A happy ending . The play has been intermittently popular, having been revived in productions and adaptations by some of the leading theatre practitioners in Shakespearean performance history . In the mid-18th century, after a long interval without major performances, David Garrick premiered his adaptation Florizel and Perdita (first performed in 1753 and published in 1756). The Winter's Tale
770-624: A Scottish favourite and has been seen by more than 200,000 people. In 2013 a film version of the musical premiered at the Toronto Film Festival. A recent venture was the tour of its production of The Winter's Tale to Iran under the auspices of the British Council 's five-year initiative 'Connecting Futures'. This was the first major cultural event to be shown in Iran for 25 years, and the first ever British Council theatre tour to Iran. The set
924-507: A bear , presaging the offstage death of Antigonus. It is not known whether Shakespeare used a real bear from the London bear-pits or an actor in bear costume. The Admiral's Men , the rival playing company to the Lord Chamberlain's Men during the 1590s, are reported to have possessed "j beares skyne" among their stage properties in a surviving inventory dated March 1598. Perhaps a similar prop
1078-453: A brief period in the 13th century, the territories ruled by Ottokar II of Bohemia did stretch to the Adriatic, even though Bohemia strictly speaking did not; so that if one takes "Bohemia" to mean all of the territories ruled by Ottokar II, it would have been possible to sail from Sicily to the "seacoast of Bohemia". Jonathan Bate offers the simple explanation that the court of King James
1232-573: A cast featuring Simon Russell Beale (Leontes), Rebecca Hall (Hermione), Ethan Hawke (Autolycus), Sinéad Cusack (Paulina), and Morven Christie (Perdita). The Royal Shakespeare Company mounted the show. Theatre Delicatessen also staged productions of The Winter's Tale in 2009. The play is in the repertory of the Stratford Festival of Canada and was seen at the New York Shakespeare Festival , Central Park, in 2010. Last,
1386-635: A dance studio as well as extending its existing workshop, wardrobe and rehearsal capacity. In 1996 it received the prestigious TMA Martini Award for the Best Overall Production in the UK and in September 1999 it opened its doors to one of the most ambitious experiments in Scottish Theatre for many years – a permanent company of 14 actors. James Brining became artistic director in 2003 and during that time
1540-406: A dancing floor (orchestra), dressing room and scene-building area (skene). Since the words were the most important part, good acoustics and clear delivery were paramount. The actors (always men) wore masks appropriate to the characters they represented, and each might play several parts. Athenian tragedy—the oldest surviving form of tragedy—is a type of dance -drama that formed an important part of
1694-449: A desolate place . Cleomenes and Dion return from Delphos with word from the Oracle and find Hermione on trial, asserting her innocence. The Oracle states categorically that Hermione and Polixenes are innocent, that Camillo is an honest man, and that Leontes will have no heir until his lost daughter is found. Leontes refuses to believe the oracle, but soon learns that his son Mamillius has died of
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#17328587467521848-406: A dream and bade him name the girl Perdita. He leaves a fardel (a bundle) by the baby containing gold and other trinkets to suggest that the baby is of noble blood. A violent storm suddenly appears, wrecking the ship on which Antigonus arrived. He wishes to take pity on the child, but he is chased away in one of Shakespeare's most famous stage directions: "Exit, pursued by a bear." Perdita is rescued by
2002-557: A fireside: by using this title, it implies to the audience that these details should not be taken too seriously. John A. Pitcher argues in the Arden Shakespeare Third Series edition (2010) that the coast of Bohemia is intended as a joke , akin to jokes about a " Swiss Navy ." In the novel Prince Otto by Robert Louis Stevenson reference is made to the land of Seaboard Bohemia in the context of an obvious parody of Shakespeare's apparent liberties with geography in
2156-916: A number of purpose-built theatres. Apart from early wooden theatres, the Theatre Royal in Castle Street opened in 1810 and became firmly established from the 1840s until 1885 when the new Her Majesty's Theatre and Opera House opened on the Seagate. Others included the Alhambra – renamed the Whitehall in the 1970s – the Palace, renamed the Theatre Royal in the 1960s, and the King's Theatre in the Cowgate which opened in 1908. By around 1920 many theatres had converted into cinemas , and for most of
2310-527: A particular type. Kālidāsa in the 1st century BCE, is arguably considered to be ancient India 's greatest Sanskrit dramatist. Three famous romantic plays written by Kālidāsa are the Mālavikāgnimitram ( Mālavikā and Agnimitra ), Vikramuurvashiiya ( Pertaining to Vikrama and Urvashi ), and Abhijñānaśākuntala ( The Recognition of Shakuntala ). The last was inspired by a story in the Mahabharata and
2464-500: A play that is neither a comedy nor a tragedy—for example, Zola's Thérèse Raquin (1873) or Chekhov's Ivanov (1887). In Ancient Greece however, the word drama encompassed all theatrical plays, tragic, comic, or anything in between. Drama is often combined with music and dance : the drama in opera is generally sung throughout; musicals generally include both spoken dialogue and songs ; and some forms of drama have incidental music or musical accompaniment underscoring
2618-577: A production directed by Tamilla Wodard that fall as the first play shown in the Theatre after its multi-year, multimillion-dollar renovation. The play was performed at Boston's "Shakespeare on the Common" for Commonwealth Shakespeare Company in July and August, 2024, and was directed by Bryn Boice. There have been numerous film versions, including a 1910 silent film , a 1961 television film starring Robert Shaw , and
2772-752: A production based on the First Folio text at The Shakespeare Center in Manhattan. In 1993 Adrian Noble won a Globe Award for Best Director for his Royal Shakespeare Company adaptation, which then was successfully brought to the Brooklyn Academy of Music in 1994. In 1997, a production at Boise State University was directed by Gordon Reinhart and starred Ira Amyx, James B. Fisk, Richard Klautsch and Randy Davison as Polixenes. In 2009, four separate productions were staged. Sam Mendes inaugurated his transatlantic "Bridge Project" directing The Winter's Tale with
2926-459: A remote location to protect her from Leontes' wrath and that the re-animation of Hermione does not derive from any magic. The Steward announces that the members of the court have gone to Paulina's dwelling to see the statue; Rogero offers this exposition: "I thought she had some great matter there in hand, for she [Paulina] hath privately twice or thrice a day, ever since the death of Hermione, visited that removed house" (5.2. 102–105). Further, Leontes
3080-568: A seacoast and a desert in Bohemia, since the landlocked Kingdom of Bohemia (corresponding to the western part of the modern-day Czech Republic ) had neither a coast nor a desert. Shakespeare followed his source (Robert Greene's Pandosto ) in giving Bohemia a coast, though he reversed the location of characters and events: "The part of Pandosto of Bohemia is taken by Leontes of Sicily, that of Egistus of Sicily by Polixenes of Bohemia". In support of Greene and Shakespeare, it has been pointed out that for
3234-522: A shepherd and his son, also known as "Clown". "Time" enters and announces the passage of sixteen years. Camillo, now in the service of Polixenes, begs the Bohemian king to allow him to return to Sicily. Polixenes refuses and reports to Camillo that his son, Prince Florizel, has fallen in love with a lowly shepherd girl, Perdita. He suggests to Camillo that they disguise themselves and attend the sheep-shearing feast where Florizel and Perdita will be betrothed. At
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#17328587467523388-519: A tool for developing dramatic work or skills or as a form for situational comedy. Spolin also became interested in how the process of learning improvisation was applicable to the development of human potential. Spolin's son, Paul Sills popularized improvisational theatre as a theatrical art form when he founded, as its first director, The Second City in Chicago. Having been an important part of human culture for more than 2,500 years, theatre has evolved
