Since the Accounting: A Chronicle of the Roman Khanate

Chapter 212 The Romans' Hobbies
Amidst the cheers of the audience, the curtain was drawn again, and the staff started a new round of busy work.The audience also took the opportunity to start activities, chat, and wait for the next scene to start.

"Isn't the episode just now not bad?" Li Xuanying commented: "I heard that the male and female characters have some emotionally more complex interactions, and the audience will like it more. It seems that it is indeed the case."

"I don't really understand this." Guo Kang admitted, "But I think the most important thing is how to express emotions on stage so that the audience can feel them."

"This is really..." Li Xuanying thought for a while, and said, "I know people from their troupe, the actors from Philotes and the actors from Sun, and they are indeed a couple."

"That's it, then maybe you really understand this kind of emotion." Guo Kang nodded, and then thought of another question.

"Huh? I remember that in serious Greek dramas, it was a requirement that no actresses appear?"

"Yes, this is the method of people's ancestors. It has been like this since the classical era." Li Xuanying said: "The actresses appearing directly are generally not serious dramas, but the kind that rural people like... very direct. repertoire."

"In relatively serious scripts, especially the most important tragedies and historical dramas, in principle, all male actors must be used. However, this kind of role is mainly based on symbolic meaning. Everyone wears masks, and later the drama was introduced. , it’s not a big problem for male actors to play female roles.”

Guo Kang opened his mouth and paused for a moment: "Then what we are watching is a serious drama."

"This is promoted by the church as a key publicity tool. No matter how serious Master Wang is, he should pay attention to it." Li Xuanying pointed out.

Guo Kang thought for a while, wondering if the couple was serious.

——Of course, after thinking about it more seriously, he felt that this might be a serious couple on the Greek side.

"I understand, then there is no problem." He said: "It seems that these details are also worth noting. In the future, we may be able to sum up our own set of drama routines. We can do what the Romans like. "

"It's not Rome, it's a feature of the new Greek comedy and contemporary Italian market drama." Li Xuanying seemed to have studied it, and told him: "Of course, we don't need to learn from ancient Rome completely. The comedy of ancient Rome is actually Not very successful."

"Is there such a difference?" Guo Kang really didn't know about it.

"Actually, the level is not as good as the Greeks." Li Xuanying replied: "But this is a long story. Because the development of Greek dramas is relatively complete and clear. It was not these comedies that were admired at the beginning. It's a tragedy."

"The tragedies in the classical Greek era are different from the current ones. There is often no clear duality of good and evil in them. The images of the characters are more complicated, and it is often difficult to summarize them in simple good and bad."

"The contradiction in the tragedy is not as simple as the contradiction between the good guy and the villain. Strictly speaking, it should be the contradiction between human will and fate—or the free choice of human beings, and some kind of 'necessity' that is difficult to change. ’ between conflicts.”

"Using an example that we can understand better, that is, Prime Minister Zhuge died of illness in Wuzhangyuan." Seeing that Guo Kang still didn't understand much, he directly gave an example: "Zhuge Liang's free will, and the historical fate of the final failure of the revival of the Han Dynasty, produced It created an extremely strong conflict, and made future generations have the feeling of "human beings make things happen, and heaven makes things happen."

"As the saying goes, 'The hero is not free'. This kind of emotion is actually very similar to the classic Greek tragedy."

"That's it." Guo Kang thought for a while, and felt that they were indeed somewhat similar.

"There must still be a difference. The Greeks at that time, after all, had a short history, and their sense of history was not as strong as we are now. They did have a vague sense of the general trend hidden in history and society, but they could not sum it up. It’s clear, but I can’t understand the logic. Therefore, in the play, this kind of feeling is often attributed to some relatively “virtual” personal fates and chanted.” Li Xuanying gestured and tried to explain.

"In comparison, we now have a lot of personal experience of the general trend of the rise and fall of history. We can also empathize with the powerlessness of individuals in it, which makes the story a lot thicker."

