French Scenes in Greek Tragedy: The Scenic Structure of Classical Drama

When measured in "French scenes" (dramatic units demarcated by the entrances and exits of speaking characters), the surviving corpus of Greek tragedy shows that, as ancient dramatists gained a better understanding of their craft, there is a general trend toward shorter, faster scenes. But contrary to expectation, the average length of scenes in Sophocles' and Euripides' surviving plays gradually increases over time, dropping only during the last decade of their careers. The reason for this appears to be the tragedians' reaction to the rising popularity of Old Comedy, a theatrical form which naturally turns over scenes quickly.