3542-421: A vehicle to tell a story qualify as comedies. This may include a modern farce such as Boeing Boeing or a classical play such as As You Like It . Theatre expressing bleak, controversial or taboo subject matter in a deliberately humorous way is referred to as black comedy . Black Comedy can have several genres like slapstick humour, dark and sarcastic comedy. Tragedy, then, is an imitation of an action that
3696-435: A very colourful shadow. The thin rods which controlled their movements were attached to a leather collar at the neck of the puppet. The rods ran parallel to the bodies of the puppet and then turned at a ninety degree angle to connect to the neck. While these rods were visible when the shadow was cast, they laid outside the shadow of the puppet; thus they did not interfere with the appearance of the figure. The rods are attached at
3850-445: A wasting sickness brought on by the accusations against his mother. At this, Hermione falls in a swoon and is carried away by Paulina, who subsequently reports the queen's death to her heartbroken and repentant husband. Leontes vows to spend the rest of his days atoning for the loss of his son, his abandoned daughter, and his queen. Antigonus, meanwhile, abandons the baby on the coast of Bohemia, reporting that Hermione appeared to him in
4004-693: A wide range of different theories and practices. Some are related to political or spiritual ideologies, while others are based purely on "artistic" concerns. Some processes focus on a story, some on theatre as event, and some on theatre as catalyst for social change. The classical Greek philosopher Aristotle , in his seminal treatise, Poetics ( c. 335 BCE ) is the earliest-surviving example and its arguments have influenced theories of theatre ever since. In it, he offers an account of what he calls "poetry" (a term which in Greek literally means "making" and in this context includes drama — comedy , tragedy , and
4158-436: Is Long Day's Journey into Night by Eugene O'Neill (1956). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has been contrasted with the epic and the lyrical modes ever since Aristotle 's Poetics ( c. 335 BCE ); the earliest work of dramatic theory . The use of "drama" in the narrow sense to designate a specific type of play dates from the 19th century . Drama in this sense refers to
4312-407: Is a play by William Shakespeare originally published in the First Folio of 1623. Although it was grouped among the comedies, many modern editors have relabelled the play as one of Shakespeare's late romances . Some critics consider it to be one of Shakespeare's " problem plays " because the first three acts are filled with intense psychological drama, while the last two acts are comic and supply
4466-657: Is an ancient form of storytelling that renowned for its elaborate puppet/human and complex musical styles. The earliest evidence is from the late 1st millennium CE, in medieval-era texts and archeological sites. The oldest known record that concerns wayang is from the 9th century. Around 840 AD an Old Javanese (Kawi) inscriptions called Jaha Inscriptions issued by Maharaja Sri Lokapala from Mataram Kingdom in Central Java mentions three sorts of performers: atapukan, aringgit, and abanol. Aringgit means Wayang puppet show, Atapukan means Mask dance show, and abanwal means joke art. Ringgit
4620-517: Is artistic director of Scottish Dance Theatre. Levick left the Dundee Repertory Theatre in 2016. Levick was replaced by Joe Douglas in April 2016 in the role of Associate Artistic Director. In July 2016, Andrew Panton was appointed new artistic director at Dundee Rep and took over from Douglas the year afterwards. Since then Dundee Rep have teamed up with National Theatre of Scotland to present
4774-644: Is described in an 11th-century Javanese poem as a leather shadow figure. Theatre in the medieval Islamic world included puppet theatre (which included hand puppets, shadow plays and marionette productions) and live passion plays known as ta'ziyeh , where actors re-enact episodes from Muslim history . In particular, Shia Islamic plays revolved around the istishhād (martyrdom) of Ali 's sons Hasan ibn Ali and Husayn ibn Ali . Secular plays were known as akhraja , recorded in medieval adab literature, though they were less common than puppetry and ta'ziya theatre. Theatre took on many alternative forms in
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4928-533: Is home to Scotland's principal contemporary dance company, Scottish Dance Theatre . 'The Rep' building is located in Tay Square at the centre of the city’s "cultural quarter" in the West End. Recognised to be among the top regional theatres in the UK, it plays to an average audience of over 70,000 people a year attracting a very broad cross-section of the local population in terms of age and occupation. Dundee has had
5082-526: Is known primarily from the substantial papyrus fragments of Menander . Aristotle defined comedy as a representation of laughable people that involves some kind of blunder or ugliness that does not cause pain or disaster. In addition to the categories of comedy and tragedy at the City Dionysia, the festival also included the Satyr Play . Finding its origins in rural, agricultural rituals dedicated to Dionysus,
5236-544: Is reported by gentlemen of the Sicilian court: how the Old Shepherd raised Perdita, how Antigonus met his end, how Leontes was overjoyed at being reunited with his daughter, and how he begged Polixenes for forgiveness. The Old Shepherd and Young Shepherd, now made gentlemen by the kings, meet Autolycus, who asks them for their forgiveness for his roguery. Leontes, Polixenes, Camillo, Florizel and Perdita then go to Paulina's house in
5390-419: Is serious, complete, and of a certain magnitude: in language embellished with each kind of artistic ornament, the several kinds being found in separate parts of the play; in the form of action, not of narrative; through pity and fear effecting the proper purgation of these emotions. Aristotle's phrase "several kinds being found in separate parts of the play" is a reference to the structural origins of drama. In it
5544-410: Is soon put on trial for treason and adultery – and his death is announced seconds after she is shown to have been faithful and Leontes's accusations unfounded. While the language Paulina uses in the final scene evokes the sense of a magical ritual through which Hermione is brought back to life, there are several passages which suggest a far likelier case – that Paulina hid Hermione at
5698-457: Is surprised that Hermione could convince Polixenes so easily, so he begins to suspect that his pregnant wife has been having an affair with the other king. Leontes orders Camillo, a Sicilian lord, to poison Polixenes. Camillo instead warns Polixenes and they both flee to Bohemia. Furious at their escape, Leontes publicly accuses his wife of infidelity and declares that the child she is bearing must be Polixenes' bastard. He throws her in prison, over
5852-515: Is surprised that the statue is "so much wrinkled", unlike the Hermione he remembers. Paulina answers his concern by claiming that the age-progression attests to the "carver's excellence", which makes her look "as [if] she lived now". Hermione later asserts that her desire to see her daughter allowed her to endure 16 years of separation: "thou shalt hear that I, / Knowing by Paulina that the oracle / Gave hope thou wast in being, have preserved / Myself to see
6006-467: Is the most famous. It was the first to be translated into English and German . Śakuntalā (in English translation) influenced Goethe 's Faust (1808–1832). The next great Indian dramatist was Bhavabhuti ( c. 7th century CE ). He is said to have written the following three plays: Malati-Madhava , Mahaviracharita and Uttar Ramacharita . Among these three, the last two cover between them
6160-624: Is the oldest form of drama , though live theatre has now been joined by modern recorded forms. Elements of art, such as painted scenery and stagecraft such as lighting are used to enhance the physicality, presence and immediacy of the experience. Places, normally buildings, where performances regularly take place are also called "theatres" (or "theaters"), as derived from the Ancient Greek θέατρον (théatron, "a place for viewing"), itself from θεάομαι (theáomai, "to see", "to watch", "to observe"). Modern Western theatre comes, in large measure, from
