Modern Adaptations

"Tug of War" from the Getty Villa Malibu Theatre

I have already shown you a modern adaptation of The Rope in my posting, "Past Productions". The Getty Villa theatre did their adapatation which they titled Tug of War. There is also one called Il Ruffiano by Dolce (1560) and Rudens by Echard (1694). Plus one of two of the plots of The Captives by Heywood (1624). All of these shows were based off of or are a close imitation to The Rope by Plautus.

It's interesting to see other's adaptations of this specific play. The Rope is in fact an adaptation of a Greek play. So even Plautus wrote adapations of other people's plays. I find it very interesting to see how far these plays come over time. Plus every translation of these ancient plays are slightly different. All the concepts are the same but one must keep in mind that they are still a translation. If you read these adaptations they can give you new ideas and concepts for character, set, plot, and even props; really any aspect of the play.

Sources:
"The Rope" The Complete Roman Drama: All the Extant Comedies of Plautus and Terence, and The Tragedies of Seneca, in a Variety of Translations, Vol 1. George E. Duckworth Associate Professor of Classics, Princeton University. Random House, 1967. 31 October 2010

Critics Say...

I'm going to post links to different scholarly articles that give their opinions on The Rope by Plautus. I feel that seeing different reviews of the script itself can open up new ideas of how to interpret the script. I think that it is helpful to see how people react to just the script. This will also provide new insight on who other's view and analyze Plautus's work.

The first link is to an article from Cambridge Journals Online. The author of this review is C.J. Herington. The overall idea of his is that the plot is not very original and simple. But that the play overall has some very funny parts and action.

Article 1

The next link is a review from The Classical Review. This review was written by H.D. Jocelyn. In this article he talks not only about The Rope but also the play that Plautus adapted it from. The article talks about how Roman morals influenced Plautus. It also talks about the different contrasts within the play.

Article 2

The final article is from The American Journal of Philology and the article is by George Fredric Franko. In the article Franko talks about Plautus's use of the chorus. He seems to the think that Plautus created these ensemble roles by changing entrances and exits of certain characters. By doing these things Plautus created a different dynamic that was not in the original play. Franko states that, "Plautus probably created ensemble scenes by rearranging entrances and exits and by endowing mute characters with speech" (Franko, pp.27).

Article 3


Sources:
C. J. Herington (1943). Rudens. Greece and Rome, 12, pp 78-79 doi:10.1017/S0017383500008160

Plautus, Rudens 83-88 H. D. Jocelyn The Classical Review New Series, Vol. 16, No. 2 (Jun., 1966), p. 148 Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Classical Association Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/708212

 Ensemble Scenes in Plautus George Fredric Franko The American Journal of Philology Vol. 125, No. 1 (Spring, 2004), pp. 27-59 Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1562209

Past Productions

In this posting I would like to share some links to other productions of The Rope. I think that this will help show how others have chosen to interpret the play. I feel that by doing this we will all be able to get a look at this show through other's eyes.

The first link takes you to Limestone College's production of The Rope. They have chosen to modernize the play with costumes and set. They have also chosen to move the plays action to the United States. The sets look beautifully done and the costumes fit for the chosen time and place. Their idea is an interesting and entertaining one.

Limestone College's The Rope

This second link takes you to The Getty Villa Malibu theatre site. They have chosen to do an adaptation of The Rope; they've named it Tug of War. It seems to have the same idea beind it. The biggest difference is that they warn you on their page that the actors will break character and comment on what is going on in the play. The pictures on the site show some wonderful sets and costumes.

Getty Villa's The Rope

What to Wear?

At the time The Rope was written people were still wearing masks during their performance. At the time they found that it was easier to play many different characters with the use of different masks. It would help the audience know exactly what was going on. These masks would be very expressive and large. For our production we have chosen not to use masks, deciding that we could "modernize" the show in this way.

However, keeping to the way things were back then we would like to keep the costumes to Greek attire. In Rome when a play was of the Greek New Comedy variety, like this one, everyday attire was used as costumes. So, "...for comedies based on Roman life (the fabula togata), for which the Roman tunic covered by a cloak, or toga was worn" (Brockett, Hildy, pp.53). So for our play we would like to have all actors dressed in this classical wear. This way we can keep the play in the feel of ancient times.

This picture shows the simple dress that we would like in this play. Since they are traveling overseas and then get shipwrecked outside of larger town. The only differences are those that are shipwrecked would need to have more worn costumes.

Sources:
"Masks and Costumes" History of the Theatre: Foundation Edition Oscar G. Brockett, Franklin J. Hildy. Pearson Education Inc. 2007. 31 October 2010

African Coast in Ancient Times

The Rope starts off with some of the characters getting shipwrecked in "a wild part of the African coast near Cyrene"(Duckworth, pp849). From the text of the play it can be assumed that the place the wrecked at is not very large and is not the most beautiful city of the time. The play does however take place in an area that is right by the ocean. Since it is in Africa and right on the Mediterranean Sea, the weather was probably warmer, even after a storm.

Cyrene was not very far away from Alexandria. In fact, it was to the West a ways. Since the action of the play never leaves the coast we know that it is not quite in the city of Cyrene but is relatively close. In fact there are some stage directions in the script that say some characters in the play are coming from Cyrene. Hopefully this map will help show where exactly the play is set and give some background to help settle actors into the play.

http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/Maps/Periods/Roman/Places/Africa/Cyrene/1.html

Sources:
"The Rope" The Complete Roman Drama: All the Extant Comedies of Plautus and Terence, and The Tragedies of Seneca, in a Variety of Translations, Vol 1. George E. Duckworth Associate Professor of Classics, Princeton University. Random House, 1967. 31 October 2010