What are the most famous Theatres around the world?

People all around the world love going to the theatre. Most big cities have many theatre buildings. To many people, “American theatre” means whatever is playing in New York City’s Broadway district. London’s Royal Ballet and Royal National Theatre feature some of the world’s best dancers, directors, and actors. And the Comedie-Francaise in Paris, France is one of the world’s oldest theatres still in use.

All these cities offer Western theatre – a style of storytelling that began in early Greece. Stories of comedy and tragedy came from the ancient Greeks. Comedies are funny. Tragedies are sad. Western theatre also followed the Greek custom of dividing stories into parts called acts.

Theatre from the eastern part of the world, such as from Asia, is very different and tells stories in other ways.

Theatre in India goes back about 2,000 years. Stories told in Indian theatres are like long poems. And all Indian plays have happy endings.

Chinese theatre is about 800 years old. The most popular form of play is Peking opera (also called Beijing opera). Its plays are based on Chinese stories, history, and folklore. Actors may change or make up their lines as they go along.

The stage in Peking opera looks bare compared to Western stages. Often special props – the objects that the actors use on stage – are the only clues to where a play takes place. For example, if an actor carries a whip, the audience knows he is outdoors riding a horse.

Also, the actors are never the only ones onstage. Musicians and prop people stay on the stage during the performance, but the actors and audience pretend they are invisible.

In Japan, the oldest form of drama is the noh play. It includes drama, dance, song, and choruses – groups of actors speaking lines together. Men play both male and female parts. The actors with female roles wear masks. Unlike the plays of Peking Opera, every detail in a noh play is traditional – and never changed.

The most popular kind of theatre in Japan today is Kabuki. Female dancers acted out the earliest Kabuki plays. But later on, men played all the parts. Kabuki plays are something like noh plays, but Kabuki theatre has colourful scenery and more exciting stories.

Picture Credit : Google