Firstly, the masks were very vital to the play but also demanded more skill from the actors. The large mask helped all the poeple in the theatre even in the back to help them to find out what was happening. Views were not optimal and good from all places in the theatre and mask were vital in helping the audience understand the story line and what was happening. The masks actually extended the cast to around fifteen people as masks often were different and could be swapped around to represent different characters. This meant that one actor could actually play up to five unique roles in the whole play and revolutionized the way plays were wrote by the playwrights. Therefore stories became more complex and exciting to watch than basic and primitive plays. The fact that masks had blank expressions demanded more feeling and thought from the actor who were only equipped with their word and were required to give more feeling. Inevitably, this meant that plays were more energetic and professional.
Secondly, the costumes were heavy. This meant that there could no sudden movements made by the actors during the play. This actually meant that actors would move dignified and also this meant that the scenes were actually clearer for the audience so there was no confusion between audience and actor. This may account for the normal slow pace of an ancient and modern tragedy that have been made easier to understand by the general slow pace by the actors. The costumes also helped to very easily reflect the actor’s role and better quality costumes normally reflected kings or gods in the play and helped everyone to distinguish from certain other characters.
I think the tragic costume actually helped in the sense of acting as the masks expanded the cast and encouraged better acting skills and this helped to develop tragedy as a whole and the costumes also encouraged more creativity on and off the stage.
Comedy costumes were very different and they consisted of a short scruffy tunic of poor quality and thick tights. The comedians would wear slippers and a phallos, a fake strapped-on penis that would symbolise the fertility of Dionysus. Tunics were often brightly decorated. Their masks were greatly exaggerated and often had a clownish but somewhat disturbing look as the grins are very wide grin, tense eyebrows with a very wrinkled forehead.
Firstly, the costumes were very light. This allowed the comedians/actors to run about in order to act out scenes and this funny and quick pace is an almost contradiction to tragedy so there is a clear distinction even in acting. The short tunic allowed them to easily move as comedy scenes were energetic so the tunic suited their acting needs.
Secondly, the phallos is a symbol of great puzzlement as to its use. Although it represented fertility but it must have definitely attracting the more sexed up playwrights. The phallos may have coincidentally acted as a sexual symbol as sexual humour was often preferred in Ancient Greece. This can be proved by the fact that a famous play depicted a story of a man disguising his phallos so it was definitely advantageous due to its ability to create more story lines and generally more satisfying plays.
The masks could often be swapped and comedians would be able to act out different people in sketches or fill in other roles in the whole play.
Overall, I think the costumes actually favoured the movement of actors or comedians on stage. This was vital as it provided a main distinction between comedy and tragedy as well as being suitable for the acting of the play itself.
The last costume is the satirical costume. This was seen as the most traditional of the genres and is now seen as more primitive. Some satirical costumes actually resembled costumes in tragedy providing the link between the two genres of play. However, some costumes were very explicit and mainly had a sexual theme behind it. Some satirical costumes mainly consisted of normal fur to cover the private parts as well as a tail that would be attached. Some were even said to have animal masks resembling woodland creatures such as fauns.
Firstly, I think that was the most original idea of actually reflecting what the actor was playing. I think it would be very confusing without the costume for the audience. The fur and tail lends itself to the fact that the actors were attempting to play an animal and the costumes helped to fill in the void in the audience’s imagination. Inevitably, this also helped the actors to move across the stage ‘like’ an animal so there was a real importance to this most strange costume.
To conclude, I think the costumes and mask favoured theatre in all aspects: story, creativity, acting and so on. I think there is no real defined sense in which the costumes and masks were most favourable.
