Theatre From / For / Against / With Religion
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It is traditionally held that theatre, or at very least the western theatre, originated in ancient Greece from worship rituals. As the forerunner to the great tragic theatre of the era, lengthy choral passages called the "dithyramb" were performed in honor and worship of the Greek god Dionysus. These passages were typically spoken or sung by a chorus of fifty men. The dithyramb was not at all dramatic, but it is indeed the stuff from which the western theatre is made. Dramatic action took place when one of the men, Thespis, as legend has it, stepped out of the chorus and spoke individually. You can imagine after decades of unison performance the shock created by the first actor.

As a result, much later, the Greeks staged elaborate theatre festivals. "City Dionysus," staged in Athens, is the most well known of the festivals. At each festival, the three invited playwrights each produced three tragedies and a satyr play in honor of the god Dionysus.

Theatre, at this point in history, was inextricably linked with religion. The plays were literally intended for worship as they were both written and performed in honor of the gods. However, as time passed theatre began to move away from the church. That is to say the focus of theatre began to revolve more around the performance than on the purpose for that performance. Though the festivals continued to be dedicated to the gods, the theatre of the Romans had more to do with crowd-pleasing spectacle than with worship. This progression away from direct religious purpose continued through the Roman era.

Often public spectacle such as gladiatorial battles coincided with theatre festivals. For example, a spectator could easily walk between venues to see simultaneous gladiatorial matches and Roman comedic theatre. The equivalent today would be for a moderately successful Neil Simon play to be performed along side a boxing match so that the spectators could walk between them at will. Just try and keep and audience entertained. Therefore, in order to keep the audience from wandering over to the bloody display next door, the theatre practitioners of the day were forced, or rather chose, to rely on elaborate displays. Key elements of these displays were graphic sexuality and violence. Interestingly, neither would ever have been allowed onto any self-respecting Greek stage.

By the end of the era, the emerging Christian church existed in direct contrast with theatre. More succinctly, the Christian church at this point existed in violent opposition to the entire early Roman imperial worldview. The fact that the theatre acted in contrast with them falls in line with societal norms of the period. Christians were slaughtered in mass in the Coliseum. It is a natural step for the lowly mime troupes to use Christians as the object of their comedy.

Clearly, the gap between theatre and religion is and always has been in a state of flux. As we move further in time, the tide begins to shift, but not before the church seeks its vengeance. Towards the beginning of the Middle Ages in Europe, theatre was completely eradicated by the church. As the power shifted at the end of the Roman Empire towards Christianity, eliminating the theatre was the natural progression in the age-old struggle.

At the same time however, the rituals of the church ironically became increasingly theatrical. Paralleling the dithyramb, the continental European medieval church began to use long musical passages called tropes as part of their worship practice. These passages lacked any sort of text in the beginning. However, functioning similarly to the Greek chorus, monks and religious clerics began to add lyrics to the trope. The jump toward dramatic action naturally evolved when two groups of monks began to chant biblical passages to each other in Latin.

The next step in theatre's evolution is a theatrical form known today as liturgical drama. These were performed inside the church and spoken in Latin, and they did not have any real plot structure. Rather, the monks presented scenes from the Bible while paying no attention to chronological order or dialogue. Originally these performances were staged as an effort to draw parishioners from the pagan rituals, also quite theatrical, with which the church was in constant conflict. For example, Christ's true birth date is more than likely in the spring, near the time of Passover. However, as an attempt to draw people away from pagan ritual, Christmas and the accompanying liturgy were strategically placed in order to coincide with the Druid winter festival. At this point, we see theatre once again being used as worship. Added to this is the new evangelical function of theatre.

Later, mystery and morality plays evolved from the liturgical dramas. These were performed outside of the church in the vernacular language. Here, we see again theatre moving away from religion. What was performed inside the church is now outside. What was spoken in Latin began to be spoken in the common language. Theatre at this stage was not yet separate from the church. However, with this step we see the tide changing once again.

This ebb and flow can be traced throughout history. By the renaissance in Europe, theatre had become once again firmly planted outside of the church and in the popular culture. Clearly, Shakespeare was no religious cleric, but after the beheading of Charles I, the puritans, lead by Cromwell, banned theatre for religious purposes. Theatre returns with a vengeance once Charles II was restored to the throne. The cycle is endless, and extends through to our own era where the clash revolves more around censorship debates than the church.

With this, we have to ask the question, "Why." Why are theatre and religion constantly in a struggle against one another? The answer is simple. Theatre is the evolutionary product of religious ritual. Noted author and scholar, Joseph Campbell tells us that "myth" is a traditional story of apparent historical events that serves to explicate part of the world view of a people or to explain a specific practice, belief, or natural phenomenon. A "ritual" is the formalized method of gaining control of myth. Through ritual a society is able to put myth to use. Ritual is the acting out of an established procedure that serves to link a society to myth. I submit two items as clear examples of this: the theatre festivals of Ancient Greece and the liturgical dramas of the early Roman Catholic Church. Both examples are rituals devised to put action and use to myth. Both examples work toward similar ends.

Theatre in our own time functions in much the same way as the more overt religious rites that I have described previously. Through theatre the modern playwright relates a story, a myth, and through the course of the play, the ritual, the story's function is realized. One could easily argue that these stories of the modern playwright are not myths. However, modern playwrights compose in order to make sense of their circumstances and to convey their collective or individual perceptions of that world view, and with this, we come back to the original function of myth through ritual. The church and the theatre function as a means to connect with myth, and it is this overlap that has caused and always will cause conflict between the two.

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