For centuries , humans have place right smart too much importance on people play fictional characters on stage . And when you ’ve done that for as long as we have , thing are bound to get unearthly at times . Here are five of the strangest news report from the story of theater .
The highest paid conjurer of the early twentieth century was Sigmund Neuberger , also known as the Great Lafayette . In May of 1911 , a freak accident have his level to catch fire in the middle of his theme song illusion , “ The Lion ’s Bride . ” The interview , of row , guess that the flaming was part of the act .
While the stage manager actually catch the audience to leave by playing “ God Save the Queen , ” many staff extremity died when the ironically named safety curtain jammed , leaving a opening through which a gust of air fertilize the flames . bring to all that the fact that the Great Lafayette had had the door locked so that the lion could n’t escape and you have a recipe for cataclysm .
The Great Lafayette escaped but recall to the theater to rescue his horse . He and ten other actor died in the fervency . What was imagine to be his torso was bump and cremate , but two days later a consistency in identical clothing was found . It was the real Lafayette and the first clay found was actually the consistency threefold he used to execute his illusions .
This did n’t include the chorus , the members of which apparently were n’t considered “ actors . ” But in the lawsuit of the actual drama , the convention was to have only three actors . In the fount of tragedies ( bonus fact : “ calamity ” translates to “ goat birdsong ” ) , Aristotle gave Sophocles deferred payment for this innovation , publish in Poetics that he “ raised the routine of actors to three , and added scene - painting . ”
As for comedy , Tzetzes , write in the 12th one C , said that Kratinos contribute rescript to comedy performances by “ fixing the numeral of characters at three . ” For a import , just imagine trying to reduce the mould of your favorite TV show to three people .
Have you ever get a line about the first production of Macbeth , so cursed that the boy playing Lady Macbeth died and Shakespeare himself had to take over the role ? Yeah , that’sa full prevarication .
author Max Beerbohm invented that story in 1898 , seemingly as a way to deal with the jam ennui of reviewing Macbeth every clip it was mounted . He went to a bonny amount of work , too , make up fake quotes from a 17th century journalist refer John Aubrey about how the young thespian Hal Berridge “ ‘ b’fell sudden sicke of a pleurisie , wherefor Master Shakespeare himself did enacte in his position . ”
If you — like I — ever had to leave a theatre of operations , whirl around three times , spitting , and beshrew because you circumstantially said the name of the play , you now bonk who to fault .
One of the very earliest case of house in human chronicle was , of line , also a rite . First performed around 2500 BCE , the “ Abydos Passion Play ” told the news report of the death , inhumation , and resurrection of the god Osiris . The play was performed every yr for approximately 2,000 years .
There are also accounts of a religious dramatic play for the fete of Horus . The tabernacle at Edfu has hieroglyph that could be direction for histrion in a gargantuan play depicting the battle between Horus and Seth . And story have it that a hot hippopotamus played the role of Seth and was mow down .
If it ’s naive realism on the stage you want , you could not beat the Romans . Outside of their gladiatorial bloodlust , the Romans also had a use of substituting criminals into plays for punishment . So if a character died in the fancied write up , a real criminal condemned to death would really die out on degree .
Tertullian — who , to be fair , was writing as a Christian condemn the paganism of Rome , so consider the source — write that he visualize a person burned to destruction as Hercules and another demasculinise as Attis . The Romanshad a penchantfor plough their execution of instrument into mythic play , which means that anyone today who exact to be doing “ method acting ” acting has nothing on them .
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