6314-778: Is universally acknowledged in the Western critical tradition", Marvin Carlson explains, "almost every detail about his seminal work has aroused divergent opinions." Important theatre practitioners of the 20th century include Konstantin Stanislavski , Vsevolod Meyerhold , Jacques Copeau , Edward Gordon Craig , Bertolt Brecht , Antonin Artaud , Joan Littlewood , Peter Brook , Jerzy Grotowski , Augusto Boal , Eugenio Barba , Dario Fo , Viola Spolin , Keith Johnstone and Robert Wilson (director) . The Winter%27s Tale The Winter's Tale
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6468-508: Is why actors are commonly called "Children of the Pear Garden". During the dynasty of Empress Ling, shadow puppetry first emerged as a recognized form of theatre in China. There were two distinct forms of shadow puppetry, Pekingese (northern) and Cantonese (southern). The two styles were differentiated by the method of making the puppets and the positioning of the rods on the puppets , as opposed to
6622-537: The 20th century in the realism of Stanislavski and Lee Strasberg , the political theatre of Erwin Piscator and Bertolt Brecht , the so-called Theatre of the Absurd of Samuel Beckett and Eugène Ionesco , American and British musicals, the collective creations of companies of actors and directors such as Joan Littlewood 's Theatre Workshop , experimental and postmodern theatre of Robert Wilson and Robert Lepage ,
6776-661: The Ancient Order of Foresters in 1901, when in June 1963 a fire completely destroyed the building and the Rep was forced to live a nomadic existence for a short period. Eventually a temporary refuge was found in the converted former Dudhope Church on the Lochee Road of Dundee although the company remained at the venue for a further 18 years. After negotiation with the City of Dundee District Council and
6930-501: The City Dionysia as an audience member (or even as a participant in the theatrical productions) in particular—was an important part of citizenship . Civic participation also involved the evaluation of the rhetoric of orators evidenced in performances in the law-court or political assembly , both of which were understood as analogous to the theatre and increasingly came to absorb its dramatic vocabulary. The Greeks also developed
7084-430: The First Folio of 1623. In spite of tentative early datings (see below), most critics believe the play is one of Shakespeare's later works, possibly written in 1610 or 1611. A 1611 date is suggested by an apparent connection with Ben Jonson 's Masque of Oberon , performed at Court 1 January 1611, in which appears a dance of ten or twelve satyrs; The Winter's Tale includes a dance of twelve men costumed as satyrs, and
7238-617: The Hudson Shakespeare Company of New Jersey presented a production as part of their annual Shakespeare in the Parks series, set in central Europe during the early 1900s era of the Austro-Hungarian Empire but with a decidedly diverse cast. African American actors Tony White played Leontes, Deirdre Ann Johnson played Hermione, and Monica Jones in a dual role of Mamillius and Perdita. Angela Liao appeared as Paulina. In 2013,
7392-554: The Persian response to news of their military defeat at the Battle of Salamis in 480 BCE—is the notable exception in the surviving drama. When Aeschylus won first prize for it at the City Dionysia in 472 BCE, he had been writing tragedies for more than 25 years, yet its tragic treatment of recent history is the earliest example of drama to survive. More than 130 years later, the philosopher Aristotle analysed 5th-century Athenian tragedy in
7546-585: The Scottish Arts Council it was agreed that the company would have its own purpose-built premises on land donated by University of Dundee . Work began in January 1979 under the leadership of Robert Robertson who had been artistic director for a number of years and who was instrumental in overseeing the building and completion of the new theatre. However, the building work looked like being stopped in its tracks due to rising prices and inflation. A public appeal
7700-554: The Sundanese and wayang kulit (leather shadow-puppet play) of the Javanese and Balinese —draw much of their repertoire from indigenized versions of the Ramayana and Mahabharata . These tales also provide source material for the wayang wong (human theatre) of Java and Bali , which uses actors. Some wayang golek performances, however, also present Muslim stories, called menak . Wayang
7854-827: The Tenth Doctor and the Fourteenth Doctor . Ncuti Gatwa , who would go on and play the Fifteenth Doctor , started his career and was granted a position in a graduate scheme, at the Dundee Rep in 2013 where he went on to perform in several roles including one in David Greig 's Victoria . Joanna Lumley who portrayed the Female Doctor in the Comic Relief special, " The Curse of Fatal Death " also starred in several plays at
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#17328587467528008-546: The high-style , verbally elaborate tragedies of Seneca . Although Rome had a native tradition of performance, the Hellenization of Roman culture in the 3rd century BCE had a profound and energizing effect on Roman theatre and encouraged the development of Latin literature of the highest quality for the stage. The only surviving plays from the Roman Empire are ten dramas attributed to Lucius Annaeus Seneca (4 BCE–65 CE),
8162-511: The postcolonial theatre of August Wilson or Tomson Highway , and Augusto Boal 's Theatre of the Oppressed . Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance . The term comes from a Greek word meaning " action ", which is derived from the verb δράω, dráō , "to do" or "to act". The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience , presupposes collaborative modes of production and
8316-514: The satyr play —as well as lyric poetry , epic poetry , and the dithyramb ). He examines its "first principles" and identifies its genres and basic elements; his analysis of tragedy constitutes the core of the discussion. Aristotle argues that tragedy consists of six qualitative parts, which are (in order of importance) mythos or "plot", ethos or "character", dianoia or "thought", lexis or "diction", melos or "song", and opsis or "spectacle". "Although Aristotle's Poetics
8470-400: The theatre of ancient Greece , from which it borrows technical terminology, classification into genres , and many of its themes , stock characters , and plot elements. Theatre artist Patrice Pavis defines theatricality, theatrical language , stage writing and the specificity of theatre as synonymous expressions that differentiate theatre from the other performing arts , literature and
8624-484: The well-made plays of Scribe and Sardou gave way to the problem plays of Naturalism and Realism ; the farces of Feydeau ; Wagner's operatic Gesamtkunstwerk ; musical theatre (including Gilbert and Sullivan 's operas); F. C. Burnand 's, W. S. Gilbert 's and Oscar Wilde 's drawing-room comedies; Symbolism ; proto- Expressionism in the late works of August Strindberg and Henrik Ibsen ; and Edwardian musical comedy . These trends continued through
8778-595: The 15th to the late 17th century in England was known as "Delphos". Greene's source for an Apollonian oracle on this island likely was the Aeneid , in which Virgil wrote that Priam consulted the Oracle of Delos before the outbreak of the Trojan War and that Aeneas after escaping from Troy consulted the same Delian oracle regarding his future. The play contains the most famous of Shakespearean stage directions: Exit, pursued by
8932-552: The 1930s Dundee no longer had a designated drama theatre. Robert Thornely – Manager of the last touring company to perform in Dundee was determined to find a home in the city for his professional theatre company. He approached the Dundee Dramatic Society, an amateur company, who, also faced with nowhere to perform had recently purchased their own premises in the form of a disused jute mill. In May 1939, Dundee Repertory Theatre
9086-422: The 1960s. In 1987 Alan Cumming was at the Rep as Phil McCann in two of the three plays from John Byrne 's The Slab Boys Trilogy , 'The Slab Boys' and 'Cuttin' a Rug'. Other alumni include Miriam Margolyes , Joanna Lumley , Geoffrey Hayes (beloved of British TV-viewers as the host of cult children's show Rainbow ), and Hannah Gordon . Several actors who would later take on the role of The Doctor from
