Comic Stages in Magna Graecia: the Evidence of the Vases

Abstract

It has long been believed that the style of comedy depicted on southern Italian vases of the fourth century BC was a local Italiote form called phylax . A. D. Trendall, the leading authority on the vases, has consistently taken the view that the plays were ‘impromptu’ performances, ‘in which light, movable sets could be used to indicate the required background’. It is not surprising that this has become accepted history: the vases, it is believed, represent improvised farce performed on makeshift stages by strolling actors, also called phlyakes .