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productions, and often acted in their own productions. There was no
fixed number of actors in a Roman drama, and whether or not they wore
masks is one of the most hotly debated questions in theatrical scholarship
today (Slater, 6 n. 7; Moore, 1 n. 2). Costumes helped distinguish the
various stock characters in the comedy, like the wily slave or the greedy
pimp; long tunics distinguished free citizens, while short ones marked out
slaves, soldiers, and sometimes young men. Colors also classified different
characters: red for slaves, white for virgins, yellow for prostitutes (because
gold is the color of money). Plays were performed during the day in the
open air, on a raised wooden stage specially constructed for each festival,
as there was no permanent stone theater in Rome until Pompey built one
in 55 bc. Most stages represented a city street, with a stage building painted
with two or three house-fronts serving as a backdrop, and actors could
enter through these doorways or from the projecting wings on either side
of the stage. Roman spectators were notoriously rowdy and rude, heckling
actors who fumbled their lines, and noisily leaving their seats if the play
did not immediately grab their attention. Perhaps for this reason, food
and drink were not allowed at Roman plays.
The two most famous Latin comic playwrights were Titus Maccius
Plautus (ca. 254–184 bc) and Publius Terentius Afer (ca. 185–159 bc).
Their surviving plays – about twenty for Plautus, six for Terence, who
died young – show a great variety of plots: innocent mistaken identity;
deliberate deception, usually by a scheming slave; and romantic or domestic
complications, like a father and son in love with the same woman
(Konstan, 24–9, 49–51). Certain comic motifs and characters recur: youthful
star-crossed lovers, smart slave vs. dim-witted master, vain braggart
soldiers, henpecked husbands, loyal good-hearted prostitutes, dashing
entrances, and wild chase scenes. The farcical comedy is built upon plays
of generally sound narrative construction, usually with the underlying concept
of removing the many obstacles to true love. At the same time, the
institution of marriage is often the butt of jokes, as upper-class male characters
are often depicted as subjugated to their powerful, opinionated, and
often wealthier wives. This may correspond to the contemporary reality of
the growing social and economic status of the aristocratic Roman matrona
during the last century of the Republic, and the attendant controversies
about the appropriate role of married women (Moore, 158–80). Although
the complications of romance and marriage are on uproarious display in
Roman comedy, the plots almost always end with the happy and secure
joining of couples.
164 A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE FORUM (1966)