9240-449: The 19th century included those featuring John Philip Kemble in 1811, Samuel Phelps in 1845 and Charles Kean in an 1856 production that was famous for its elaborate sets and costumes. Johnston Forbes-Robertson played Leontes memorably in 1887. Herbert Beerbohm Tree took on the role of Leontes in 1906. The longest-running Broadway production starred Henry Daniell and Jessie Royce Landis and ran for 39 performances in 1946. One of
9394-465: The 1st century CE. It began after the development of Greek and Roman theatre and before the development of theatre in other parts of Asia. It emerged sometime between the 2nd century BCE and the 1st century CE and flourished between the 1st century CE and the 10th, which was a period of relative peace in the history of India during which hundreds of plays were written. The wealth of archeological evidence from earlier periods offers no indication of
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#17328587467529548-407: The 5th century BCE have survived. We have complete texts extant by Aeschylus , Sophocles , and Euripides . The origins of tragedy remain obscure, though by the 5th century BCE it was institutionalized in competitions ( agon ) held as part of festivities celebrating Dionysus (the god of wine and fertility ). As contestants in the City Dionysia's competition (the most prestigious of
9702-657: The British sci-fi television series, Doctor Who had performed at or were alumni of the Dundee Rep. In the 1940s, William Hartnell who played the first incarnation of the Doctor performed in two plays at the theatre, The Rookery Nook and Ghost Train . In the early 1990s, David Tennant appeared in several productions starting with a role in The Princess and the Goblin before making his big break in television and going on to portray
9856-540: The Corduba-born Stoic philosopher and tutor of Nero. These tragedies are known for their philosophical themes, complex characters, and rhetorical style. While Seneca's plays provide valuable insights into Roman theater, they represent only a small fraction of the dramatic repertoire that existed in ancient Rome. The first form of Indian theatre was the Sanskrit theatre , earliest-surviving fragments of which date from
10010-453: The Ensemble at the Theatre allows for the organisation of workshops, readings, and other ways of reaching out to the community that would simply not be possible for a theatre without an official troupe of actors. It also allowed for the production of Sunshine on Leith , the successful musical that has been on tour three times now. The Rep Ensemble has won numerous awards and continues to further
10164-539: The French had a larger distinction between comedy and tragedy, whereas the English fudged the lines occasionally and put some comedic parts in their tragedies. Common forms of non-comedic plays were sentimental comedies as well as something that would later be called tragédie bourgeoise , or domestic tragedy —that is, the tragedy of common life—were more popular in England because they appealed more to English sensibilities. While theatre troupes were formerly often travelling,
10318-419: The King of Bohemia . Polixenes is visiting the kingdom of Sicily , and is enjoying catching up with his old friend. However, after nine months, Polixenes yearns to return to his own kingdom to tend to affairs and see his son. Leontes cannot persuade Polixenes to stay longer, so he decides to send his wife, Queen Hermione, to try to convince him. Hermione agrees and with three short speeches is successful. Leontes
10472-456: The Old Shepherd and Perdita with torture and death and ordering his son never to see the shepherd's daughter again. Camillo, still longing for his native land, schemes to send Florizel and Perdita to Sicily, so that Polixenes will bring him along when he pursues them. The lovers take ship for Sicily, as do the two shepherds and Autolycus. In Sicily, Leontes is still in mourning. Cleomenes and Dion plead with him to end his time of repentance because
10626-737: The RSC staged a new production directed by Lucy Bailey , starring Jo Stone-Fewings as Leontes and Tara Fitzgerald as Hermione. This production premiered at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre on 24 January 2013. In 2015, the Kenneth Branagh Production company staged the play at the Garrick Theatre, with simultaneous broadcast to cinemas. The production featured Kenneth Branagh as Leontes, Judi Dench as Paulina, and Miranda Raison as Hermione. The same year, Cheek by Jowl staged
10780-403: The Rep. Theatre Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses , to present experiences of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage . The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture , speech, song, music , and dance . It
10934-454: The Romans first experienced theatre in the 4th century BCE, with a performance by Etruscan actors . Beacham argues that they had been familiar with "pre-theatrical practices" for some time before that recorded contact. The theatre of ancient Rome was a thriving and diverse art form, ranging from festival performances of street theatre , nude dancing, and acrobatics , to the staging of Plautus 's broadly appealing situation comedies , to
11088-570: The UK's leading producers including the Barbican, the Young Vic, National Theatre of Scotland, Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh, The Traverse Theatre Company, Paines Plough and the Tron Theatre, performing in all of Scotland's major venues. The repertoire was broad, encompassing Shakespeare, musicals, American classics, new plays and work for children and young people. In 2004 a new £1 million dance studio
11242-788: The West between the 15th and 19th centuries, including commedia dell'arte from Italian theatre , and melodrama . The general trend was away from the poetic drama of the Greeks and the Renaissance and toward a more naturalistic prose style of dialogue, especially following the Industrial Revolution . Theatre took a big pause during 1642 and 1660 in England because of the Puritan Interregnum. The rising anti-theatrical sentiment among Puritans saw William Prynne write Histriomastix (1633),
11396-622: The Woods (1986), and The Phantom of the Opera (1986), as well as more contemporary hits including Rent (1994), The Lion King (1997), Wicked (2003), Hamilton (2015) and Frozen (2018). Musical theatre may be produced on an intimate scale Off-Broadway , in regional theatres , and elsewhere, but it often includes spectacle. For instance, Broadway and West End musicals often include lavish costumes and sets supported by multimillion-dollar budgets. Theatre productions that use humour as
11550-832: The World Première of the cult classic Let The Right One In, collaborated with the Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh with Time and the Conways, presented the Scottish Premiere of David Greig's Victoria . The Rep is now home to over 20 resident performers who are rooted in the region but are nationally and internationally orientated. As the theatre grows, so does the ambition. Now the most awarded theatre in Scotland and with more Ensemble and Scottish Dance Theatre performances than ever before, Dundee Rep Theatre has cemented itself as one of
11704-476: The action in the manner of the naive dramatic tradition; the use of a bear in the scene on the Bohemian seashore is almost certainly indebted to Mucedorus , a chivalric romance revived at court around 1610. Eric Ives , the biographer of Anne Boleyn (1986), believes that the play is meant to parallel the fall of that queen, who was beheaded on false charges of adultery on the orders of her husband Henry VIII in 1536. There are numerous parallels between
11858-848: The ambition Hamish Glen had for the project, with performances in 2011 of The Rise & Fall of Little Voice and Anna Karenina. Richard Todd began his acting career with the Company in the 1930s, returning to perform with it after military service in World War II . Rowena Cooper began her career with the Company in the 1950s. In 1962, Lynn Redgrave appeared in Ben Travers' Rookery Nook , and as Portia in The Merchant of Venice , which also featured Steven Berkoff and Dundee-born Brian Cox who has gone on to play many roles in TV productions and Hollywood films. In
12012-440: The arts in general. A theatre company is an organisation that produces theatrical performances, as distinct from a theatre troupe (or acting company), which is a group of theatrical performers working together. Modern theatre includes performances of plays and musical theatre . The art forms of ballet and opera are also theatre and use many conventions such as acting , costumes and staging. They were influential in