"But in terms of aesthetics, I feel that the two sides are similar. Prometheus and Zhuge Liang are both such typical tragic heroes."

"That's right." Guo Kang thought for a while and agreed, "I think this kind of story is quite shocking."

"Yeah, tragedy doesn't mean to make people feel sad. The Greeks at that time tended to think that the point of tragedy was to reflect the nobility of heroes." Li Xuanying said: "Therefore, they even looked at it with an optimistic attitude. Tragedy, it is believed that although the hero is destroyed, his spirit is invincible. This kind of ending cannot be classified as tragic, and can even be regarded as a kind of spiritual fulfillment.”

"It sounds very profound." Guo Kang said.

"The wise men in ancient Greece regarded tragedy as education, not entertainment." Li Xuanying said: "According to Aristotle, tragedy describes serious events, and its purpose is to purify people's emotions. Follow Compared with the current popular dramas, there is still a big difference.”

"But this kind of drama only flourished for a while." He thought about it, and said: "I remember hearing people say that the time when the tragedy family dominated was not long. After the heyday passed, comedy soon became the mainstream. gone."

"Is there any particularity here?" Guo Kang really didn't understand.

"To put it simply, the environment has changed, and people don't believe in gods and destiny as much as before." Li Xuanying said: "During the prosperity of the classical era, the Greeks were very superstitious. Not worshiping the gods of the city-state can be punished with death. serious crime on which Socrates was killed.”

"Under this atmosphere, people believe that God's will arranges the development of events and human encounters. Therefore, in epics and tragedies, God's will can be used to explain the issue of fate."

"But in the late fifth century before the era of Brother Tian, ​​Athens encountered a major political and military crisis. The original order of the Greek world gradually became invalid, and philosophers began to advocate rationality. It caused people to start doubting God more and more."

"Decades after Socrates' death, the Greeks had been tortured so much that they didn't believe in the justice and authority of God. They still believed in the gods of the city-state in name, but the people began to believe that God would not interfere with human life, leading to Attitudes towards religion have also become much more negative.”

"Then if things go on like this, will the Greeks follow the same development direction as ours?" Guo Kang suddenly felt that this trend is also quite interesting.

"I'm not sure about that. Maybe if time is long enough, there's a possibility." Li Xuanying didn't seem to have thought about it seriously: "But I think the Greeks are indeed more pragmatic than other Europeans, maybe it really has something to do with history. ..."

"I actually heard this knowledge from other people, so I didn't think too deeply about it. If you are interested, you can also talk to them directly." He thought for a while and said, "Although it is a drama History, but it should also reflect social changes.”

"On the whole, can you sum up the context?" Guo Kang asked.

"On the whole, I am more and more inclined to write about ordinary people directly." Li Xuanying said: "The protagonists of comedies often have nothing to do with God, and they are not heroes. The comedies at this time mainly satirize the immorality in politics and society. Phenomena prevail.”

"The source of comedy is the vulgar farce in the countryside, and the plot is relatively more popular, so it is easy to be welcomed by more people. In addition, the playwrights of this period also began to actively cater to the audience and design the plot."

"This is the direction everyone will choose." Guo Kang said.

"Of course. Even tragedy writers are changing their habits. Like Euripides, a relatively late writer, he began to study how to add a relatively happy ending to the script." Li Xuanying introduced the classic characters: "Because traditional tragedies , said that it has achieved spiritual perfection and sublimation, but many people still find it difficult to accept it. There is no other way but to change it like this.”

"This is especially true for comedies. Their target audience is larger and their education level is relatively lower, so they can only make further changes. For example, these ordinary Greeks prefer stories of happy reunion, and they are not interested in profound philosophy. Thinking is not very interesting. Therefore, comedies are becoming more and more popular, and the storyline tends to have a happy ending to cater to the audience."

