Did cavemen have a version of theatre or performance of their own?

Question

Are there any relevant links or information that you know about the stone age and whether they had their own version of a theatre? When did theatres/amphitheatres and performance evolve? How did the separation of the audience and the performers evolve over time, and how did it start? Any general information about the evolution of the theatre and performance spaces in general would be very helpful. Aiding me with any of these questions would be very helpful. Thank you.

Answer 1

This is a great question and I'm looking forward to (hopefully) seeing some answers here that are knowledgeable.

I wonder though if the cave paintings that we've discovered across Europe (the ones in Lascaux, France, specifically come to mind) were a form of early theater. This was so unique and breakthrough to that time and culture that there certainly had to be an audience on hand as the painterings were done.

But does this constitute (by any standards) a form of theater?

Near one of the cave paintings is an outline of a hand. The artist created this by placing his / her hand flat on the wall and spraying paint against it through some sort of tube. Leaving a perfect silhouette of their hand. A sort of "signature."

I think this says that whatever they were doing was important enough to leave a trace of themselves tied to the art.

Answer 2

It is very likely that theatre as we know it evolved from religious rites. The cave paintings in Europe, some speculate, were the work of Stone Age shamen--and the spots were some of the paintings were made would have been large enough for that shaman to have had an audience for his ritual drawing of animals and abstract forms on the walls. The next step towards a performance would have been the recitation by storytellers and singers of epics. This appeared to have occured in various places around the globe, from ancient Greece to Scandanavia to Ireland in Europe, for example.

Another precursor to theatre as we know it would have to be the religious specatacles that occurred in Egypt and the Americas. There are pictures in Egyptian and Mayan tombs showing processions and rituals that followed a set "script". The flat-topped pyramids of the Americas would themselves be the stage from which the actors (priests, people to be sacrificed) could be seen by the people thronged below. I have read in a privately published book by Murshida Vera Corda that the Grecian Mystery Schools often acted out the myth of Persephone-a precursor to the the first theatres mentioned in the next paragraph. It is interesting to note that some modern scholars seem to think the Persephone myth pre-dates the Greeks and goes back to Neolithic goddess worship.

The first theatre we know of started in ancient Greece. An audience sat in a half circle watching an elevated stage where actors used props to act out a story.

I hope these musings help you.

Answer 3

Yes. The Blue Man Group.

Answer 4

certainly. Our theatre techniques derive from the Greeks, whose theatre developed over the years from choral songs, to frontman conversing with refrain in the back of, to talk with refrain, to what we might evaluate an truly "play" with the refrain nevertheless interior the historic past, making a music commentary on the events interior the tale. (perhaps that is why we call the repeated element of the music a "refrain.") besides the indisputable fact that, the beginning place of their theatre became the non secular events and memories and legends of Greek pagan mythology. each subculture has had a mythology of legends. (The U.S. is exciting in that all of us understand our legends are made up, so we call them "tall memories.") however the "cave guy" societies (which failed to unavoidably stay in caves) did additionally tell and chant their memories. In Wales, derived from the Celts (the unique inhabitants of Europe), the main serious guy or woman is the poet/storyteller. Did you ever see the opening to "mind-blowing memories"? this is amazingly what became in touch: the "poet" telling their legends after dinner, as they have been amassed around the hearth conserving heat and attempting to no longer think of related to the critters that pop out at evening. The epic, "Beowulf" is one such tale that the Norse would tell. So are the "Iliad" and the "Odyssey." Oh, and those would be memorized.

Answer 5

the first theatrical performances were probably done by the shaman or priest. religion is the biggest theatrical spectacle of them all. I believe it was the Hellenistic Greeks who started the modern concept of the theater. as a art form for performance for the enjoyment of an audience

Answer 6

Yeah, Bang the woman on the head, with a club, and say Ugg me want ugg, come woman ugg me want