Contaminatio and Adaptation: The Modern Reception of Ancient Drama as an Aid to Understanding Roman Comedy

The last few decades have seen an explosion in the number of performances of an drama and in the way that these performances are viewed by classical scholar involved in the theatre, and the wider public. This explosion has in itself led development of the relatively new field of reception studies, through which perspectives have been cast not only upon the ancient texts themselves but also up impact of these texts on modern society. In this paper I would like to examine changing attitudes to the staging of ancient drama and in particular highlight a new of creative adaptation which, I suggest, is similar to the methods used by Plautus writing his plays. I will conclude with some ideas as to what this comparison might in an attempt to apply reception studies back to the ancient world, in a way that m us understand more deeply the role drama played in ancient Greek and Roman societies.