The Senecan revenge tragedy as popular theatre and its influence on the classics

Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Critics of the popular play in contemporary drama, and very specifically those in the Caribbean and Guyana, often hold it up against what is called ‘serious’ theatre. The popular play is held to be inferior to the more serious genres of greater substance, form and subject, including drama of the ‘classical’ type, or even the classical plays themselves, which were the models of western drama. But repeatedly, close analyses tend to reveal not only the growing influence of the popular play on the more serious forms, but the deep, substantial, ancient roots of much of the popular theatre, and even the common roots of both the popular and the serious.

To go further, one will find popular intentions and focus in the best of classical drama, the best of theatre generally, and the consistently dominant influence of the audience throughout history. All theatre is a relationship between the audience and the performance,