The performers wore masks that both amplified volume and expressiveness, as well as exaggerating facial expressions. Without sets, the words the characters spoke created the entire scene, and they did so magnificently. A building in the back of the stage, the skene, served as a fixed structure for entrances and exits. The stagings had costumes, but little scenery in the modern sense. What a writer and performers did with a story was what mattered. In ancient Greece, the underlying stories came from the tales of Greek gods and famous early heroes, and they were generally common knowledge-viewers already knew what was going to happen. You want to wonder what will happen, what’s coming next. In today’s theater, unless you go to see a revival or a very famous play, you expect to be surprised by the plot. The festivals went on for many days, and people would see tragedies and comedies, one after another, tales of gods and men, under the Mediterranean sky. The audience for these plays was very large-the theaters could seat over 15,000, and likely included women and slaves. The Bacchae is one of the best-known works from the golden age of Greek drama, the fifth century BCE, when plays were performed in large open air theaters as part of seasonal festivals called Dionysia (named after the Greek god who is the central character in this play). So what do you need to know about The Bacchae before you read it?
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