Trans in Ancient Greek & Roman Theatre

By Hebe Dotson

The character in the play is a woman, but what about the performer who’s playing the part on the stage?

The answer to that question, for much of the time that human beings have staged plays — from ancient Greece and Rome to Elizabethan England — would have been, “It’s a man.” To paraphrase a song from Showboat, life upon the wicked stage weren’t nothin’ for a girl.

In this article, we’ll take a quick look at ancient Greek and Roman theatre, with occasional excursions to non-Roman portions of Italy and a closing segue to late second millenium New York. Our principal reference is the two-volume The Complete Roman Drama, by George E. Duckworth (New York: Random House, 1942).

A Little Background

Staged performances that twentieth-century people would recognize as plays, with multiple performers and scripted dramatic stories, appeared in ancient Greece around the sixth century BC. They were the work of such playwrights as Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, and Aristophanes, who flourished in the sixth and fifth centuries BC, and Menander (late fourth and early third centuries BC).

Roman theatre is said to have begun in 240 BC, when Livius Andronicus translated and adapted two Greek plays — a comedy and a tragedy — for Roman audiences. In doing this, Livius set a precedent, for most of the plays performed in Latin over the next century or two were adapted from earlier Greek plays.

There were other, non-Roman, theatrical activities in Italy before “Roman theatre” came into being. The Greeks had established numerous colonies in Sicily and southern Italy (and elsewhere in the Mediterranean region), where farces and mimes (essentially farcical monologues with music and dancing) were performed. A native Italian variety of comedy known as fabula Atellana, featuring singing, dancing, and crude and obscene jokes, had been developed by the Oscans. These probably had a strong influence on Roman playwrights.

Only a few plays from the classical era have come down to the present day more or less intact. Many survive only as titles, and only fragments remain of many more. Duckworth’s Complete Roman Drama contains only 37 plays that are complete enough to be performable — twenty comedies of Plautus, six comedies of Terence, ten tragedies of Seneca, and one late Roman play by an unknown author.

Theatrical Crossdressing

In classical times, there were two varieties of theatrical transgenderism — men performing the roles of female characters and men performing the roles of men dressed as women. There was much more of the former than the latter, for all female roles were performed by men in ancient Greek and early Roman theatre. By the time of Julius Caesar, however, in the first century BC, this institutional crossdressing had disappeared and actresses had taken over the female parts.

The comedies of the Roman playwrights Plautus and Terence included such female roles as married women (matronae), maid servants (ancillae), and courtesans (meretrices). Seldom, if ever, would a young maiden be portrayed on the stage, as unmarried girls in Greek society were sequestered in their homes. (The Romans didn’t do drawing room comedies or other indoor plays; their sets were urban streets and building exteriors). Although young women were often central to a plot, their actions took place behind the scenes, and they were neither seen nor heard on stage.

Greek and Roman theatrical productions were much less realistic in most respects — plot, dialogue, scenery, etc. — than the plays we see today. The performers were costumed, however. The characters in the Greek-inspired comedies of Plautus and Terence wore Greek dress. The male actors who played female roles wore long, flowing robes over long-sleeved undergarments. The actors also wore wigs (apparently for both male and female roles). By convention, black wigs identified youthful characters, while white wigs signified older characters and slave characters usually wore red wigs.

In Greek comedy, and probably in early Roman plays as well, each actor used a stylized mask to portray the gender and emotional state of his character. The masks made it possible for the audience to identify characters and their feelings on sight, without the need for extensive exposition or highly-developed acting skills. They also made it easier for the audience to accept a male actor as a female character.

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Tags: featured, History, theater

Category: Transgender History