4. Staging the Frogs

About this Lecture

Lecture

In this module, we think about the Frogs as a play that was performed rather than a text to be read, focusing in particular on: (i) the padded body-suit that all comic actors would wear, known as the somation; (ii) the layering of costumes, e.g. when the character of Dionysus (already an actor in a costume, of course) dresses up as Heracles; (iii) the detailed underworld landscape, and the extent to which this landscape would have been physically represented on stage; (iv) the staging challenges presented by Dionysus boat-trip across the lake – and some potential solutions; and (v) the staging challenge presented by having two choruses – the frogs and the Eleusinian initiates – and some potential solutions.

Course

In this course, Dr Naomi Scott (University of Nottingham) explores Aristophanes’ Frogs. In the first module, we think about the social, political and historical context of Aristophanes’ Frogs. In the second module, we think about the role of myth and ritual in the play, before turning in the third module to consider the ways in which Frogs plays with its own status as a work of theatre. In the fourth module, we think about the Frogs as a play that was performed rather than a text to be read, before turning in the fifth and final module to the tragic contest between Aeschylus and Euripides that dominates the second half of the play.

Lecturer

Dr Naomi Scott is Teaching Associate in Classics at the University of Nottingham. Her research focuses on on Old Comedy, and she works both on the plays of Aristophanes and also on the fragments of other comedians such as Cratinus, Pherecrates, and Archippus.