That Hold Your Breath Moment
I don’t think we have the same experience going to the theatre today as the Greeks did in the ancient world. As moving as it may be, theatre is more of a private or an intimate experience now. We might chat amiably with a stranger before the show, all turn off our cell phones in unison, and even share popcorn with a friend, but when the lights dim we are in our own world.
Recently I went to a baseball game and wonder if the experience has some connection to ancient drama as the Greeks knew it. While sitting in the upper deck, I felt the intensity and single minded focus of the crowd suddenly raise me up in a collective sense of awareness. My senses were sharper and clearer and yet I felt I was resting in something. Things looked clearer, sounds seemed sharper. We all seemed to follow the action with one collective mind -the dramatic climax of the game or what one young person I knew dubbed “that hold your breath moment.”
Imagine this same moment with 14,000 people in a beautiful natural setting, in the presence of great art and a god you fervently believe in. Nature, art, group connection and belief are some of the natural healing therapies and healthy life style choices we have begun to recover and embrace in our world today. Although their science was not on the level of ours, the ancient Greeks seemed to understand the power and importance of these powerful forces, particularly when they worked together. On weekend nights during the summer you can still see productions of ancient Athenian plays at Epidauros, high in the mountains of Greece. The site is about 150 kilometers, or 90 miles from Athens. It’s quite a place. If you can’t get there, maybe you can get some of the flavor at the closest ballpark. I did.
Indeed, the collective roar (or moan) of the crowd at a sporting event is a moment when we bond, incredibly, with total strangers. The ancient Hellenes were a part of a culture tied together in such a way. Theirs was a smaller society than ours, so like experiences were, of course, easier to come by, but the theater can and often does offer similar moments. Yes, we sit in the dark and do not speak, but then how is this different from viewing a movie? We discuss plays and films afterwards; the interactive element must be found in the moment of performance, but how?
It is simply this: people on stage are THERE, as are we, and being in the same room with characters in the throes of emotional and other crises ties us together by association. When we share our experience after the show, the discussion can never rise to the same level of involvement as when we viewed the piece. Films offer a distinct distance through their ultra-reality, ability to take us anywhere and back in a flash, and our penchant to watch them again and again. So it is the individually intimate, once-in-a-lifetime moment of the play’s climax or the surging, screaming eruption of the crowd as a home run is hit that moves us. It’s all about being there.
I agree – its the immediacy of the moment. But for the Greeks, theater was by definition also a spiritual and perhaps even a healing experience besides its dramatic and show element. Its foundation was a bit deeper and its goals were maybe a bit loftier.
This doesn’t take away from some experiences we have access to today but the entertainment factor seems stronger and the “moved to the depths of your being” element not so present.
In a sporting event there is a sense that you are having the experience whether you are consciously seeking it or not. You are swept up in the crowd.
So maybe ancient theater combined the immediacy and the group experience in a unique way. I also think the homogeneous nature of the crowd helped as well as the size of the society, as you pointed out. You were usually at the performance surrounded by friends, family, neighbors and acquaintances. In today’s theater, we all bring a different background and sensibility. In a sport, despite our background, we are there for one thing – to see our team win. In this singularity and cohesion we approach Ancient theater.
Thanks for your thoughts and for visiting Eye of Zeus.
I think, you are right when you suspect a healing experience as a result of attending a performance in Epidaurus or in other theaters back then. In his Poetics, discussing the purpose of tragedy, Aristotle talks about katharsis, the cleaning of soul from passions. Moreover, Asclepius/ Aesculapius’ origin was from Epidaurus, and there was a temple with his statue there.
As for sports, I think that our experience resembles more with the Roman spectacles of gladiators and beasts IN the theaters.
Yes – see other posts in the categories Drama – Health and Healing – where we explore the connections between drama and all art and healing.
Sports can certainly be a very different experience at different times, in different cultures and even vary from sport to sport. I was interested more in the focused intensity of the crowd at the moment that anything else. This can happen in a baseball game, a boxing match or a tennis game, three very different experiences in so many ways.
How different sports effect the psyche is even another line of inquiry. Do tennis fans experience the same kinds of release as football fans. And is there a point where passions stop being released and start being stimulated anew.
Thanks for your stimulating thought and please spread the word about Eye of Zeus and the wonders and uses of Ancient Greece