12166-582: The best known of which is Peking Opera which is still popular today. Xiangsheng is a certain traditional Chinese comedic performance in the forms of monologue or dialogue. In Indonesia , theatre performances have become an important part of local culture, theatre performances in Indonesia have been developed for thousands of years. Most of Indonesia's oldest theatre forms are linked directly to local literary traditions (oral and written). The prominent puppet theatres — wayang golek (wooden rod-puppet play) of
12320-579: The best remembered modern productions was staged by Peter Brook in London in 1951 and starred John Gielgud as Leontes. In 1980, David Jones , a former associate artistic director of the Royal Shakespeare Company , chose to launch his new theatre company at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) with The Winter's Tale starring Brian Murray supported by Jones' new company at BAM In 1983, the Riverside Shakespeare Company mounted
12474-515: The best stages in Scotland in terms of its relationship with its audience, it received a civic commendation from The Civic Trust Award in 1984 and in 1986 won the RIBA Architecture Award. Robert Robertson retired from Dundee Rep in 1990. In April 1992 Hamish Glen was appointed artistic director, the same year saw the building extended and undertook a major refurbishment to facilitate a growing community and education department and to include
12628-427: The book The Gap of Time , a modern adaptation of The Winter's Tale . In 2016, author E. K. Johnston published Exit, Pursued by a Bear , another modern adaption. On 1 May 2016, BBC Radio 3 's Drama on 3 broadcast an audio production directed by David Hunter, with Danny Sapani as Leontes, Eve Best as Hermione, Shaun Dooley as Polixenes, Karl Johnson as Camillo, Susan Jameson as Paulina, Paul Copley as
12782-405: The building needed a lot of work. Panton suggested that a newly built theatre should be able to seat 800 to 1000 people (as opposed to the current building's capacity of about 400) and have greater flexibility to be able to house different sizes of audience. He suggested that this could tie in to the Rep's 80th anniversary celebrations in 2019 and be the next major cultural project in Dundee following
12936-479: The company created over 50 productions. The Ensemble developed its international reputation, being the first UK company to tour to Iran in 30 years with Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale. In 2005, it visited the prestigious Cerventino Festival in Mexico with a new version of Jarry's Ubu the King and in 2006 it took David Greig's Dr Korzcak's Example to Tokyo and Hiroshima. The company has developed co-productions with some of
13090-567: The completion and opening of V&A Dundee in 2018. As of 2023, these plans have yet to come to fruition, possibly due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and slow audience return in its aftermath. The Rep Ensemble as of 2010 approaches the start of its twelfth year, having proven to be a long-term success after performing numerous successful productions, including a yearly Christmas pantomime as well as challenging renditions of famous plays such as A Doll's House and The Elephant Man. The presence of
13244-552: The concepts of dramatic criticism and theatre architecture. Actors were either amateur or at best semi-professional. The theatre of ancient Greece consisted of three types of drama : tragedy , comedy , and the satyr play . The origins of theatre in ancient Greece, according to Aristotle (384–322 BCE), the first theoretician of theatre, are to be found in the festivals that honoured Dionysus. The performances were given in semi-circular auditoria cut into hillsides, capable of seating 10,000–20,000 people. The stage consisted of
13398-401: The country, where a statue of Hermione has been recently finished. The sight of his wife's form makes Leontes distraught, but then, to everyone's amazement, the statue shows signs of vitality: it is Hermione, miraculously restored to life—or simply having lived in seclusion with Paulina for the last sixteen years. As the play ends, Perdita and Florizel are engaged, and the whole company celebrates
13552-405: The dead bodies of my queen and son: / One grave shall be for both: upon them shall / The causes of their death appear, unto / Our shame perpetual" (3.2). Paulina seems convinced of Hermione's death, and Leontes' order to visit both bodies and see them interred is never called into question by later events in the play. Shakespeare's fellow playwright Ben Jonson ridiculed the presence in the play of
13706-467: The dealings of the pantheon of Gods and their involvement in human affairs, backed by the chorus of Satyrs . However, according to Webster , satyr actors did not always perform typical satyr actions and would break from the acting traditions assigned to the character type of a mythical forest creature. Western theatre developed and expanded considerably under the Romans . The Roman historian Livy wrote that
13860-433: The development of musical theatre . The city-state of Athens is where Western theatre originated. It was part of a broader culture of theatricality and performance in classical Greece that included festivals , religious rituals , politics , law , athletics and gymnastics, music , poetry , weddings, funerals, and symposia . Participation in the city-state's many festivals—and mandatory attendance at
14014-454: The dialogue ( melodrama and Japanese Nō , for example). In certain periods of history (the ancient Roman and modern Romantic ) some dramas have been written to be read rather than performed. In improvisation , the drama does not pre-exist the moment of performance; performers devise a dramatic script spontaneously before an audience. Music and theatre have had a close relationship since ancient times— Athenian tragedy , for example,
14168-479: The elements of theatre, the Treatise gives most attention to acting ( abhinaya ), which consists of two styles: realistic ( lokadharmi ) and conventional ( natyadharmi ), though the major focus is on the latter. Its drama is regarded as the highest achievement of Sanskrit literature . It utilised stock characters , such as the hero ( nayaka ), heroine ( nayika ), or clown ( vidusaka ). Actors may have specialized in
14322-693: The end of his career. But of more importance than a verse test is the similarity of the last plays in spirit and themes." In the late 18th century, Edmond Malone suggested that a "book" listed in the Stationers' Register on 22 May 1594, under the title "a Wynters nightes pastime", might have been Shakespeare's, though no copy of it is known. In 1933, Dr. Samuel A. Tannenbaum wrote that Malone subsequently "seems to have assigned it to 1604; later still, to 1613; and finally he settled on 1610–11. Hunter assigned it to about 1605." A play called "The Winter's Tale" would immediately indicate to contemporary audiences that
14476-472: The entire epic of Ramayana . The powerful Indian emperor Harsha (606–648) is credited with having written three plays: the comedy Ratnavali , Priyadarsika , and the Buddhist drama Nagananda . The Tang dynasty is sometimes known as "The Age of 1000 Entertainments". During this era, Ming Huang formed an acting school known as The Pear Garden to produce a form of drama that was primarily musical. That
14630-477: The existence of a tradition of theatre. The ancient Vedas ( hymns from between 1500 and 1000 BCE that are among the earliest examples of literature in the world) contain no hint of it (although a small number are composed in a form of dialogue ) and the rituals of the Vedic period do not appear to have developed into theatre. The Mahābhāṣya by Patañjali contains the earliest reference to what may have been
14784-485: The feast, hosted by the Old Shepherd (who has prospered thanks to the gold in the fardel), the pedlar Autolycus picks the pocket of the Young Shepherd and, in various guises, entertains the guests with bawdy songs and the trinkets he sells. Polixenes and Camillo watch, disguised, as Florizel (under the guise of a shepherd named Doricles) and Perdita are betrothed. Polixenes tears off his disguise and intervenes, threatening
