The Diminishing Role of Stage Properties in Aristophanic Comedy

Abstract

Stage properties play an essential role in virtually every theatrical performance: they animate the dramatic action by articulating plot structure, by highlighting thematic unity, and by shaping individual characterization. Nevertheless, critics and scholars frequently overlook or ignore stage properties, despite their integral part in the success of the production. Perhaps these tangible objects are thought to blend too conveniently into the dramatic setting to warrant specific observation; or perhaps they are simply deemed incidental, and so are categorized as frivolous and not particularly enlightening. Admittedly, for contemporary drama, such studies might prove unnecessary because modern plays often contain copious stage directions that describe the requisite stage properties and govern the use of material objects. In the case of ancient stage productions, however, our full understanding of the plays depends upon an accurate reconstruction of the aural and visual components of the play to the extent that literary and archaeological sources allow. To overlook the role of stage properties within this context is to disregard an entire aspect of the performance that no doubt affected the ancient audience on several levels. (1) Moreover, the sheer ubiquity of properties in the plays of Aristophanes, as opposed to those present in the other dramatic genres of antiquity, (2) justifies analysis. In fact, Aristophanic stage properties are our most tangible link to the visual components of Athenian Old Comedy. Ancient sources reveal that Aristophanes' creative use of material objects contributed significantly to the success of his comedies. As Plato testifies in his Apology, Socrates' fate was determined in part by the visual caricature of him in Clouds, a production that occurred in its revised form twenty years before his execution. Although the Athenian audience no doubt recalled the words by which Aristophanes mocked this fifth-century philosopher, Plato pinpointed Aristophanes' visual depiction of Socrates--dangling from a basket and pontificating from the mekhane (in the space typically reserved for divine characters) to the befuddled Strepsiades and another wayward pupil of the Thinkery--as one of the main reasons that public opinion turned against this prominent figure. (3) The long-term ramifications of such visual characterization from a play, which, in its original form, placed third in the dramatic competition, can only lead us to wonder whether Aristophanes' innovative use of material goods contributed even more significantly to his prize-winning comedies. In this paper, I explore the various ways in which Aristophanes incorporated physical objects into his comedies. I will group these into five categories: his extensive use of luxury items; his ability to acquire specially constructed stage properties; his composition of stock scenes orchestrated around the systematic presentation of stage objects; his tendency to concretize abstract arguments with physical items; and his creativity in employing stage properties as the foundation for verbal puns. The abundance of stage properties in the early plays of Aristophanes and the types of scenes in which they function as the sole focal point seem to indicate that the strategic use of objects was a major component in securing victory at the dramatic competitions. However, as time progressed and public funds diminished, (4) Aristophanes began to rely less heavily on his use of physical objects. (5) In his later plays, we find many of the same stock scenes, but now the playwright has substituted verbal word-play for the onstage display of tangible objects. Could this trend in stagecraft explain, in part, the rise of Middle Comedy with its emphasis on stock characterization and dramatic monologues? In other words, could the inability to supply and manufacture spectacular stage properties have forced Aristophanes and his contemporaries to change the type of comedy that they produced? …