The Dionysia, held in ancient Athens in honor of the god Dionysus, is considered one of the oldest organized forms of theatre in human history – dating back to the 6th century BCE. The great Greek tragedies, the ones we study today as the foundation of Western theatre, were originally written exactly for this festival.
Although its original form disappeared along with ancient Athens, the idea of a festival dedicated entirely to theatre survived, in one form or another, in nearly every culture that followed – from Renaissance festivals to today’s great international theatre festivals.
It’s an almost unbroken 2,500-year thread, linking a play you might watch tonight to an ancient religious ritual, held thousands of years before our era.
Next time you go to the theatre, you’re taking part, without necessarily realizing it, in an impressively old tradition.
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