14938-517: The festivals to stage drama) playwrights were required to present a tetralogy of plays (though the individual works were not necessarily connected by story or theme), which usually consisted of three tragedies and one satyr play. The performance of tragedies at the City Dionysia may have begun as early as 534 BCE; official records ( didaskaliai ) begin from 501 BCE, when the satyr play was introduced. Most Athenian tragedies dramatize events from Greek mythology , though The Persians —which stages
15092-612: The first improvisation form. Popularized by 1997 Nobel Prize in Literature winner Dario Fo and troupes such as the Upright Citizens Brigade improvisational theatre continues to evolve with many different streams and philosophies. Keith Johnstone and Viola Spolin are recognized as the first teachers of improvisation in modern times, with Johnstone exploring improvisation as an alternative to scripted theatre and Spolin and her successors exploring improvisation principally as
15246-646: The idea of the national theatre gained support in the 18th century, inspired by Ludvig Holberg . The major promoter of the idea of the national theatre in Germany, and also of the Sturm und Drang poets, was Abel Seyler , the owner of the Hamburgische Entreprise and the Seyler Theatre Company . Through the 19th century , the popular theatrical forms of Romanticism , melodrama , Victorian burlesque and
15400-447: The issue" (5.3.126–129). However, the action of 3.2 calls into question the "rational" explanation that Hermione was spirited away and sequestered for 16 years. Hermione swoons upon the news of Mamillius' death, and is rushed from the room. Paulina returns after a short monologue from Leontes, bearing the news of Hermione's death. After some discussion, Leontes demands to be led toward the bodies of his wife and son: "Prithee, bring me / To
15554-466: The kingdom needs an heir. Paulina, however, convinces the king to remain unmarried forever, since no woman can match the greatness of his lost Hermione. Florizel and Perdita arrive and are greeted effusively by Leontes. Florizel pretends to be on a diplomatic mission from his father, but his cover is blown when Polixenes and Camillo, too, arrive in Sicilia. The meeting and reconciliation of the kings and princes
15708-450: The largest changes lie in the survival and reconciliation of Hermione and Leontes (Greene's Pandosto) at the end of the play. The character equivalent to Hermione in Pandosto dies after being accused of adultery, while Leontes' equivalent looks back upon his deeds (including an incestuous fondness for his daughter) and slays himself. The survival of Hermione, while presumably intended to create
15862-422: The last scene's coup de théâtre involving the statue, creates a distinctive thematic divergence from Pandosto . Greene follows the usual ethos of Hellenistic romance, in which the return of a lost prince or princess restores order and provides a sense of humour and closure that evokes Providence 's control. Shakespeare, by contrast, sets in the foreground the restoration of the older, indeed aged, generation, in
16016-659: The late 19th and early 20th century . After the Edwardian musical comedy that began in the 1890s, the Princess Theatre musicals of the early 20th century, and comedies in the 1920s and 1930s (such as the works of Rodgers and Hammerstein ), with Oklahoma! (1943), musicals moved in a more dramatic direction. Famous musicals over the subsequent decades included My Fair Lady (1956), West Side Story (1957), The Fantasticks (1960), Hair (1967), A Chorus Line (1975), Les Misérables (1980), Cats (1981), Into
16170-413: The leading producing theatres in the UK. In 2022, the building was listed at Category A by Historic Environment Scotland as "A rare and exceptional example of post-war theatre design". In September 2018 it was reported that the Rep was considering leaving its current building for new purpose-built premises. The Rep's artistic director Andrew Panton stated that it had outgrown its present home and that
16324-400: The mid-1960s, a stable repertory company including Jill Gascoine , Vivien Heilbron , Charmian May and Stephen Yardley saw short seasons from visiting actors James Bolam and Michael York . Other past associates include the actress Ann Way . Hannah Gordon was at the Dundee Rep from 1962 to 1963 as was Donald Sutherland. Vivien Heilbron and Heather Ripley were members of the Company in
16478-423: The miracle. Despite this happy ending typical of Shakespeare's comedies and romances, the impression of the unjust death of young prince Mamillius lingers to the end, which, combined with the years wasted in separation, brings an element of unredeemed tragedy to the play. The main plot of The Winter's Tale is taken from Robert Greene 's pastoral romance Pandosto , published in 1588. Shakespeare's changes to
16632-464: The most complete work of dramaturgy in the ancient world. It addresses acting , dance , music , dramatic construction , architecture , costuming , make-up , props , the organisation of companies, the audience, competitions, and offers a mythological account of the origin of theatre. In doing so, it provides indications about the nature of actual theatrical practices. Sanskrit theatre was performed on sacred ground by priests who had been trained in
16786-466: The most notorious attack on theatre prior to the ban. Viewing theatre as sinful, the Puritans ordered the closure of London theatres in 1642 . On 24 January 1643, the actors protested against the ban by writing a pamphlet titled The Actors remonstrance or complaint for the silencing of their profession, and banishment from their severall play-houses . This stagnant period ended once Charles II came back to
16940-411: The necessary skills (dance, music, and recitation) in a [hereditary process]. Its aim was both to educate and to entertain. Under the patronage of royal courts, performers belonged to professional companies that were directed by a stage manager ( sutradhara ), who may also have acted. This task was thought of as being analogous to that of a puppeteer —the literal meaning of " sutradhara " is "holder of
17094-410: The necks to facilitate the use of multiple heads with one body. When the heads were not being used, they were stored in a muslin book or fabric-lined box. The heads were always removed at night. This was in keeping with the old superstition that if left intact, the puppets would come to life at night. Some puppeteers went so far as to store the heads in one book and the bodies in another, to further reduce
17248-437: The oldest surviving work of dramatic theory —his Poetics ( c. 335 BCE ). Athenian comedy is conventionally divided into three periods, "Old Comedy", "Middle Comedy", and "New Comedy". Old Comedy survives today largely in the form of the eleven surviving plays of Aristophanes , while Middle Comedy is largely lost (preserved only in relatively short fragments in authors such as Athenaeus of Naucratis ). New Comedy
17402-513: The other hand, the play alludes to Hellenistic antiquity (e.g. the Oracle of Delphos, the names of the kings), so that the "Kingdom of Sicily" may refer to Greek Sicily, not to the Kingdom of Sicily of later medieval times. The pastoral genre is not known for precise verisimilitude, and, like the assortment of mixed references to ancient religion and contemporary religious figures and customs, this possible inaccuracy may have been included to underscore
17556-678: The play was also performed at Shakespeare's Globe , in London. The Globe staged it again in 2023, in a production where the audience walked between the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse (where the Sicilian scenes were staged) and the main Globe Theatre (where the Bohemian scenes were staged). Also in 2023, Empty Space Productions and The University of New England staged a production in Armidale, Australia. The Folger Theatre in Washington, DC staged
17710-522: The play's composition makes it unclear which was the first scripted use of the word, which is much older. The earliest recorded performance of the play was recorded by Simon Forman , the Elizabethan "figure caster" or astrologer, who noted in his journal on 11 May 1611 that he saw The Winter's Tale at the Globe playhouse . The play was then performed in front of King James at Court on 5 November 1611. The play
17864-492: The play's fantastical and chimeric quality. As Andrew Gurr puts it, Bohemia may have been given a seacoast "to flout geographical realism, and to underline the unreality of place in the play". A theory explaining the existence of the seacoast in Bohemia offered by C. H. Herford is suggested in Shakespeare's chosen title of the play. A winter's tale is something associated with parents telling children stories of legends around
