I think that the social function of theater lies purely in its ability to distract. Theater today is still, along with many other things, a common method of escape - meaning that people go to watch theater be preformed not because they get to think about their lives or the world around them, but because they do not want to think about that or they would prefer to think about the plot and characters of a story. Theater also in certain cases, meaning not as often, can function as a way to connect with those around you, a social event if you will. The social function that it serves is often a tradition among the higher-ups in society, as their status indicates that they have the means to attend theater more often than most. Overall, theater has more of a physiological function rather than a physical one.
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If I were to set Lysistrata by Aristophanes in a custom setting - I would chose to have it take place in a little Norwegian town, during the Axis (German) invasion of Norway. In the play - a group of women in the city of Athens group together to protest the Peloponnesian War, a war between two Greek states, and in this protest, women from both sides of the conflict were united. I would have the two sides represented as the German women and the Norwegian women, and they would come together under the leadership of a Lysistratian character named something German like Urclegru. They would protest the fighting between the Norwegian and German men.
I decided to research early Italian theater after class one day. The following is what I came up with. Commedia Dell'arte was the earliest form of Italian theater, originating in the 14th century. Commedia was also very similar if not identical to the form of theater that was popular in western Europe from the 16th to the 18th century. Commedia was based on the principle of masked actors reenacting scenarios or events - many of them religious. Commedia Dell'arte also had an occasional element of improvisation to it, this was regarded as a "higher form" of acting than that which was "scripted" or prepared beforehand. Sources: Starkie, Walter. “Carlo Goldoni and the ‘Commedia Dell' Arte.’” Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. Section C: Archaeology, Celtic Studies, History, Linguistics, Literature, vol. 37, 1924.
My take on the theory of the origin of theater is that it originated completely out of human boredom. Before there was theater, there was storytelling - the only viable method of describing both fiction and nonfiction, other than constructing crude images (which took quite a lot of effort back then). The fact that storytelling was the only way of doing this became quite boring, and thus human nature took over and an effort was made to do anything to relieve that boredom, and the idea of telling stories through movement was brought into existence.
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