Question 1

How is the OCR Greek Theatre paper examined?

Accepted Answer

Greek Theatre (H408/21) is a Culture and the Arts option, examined in 1 hour 45 minutes for 75 marks and worth 30 per cent of the A-level. The paper uses the standard five question types: a short-answer question, a 10-mark stimulus question on a printed source or image, a 10-mark idea question, a 20-mark essay and a 30-mark essay. You must handle both visual and material sources (vases and theatre sites) and the set plays.

Question 2

What are the set plays for Greek Theatre?

Accepted Answer

There are three prescribed plays: Sophocles' Oedipus the King and Euripides' Bacchae (tragedies), and Aristophanes' Frogs (an Old Comedy). You study them in English translation alongside the physical theatre, staging conventions and the festival context, so you can answer both on the plays and on Greek theatrical performance more broadly.

Question 3

What do I need to know about the Greek theatre space?

Accepted Answer

You should know the parts of the theatre: the theatron (the curved seating cut into a hillside), the orchestra (the circular dancing-space for the chorus), the skene (the building behind it, used as a backdrop, changing room and source of entrances) and the parodoi (the side entrances). You should also know the conventions of three actors, masks and costumes, and the stage machinery, the mechane (a crane for gods, giving deus ex machina) and the ekkyklema (a wheeled platform to reveal interior scenes such as bodies).

Question 4

What was the City Dionysia?

Accepted Answer

The City Dionysia was the major Athenian festival in honour of Dionysus at which the plays were performed. It was both religious (a procession, sacrifices, the god's statue brought into the theatre, performances in his sanctuary) and civic (a competition funded by wealthy choregoi, with tribute paraded and magistrates seated in honour). This context shaped drama's social and political functions, from tragedy's exploration of leadership and justice to comedy's open satire of politicians.

Question 5

Which visual sources matter for Greek Theatre?

Accepted Answer

Key visual evidence includes the Pronomos Vase, which shows a whole satyr-play troupe with masks, chorus and the aulos-player, and other vases such as the Basel Dancers showing the chorus in movement, plus comic vases showing padded actors. Theatre sites such as the Theatre of Dionysus in Athens show the layout of the space. You must use such sources critically: vases are idealised images, not photographs, and surviving stone theatres are often later than the fifth century.

Question 6

How should I revise Greek Theatre?

Accepted Answer

Know the three plays in detail (plot, themes, key scenes and how they were staged), and learn the theatre space, staging conventions and the festival context with the correct technical terms. Build a bank of prescribed visual sources you can describe and evaluate. Practise the stimulus questions on sources and the essays on themes such as the role of the chorus, the design of the theatre, or the function of drama. Always evaluate sources rather than just describing them.

OCR Classical Civilisation Greek Theatre: a complete overview of the option

How the paper works

The theatre space and staging

The City Dionysia

The three set plays

How to revise

Sources & how we know this