18018-639: The play, directed by Declan Donnellan and designed by Nick Ormerod . The production toured globally, including to France, Spain, the US and Russia, and was livestreamed around the world in a partnership with the BBC and Riverside Studios. In 2017, The Public Theatre Mobile Unit staged the play, directed by Lee Sunday Evans. In 2018, Theatre for a New Audience staged the play Off-Broadway, directed by Arin Arbus with Kelley Curran as Hermione and Anatol Yusef as Leontes. In 2018,
18172-573: The play. Likewise, Shakespeare's apparent mistake of placing the Oracle of Delphi on a small island has been used as evidence of Shakespeare's limited education. However, Shakespeare again copied this locale directly from Pandosto . Moreover, the erudite Robert Greene was not in error, as the Isle of Delphos does not refer to Delphi, but to the Cycladic island of Delos , the mythical birthplace of Apollo, which from
18326-545: The plot are uncharacteristically slight, especially in light of the romance's undramatic nature, and Shakespeare's fidelity to it gives The Winter's Tale its most distinctive feature: the sixteen-year gap between the third and fourth acts. This distinctive feature violates the Classical Unities , a set of principles for dramatic tragedies that was introduced in 16th-century Italy based on the work of Aristotle . There are changes in names, places, and minor plot details, but
18480-574: The possibility of reanimating puppets. Shadow puppetry is said to have reached its highest point of artistic development in the eleventh century before becoming a tool of the government. In the Song dynasty , there were many popular plays involving acrobatics and music. These developed in the Yuan dynasty into a more sophisticated form known as zaju , with a four- or five-act structure. Yuan drama spread across China and diversified into numerous regional forms, one of
18634-405: The protests of his nobles, and sends two of his lords, Cleomenes and Dion, to the Oracle at Delphos for confirmation of his suspicions. Meanwhile, the queen gives birth to a girl, and her loyal friend Paulina takes the baby to the king, hoping that the sight of the child will soften his heart. He grows angrier, however, and orders Paulina's husband, Lord Antigonus, to take the child and abandon it in
18788-443: The remainder of the Puritans and very religious of the time. The main question was if seeing something immoral on stage affects behaviour in the lives of those who watch it, a controversy that is still playing out today. The seventeenth century had also introduced women to the stage, which was considered inappropriate earlier. These women were regarded as celebrities (also a newer concept, thanks to ideas on individualism that arose in
18942-450: The reunion of Leontes and Hermione. Leontes not only lives, but seems to insist on the happy ending of the play. It has been suggested that the use of a pastoral romance from the 1590s indicates that at the end of his career, Shakespeare felt a renewed interest in the dramatic contexts of his youth. Minor influences also suggest such an interest. As in Pericles , he uses a chorus to advance
19096-422: The satyr play eventually found its way to Athens in its most well-known form. Satyr's themselves were tied to the god Dionysus as his loyal woodland companions, often engaging in drunken revelry and mischief at his side. The satyr play itself was classified as tragicomedy, erring on the side of the more modern burlesque traditions of the early twentieth century. The plotlines of the plays were typically concerned with
19250-455: The scale of poetry in general (where the tragic divides against epic and lyric ) or at the scale of the drama (where tragedy is opposed to comedy ). In the modern era, tragedy has also been defined against drama, melodrama , the tragicomic , and epic theatre . Improvisation has been a consistent feature of theatre, with the Commedia dell'arte in the sixteenth century being recognized as
19404-448: The seeds of Sanskrit drama. This treatise on grammar from 140 BCE provides a feasible date for the beginnings of theatre in India . The major source of evidence for Sanskrit theatre is A Treatise on Theatre ( Nātyaśāstra ), a compendium whose date of composition is uncertain (estimates range from 200 BCE to 200 CE) and whose authorship is attributed to Bharata Muni . The Treatise is
19558-446: The servant announcing their entry says "one three of them, by their own report, sir, hath danc'd before the King." (IV.iv.337–338). Arden Shakespeare editor J.H.P. Pafford found that "the language, style, and spirit of the play all point to a late date. The tangled speech, the packed sentences, speeches which begin and end in the middle of a line, and the high percentage of light and weak endings are all marks of Shakespeare's writing at
19712-588: The spoken parts were written in the Attic dialect whereas the choral (recited or sung) ones in the Doric dialect , these discrepancies reflecting the differing religious origins and poetic metres of the parts that were fused into a new entity, the theatrical drama . Tragedy refers to a specific tradition of drama that has played a unique and important role historically in the self-definition of Western civilisation . That tradition has been multiple and discontinuous, yet
19866-461: The strings or threads". The performers were trained rigorously in vocal and physical technique. There were no prohibitions against female performers; companies were all-male, all-female, and of mixed gender. Certain sentiments were considered inappropriate for men to enact, however, and were thought better suited to women. Some performers played characters their own age, while others played ages different from their own (whether younger or older). Of all
20020-558: The term has often been used to invoke a powerful effect of cultural identity and historical continuity—"the Greeks and the Elizabethans , in one cultural form; Hellenes and Christians , in a common activity", as Raymond Williams puts it. From its obscure origins in the theatres of Athens 2,500 years ago, from which there survives only a fraction of the work of Aeschylus , Sophocles and Euripides , through its singular articulations in
20174-584: The theatre. The archives of the Rep, covering the period c1936 to 2010, are held by Archive Services, University of Dundee . They include programmes and photographs of stars such as Joanna Lumley , Michael York , David Tennant and Gregor Fisher performing at the theatre. Material from the Rep collection was displayed as a key part of a major exhibition on Dundee and theatre held at the Lamb Gallery, University of Dundee in late 2009 and early 2010. Archive Services also hold various other collections relating to
20328-453: The theatrical culture of the city-state. Having emerged sometime during the 6th century BCE, it flowered during the 5th century BCE (from the end of which it began to spread throughout the Greek world), and continued to be popular until the beginning of the Hellenistic period . No tragedies from the 6th century BCE and only 32 of the more than a thousand that were performed in during
20482-696: The throne in 1660 in the Restoration . Theatre (among other arts) exploded, with influence from French culture, since Charles had been exiled in France in the years previous to his reign. In 1660, two companies were licensed to perform, the Duke's Company and the King's Company . Performances were held in converted buildings, such as Lisle's Tennis Court . The first West End theatre , known as Theatre Royal in Covent Garden , London,
20636-519: The time because of his use of floor space and scenery. Because of the turmoil before this time, there was still some controversy about what should and should not be put on the stage. Jeremy Collier , a preacher, was one of the heads in this movement through his piece A Short View of the Immorality and Profaneness of the English Stage . The beliefs in this paper were mainly held by non-theatre goers and
20790-458: The two stories – including the fact that one of Henry's closest friends, Sir Henry Norreys , was beheaded as one of Anne's supposed lovers and refused to confess in order to save his life, claiming that everyone knew the Queen was innocent. If this theory is followed, then Perdita becomes a dramatic representation of Anne's only daughter, Queen Elizabeth I . The play was not published until
