The focus of this project is on the complex interplay between the ritual, spatial, social and fictional dimensions of theatre in Graeco-Roman Antiquity. Beyond simply searching for representations of contemporary politics in dramatic works, the project will examine how categorial tensions in social fabric (e.g. female–male, enslaved–free, mass-elite) and conflicts are negotiated – or escalate (at times to the point of riot) – in reciprocal interaction of actors, musicians and (diverse) audiences whose communications follow the peculiar logic of the theatre as a space where fictional representations and reality meet (e.g. in breachings of the ‘fourth wall’ or in political instrumentalizations of the festive assembly).

To achieve this, the project aims at assembling a compendium of sources that provide insight into the the dynamic processes of conceptualisation, reception, corroboration/transformation of important social oppositions and categories through different media related to the theatre (texts, iconography, expression of voices, spatial and architectural settings); these media will be not studied in isolation, but with a view to their interaction, to grasp their different and specific rules, and their functioning in social discourse. To analyse this material and examine case studies through which situations of resonance or conflict between fiction and reality, stage personnel and audience become tangible, conceptual frameworks like ANT or Resonance/Dissonance will need to be considered and applied. The project will thus contribute to a fuller understanding of the mechanisms by which theatre – as ritual, spatial and social event – creates moments for the conceptualization, critique and transformation of social categories.

For further information on the project, please contact Prof. Heide Frielinghaus (frieling@uni-mainz.de).