The Theatre

 
In Roman times, it would have been absurd to think that one had to build a set on stage every time one wanted to put on a play. It would have been just as absurd to think that a play would be set in the countryside. No, the requisite moral dimension of the Roman theatre is the city - the man made environment. Drama deals with material that concerns us all, as civic material, in the public realm. Private matters are nobody else's business and therefore inherently un-dramatic.

In painting, the illusion is entirely pictorial, that is, the mind must imagine a reality out of the static representative elements. In the theatre, the voicing of the words carry the illusion that the actions seem to be creating, therefore if a play is well written, any background can be rendered into the meaning of the play. How well Arthur Miller's 'Death of a Salesman' would perform in a Roman theatre, or indeed Beckett's 'Waiting for Godot'.