20944-429: The type of play performed by the puppets. Both styles generally performed plays depicting great adventure and fantasy, rarely was this very stylized form of theatre used for political propaganda. Japanese forms of Kabuki , Nō , and Kyōgen developed in the 17th century CE. Cantonese shadow puppets were the larger of the two. They were built using thick leather which created more substantial shadows. Symbolic colour
21098-519: The wake of Renaissance Humanism ), but on the other hand, it was still very new and revolutionary that they were on the stage, and some said they were unladylike, and looked down on them. Charles II did not like young men playing the parts of young women, so he asked that women play their own parts. Because women were allowed on the stage, playwrights had more leeway with plot twists, like women dressing as men, and having narrow escapes from morally sticky situations as forms of comedy. Comedies were full of
21252-477: The work would present an "idle tale", an old wives' tale not intended to be realistic, and that it would offer the promise of a happy ending. The title may have been inspired by George Peele 's play The Old Wives' Tale of 1590, in which a storyteller tells "a merry winter's tale" of a missing daughter. Early in The Winter's Tale , the royal heir, Mamillius, warns that "a sad tale's best for winter". His mother
21406-475: The works of Shakespeare , Lope de Vega , Racine , and Schiller , to the more recent naturalistic tragedy of Strindberg , Beckett's modernist meditations on death, loss and suffering, and Müller's postmodernist reworkings of the tragic canon, tragedy has remained an important site of cultural experimentation, negotiation, struggle, and change. In the wake of Aristotle's Poetics (335 BCE), tragedy has been used to make genre distinctions, whether at
21560-485: The young and very much in vogue, with the storyline following their love lives: commonly a young roguish hero professing his love to the chaste and free minded heroine near the end of the play, much like Sheridan's The School for Scandal . Many of the comedies were fashioned after the French tradition, mainly Molière, again hailing back to the French influence brought back by the King and the Royals after their exile. Molière
21714-569: Was Thomas Hanmer 's 1744 argument that Bohemia is a printed error for Bithynia , an ancient nation in Asia Minor ; this theory was adopted in Charles Kean 's influential 19th-century production of the play, which featured a resplendent Bithynian court. At the time of the medieval Kingdom of Sicily, however, Bithynia was long extinct and its territories were controlled by the Byzantine Empire. On
21868-457: Was a form of dance - drama that employed a chorus whose parts were sung (to the accompaniment of an aulos —an instrument comparable to the modern oboe ), as were some of the actors' responses and their 'solo songs' ( monodies ). Modern musical theatre is a form of theatre that also combines music, spoken dialogue, and dance. It emerged from comic opera (especially Gilbert and Sullivan ), variety , vaudeville , and music hall genres of
22022-590: Was also acted at Whitehall during the festivities preceding Princess Elizabeth's marriage to Frederick V, Elector Palatine , on 14 February 1613. Later Court performances occurred on 7 April 1618, 18 January 1623 and 16 January 1634. It was not revived during the Restoration , unlike many other Shakespearean plays. The Winter's Tale was performed in 1741 at Goodman's Fields Theatre and in 1742 at Covent Garden . Adaptations, titled The Sheep-Shearing and Florizal and Perdita , were acted at Covent Garden in 1754 and at Drury Lane in 1756. Notable stagings in
22176-440: Was also very prevalent; a black face represented honesty, a red one bravery. The rods used to control Cantonese puppets were attached perpendicular to the puppets' heads. Thus, they were not seen by the audience when the shadow was created. Pekingese puppets were more delicate and smaller. They were created out of thin, translucent leather (usually taken from the belly of a donkey). They were painted with vibrant paints, thus they cast
22330-544: Was built entirely in Iran, under the direction of John Miller, the company's production manager and played at the Vahdat Hall , Tehran. In May 2015, Dundee Repertory Theatre appointed Nick Parr as its new chief executive officer. He took over from Philip Howard, who held the joint roles of CEO and, with Jemima Levick, joint artistic director. He leads Dundee Rep Theatre Ltd solely in the role of chief executive, working alongside Levick as sole artistic director and Fleur Darkin who
22484-400: Was completed to house Scottish Dance Theatre. The Rep's in-house productions offer a repertoire of acclaimed works. The Rep also commissions playwrights to create new works and translate and adapt classical texts, making it relevant to Scotland's contemporary cultural and social climate. In 2007 Dundee Rep Ensemble created Sunshine on Leith featuring the music of The Proclaimers. It soon became
22638-507: Was designed by Thomas Killigrew and built on the site of the present Theatre Royal, Drury Lane . One of the big changes was the new theatre house. Instead of the type of the Elizabethan era, such as the Globe Theatre , round with no place for the actors to prepare for the next act and with no "theatre manners", the theatre house became transformed into a place of refinement, with a stage in front and stadium seating facing it. Since seating
22792-452: Was founded as a collaboration between professionals with amateur support. Around this time people thought it strange to be concentrating on drama during the turmoil of World War II . However the company performed weekly repertory during the war and the rest of the 1940s and throughout the 1950s. The company was housed in Foresters' Hall (6 Nicoll street to 3 Rattray Street) which was built for
22946-406: Was later used by Shakespeare's company. One comic moment in the play deals with a servant not realising that poetry featuring references to dildos is vulgar, presumably from not knowing what the word means. This play and Ben Jonson 's play The Alchemist (1610) are typically cited as the first usage of the word in publication. The Alchemist was printed first, but the debate about the date of
23100-400: Was launched which raised a massive £ 60,000 in under six weeks, reaching an eventual total of £200,000 outstripping all possible expectations, in a city that was then in the midst of economic recession. The new theatre opened on 8 April 1982, designed by Dundee-based architects Nicoll Russell Studios . The building proved a great success – with a personal 455-seater auditorium, providing one of
23254-422: Was no longer all the way around the stage, it became prioritized—some seats were obviously better than others. The king would have the best seat in the house: the very middle of the theatre, which got the widest view of the stage as well as the best way to see the point of view and vanishing point that the stage was constructed around. Philippe Jacques de Loutherbourg was one of the most influential set designers of
23408-512: Was one of the top comedic playwrights of the time, revolutionizing the way comedy was written and performed by combining Italian commedia dell'arte and neoclassical French comedy to create some of the longest lasting and most influential satiric comedies. Tragedies were similarly victorious in their sense of righting political power, especially poignant because of the recent Restoration of the Crown. They were also imitations of French tragedy, although
23562-461: Was politically allied with that of Rudolf II , and the characters and dramatic roles of the rulers of Sicily and Bohemia were reversed for reasons of political sensitivity, and in particular to allow it to be performed at the wedding of the Princess Elizabeth. In 1891, Edmund Oscar von Lippmann pointed out that "Bohemia" was also a rare name for Apulia in southern Italy. More influential
23716-513: Was revived again in the 19th century, when the fourth " pastoral " act was widely popular. In the second half of the 20th century, The Winter's Tale was often performed in its entirety, drawn largely from the First Folio text, with varying degrees of success. Sicilia Bohemia Other Characters Following a brief introductory scene, the play begins with the appearance of two childhood friends: Leontes, King of Sicily , and Polixenes,
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