Introduction

Browsing the Ancient Drama shelves of the average library, one could be forgiven for concluding that tragedy and comedy were by far the most frequent and important theatrical activities throughout antiquity, with just the occasional cameo appearance by the satyr play. But, from the protodramatic padded 'komasts' of sixth-century BC Greece to the exquisite musical dance theatre beloved of the Romans up to and beyond the sixth century AD, comedy and tragedy were surrounded on all sides by an extended family of other theatrical forms. If we ignore these lost traditions - festive mockeries, mythological burlesques, satires, farces, comical tragedies, history plays and dance dramas - we deny ourselves rich sources of knowledge and understanding about the array of theatrical activities in these ancient societies, as well as the nature and significance of their more famous cousins.

Alongside these more or less 'theatrical' traditions were a host of other performance activities by musicians, maskers, magicians, dancers, jugglers, poetry performers, exhibition speakers, tightrope walkers (in all shapes and sizes), sword-swallowers, storytellers, engineers, acrobats, escapologists, performing animals and others. Paratheatrical performances like these were to be found in the most unexpected places: at funerals, processions, dinner parties, in schools, on the streets, in front of temples, in the marketplace, in the countryside, at horse-races, at athletic and gladiatorial contests as well as on the stage itself; performance was a particularly flexible form of currency in the unceasing transactions of cultural change.