Theatre of Marcellus

Theatrum Marcelli

TheaterItalia · Rome, ItalyBuilt 13 BCE

About

Augustus finished the theatre his adoptive father had begun and put on it the name of a nephew who had died at nineteen. The curved outer wall is travertine, three storeys of arcades with engaged Doric columns below and Ionic above — the arrangement every later Roman theatre and amphitheatre copies, the Colosseum included. Somewhere between eleven and twenty thousand people can be seated, depending how tightly you count them in. It stands by the river at the foot of the Capitoline, next to the vegetable market and its old temples. In 117 CE it is the principal stone theatre of Rome and in constant use.

What happened here

Seating is the message: the front rows are reserved by law for the town council, and everyone can see who is sitting where. The building is a half-circle against a tall stone backdrop that also serves as a permanent set, and the acoustics are good enough that an actor can be heard without effort. The programme is mime and pantomime more than the old tragedies — bawdy, topical, sometimes politically sharp enough that performers get exiled. Audiences are loud, partisan, and quite prepared to shout a piece down. Awnings and perfumed water sprays are laid on when the sponsor is generous. Shows are attached to religious festivals and paid for by a magistrate who wants the credit, and his name is on the seating.