"In addition, comedy itself is constantly changing with the development of the times. In terms of context, there are probably a few more." He listed.

"First of all, it's the scene. The earliest plays didn't have special scenes, or even the interaction of multiple actors, but a single-person performance. This person would play all the roles in various symbolic ways."

"Later, Aeschylus changed the configuration of the stage and increased it to two people. Only at this time did the 'opposing play' appear, and it was also the first time that 'dramatic conflict' really appeared on the stage. That's why he is so high in the history of drama. status."

"Sophocles increased the number of people to three, and also expanded the size of the chorus to more than a dozen people. At that time, the chorus not only had to sing background music, but also had to enter the venue to dance to show the changes in the environment. In addition, I have to play the roles of narration and commentary. These functions were not separated until later, when the drama became more and more complicated."

"But with the Greeks, the pace of development has been slow. It wasn't until the rise of Rome that the scale of the theater really exploded."

"The ancient Romans were different from the Greeks. They didn't like performances that were too abstract and required thinking and imagination, but they liked real scenes. Their own formal dramas were also different from the Greeks. They didn't come from Dionysus sacrifices, but It comes from a war dance called 'Pilika'. Therefore, during this period, the stage expanded rapidly, and the number of performers reached hundreds of people."

"For example, in the plot there is a part of driving a carriage to fight. When the Greeks performed, they might use dance steps and libretto to express it, but the Romans would actually drive a carriage up and fight on the spot."

"Isn't this a gladiatorial performance?" Guo Kang said with a smile.

"It was indeed combined with gladiatorial performances very quickly." Li Xuanying said: "The Romans did not have a separate theater for a long time, but there were a lot of dramatic gladiatorial performances. Some arenas were designed at a level comparable to that of the Greeks. When it was built, careful arrangements were used, and water could even be poured into the site, and boats could be driven in to perform water battle scenes.”

"These technologies have allowed Roman theater to develop rapidly in terms of sets and props, which can be said to be completely different from the Greek style."

"I didn't really pay attention to it before. There are so many scenes in the wrestling." Guo Kang recalled, and found that his impression of the wrestling seemed to be that the two sides fought to the death.

"Actually, performance is the main part of gladiatorial combat." Li Xuanying said: "Even if gladiators perform two-two fighting performances, in most occasions, it is only performance-based, which is different from actual combat."

"Gladiators have undergone special training, and their movements tend to be exaggerated and fancy, and they will also pay attention to reducing the probability of casualties. After all, a skilled gladiator has a high status and a very high price. The gladiator boss is reluctant to let them casually died."

"When there are really a lot of casualties in the arena, it is basically because the organizers deliberately let prisoners, prisoners of war and the like join in in order to create a bloody scene. Most of these people have no fighting skills and are in poor condition. Deadly. When they meet well-trained professional gladiators, they are often killed in groups. But this is not so much fighting as it is performing massacres, and the ending is actually doomed."

"People at that time really liked bloody scenes..." Guo Kang said with emotion.

"In fact, it has always been the same." Li Xuanying said: "But even so, the cost is too high. So there are still some, just let the gladiators kill the animals on the spot."

"Oh, later on, Christians were put in and animals were killed on the spot." He added: "After all, there are too many Christians, they will pop up everywhere, it's worthless."

"Uh, we are also considered Christians now." Guo Kang quickly reminded.

"Huh?" Li Xuanying was stunned for a moment before realizing: "Oh, I forgot..."

"..." Guo Kang didn't know what to say for a moment.

"Uh, I'm just an objective point of view. Let me summarize the development." Li Xuanying argued: "In short, the official drama of the Romans probably follows this idea."

"However, there are not many such plays that have survived to the present. The Romans paid too much attention to the spectacle. They focused on the grand scenery and good music effects, but ignored the script itself. Even when they copied Greek plays, they liked Only perform the climax and ignore the storyline before and after. In this environment, it is difficult to produce good works."

(End of this chapter)